You know you’re having a bad shareholder meeting when one of your investors suggests, apparently seriously, that it would be better off to have the now-fugitive ex-CEO in charge of the company. That’s what happened at the Nissan shareholder meeting in Yokohama earlier today, and that’s maybe not even the worst moment of the rough gathering for new CEO Ivan Espinosa.
The French are back! When I started writing The Morning Dump, one of the big concerns was how exactly Renault and Nissan would get on after the Japanese arm of the company successfully sent the supposedly French-aligned CEO to jail. Everyone played nice up until a potential merger with Honda blew up, and now Renault seems to be leaning on the Nissan board. And on the topic of going to jail, there’s a new kind of fraud and it sucked up about $250 million in loans last year. It’s called “Bust-out Fraud” and it utilizes a loophole in the credit reporting system.
It’s not clear if anyone is going to jail in the accident between a Tesla and a house that resulted in a fatality, but no one seems to agree what actually happened. Rival Lucid doesn’t have that problem at the moment, but one of my favorite CEOs to reference has maybe been shown the door.
‘He Had Bad Aspects, But He Had Good Aspects As Well’
I feel like the entire annual subscription we pay to Automotive News was worth it for the retelling of the Nissan shareholder meeting earlier today. If you were curious, this was the 127th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, but it didn’t sound that ordinary in Hans Greimel’s retelling:
“We need a person like Carlos Ghosn. He had bad aspects, but he had good aspects as well,” said one attendee who wanted to restore the indicted fugitive executive to the board he was ejected from following his 2018 arrest on financial misconduct charges. “I want such a leader.”
Espinosa fended off the challenges but at times had trouble restoring order. It was his second outing at the annual gathering since taking office in April 2025. He told one interjecting woman “please be quiet” and threatened another unruly shareholder with ejection from the hall.
“I have no fear of being in front of you because you are my shareholders and I owe you explanations,” the 47-year-old Mexican executive told the auditorium full of Japanese investors.
Dukes! Double dukes!
Ok, some background here for those who don’t follow the Nissan-Ghosn Saga like it’s El Señor de los Cielos. Nissan was one of the companies to be worst hit by the fallout from the Japanese Asset Bubble. After limping along for a while, a torpid Renault came in and rescued the company before it went bankrupt, creating the ‘Alliance.’ Who could lead such an organization? Carlos Ghosn, who came in, cut quickly, and earned the trust of regular employees and investors by improving the company’s prospects and increasing the share price.
However, the Alliance was a marriage of inconvenience that only got worse after it became a thruple with Mitsubishi. Buried within the original agreement was an unequal distribution of control that reflected Renault’s stronger position at the time of the wedding, which seems to have irked the Japanese arm of the company to no end. The whole thing blew up when leadership within Nissan worked together (or conspired, depending on whom you ask) to get Ghosn arrested and imprisoned before, allegedly, he could cede more of the company permanently to Renault. He later escaped to Lebanon, where he lives in what is essentially exile.
I tend to follow the narrative put forth within Sean McLain and Nick Kostov’s excellent book Boundless: The Rise, Fall, and Escape of Carlos Ghosn, which is that Ghosn’s ouster was done out of fear of Renault, but that Ghosn’s dislike of his relatively low pay led to some sketchy moves that gave Japanese prosecutors plenty of ammunition to go after him.
Whatever line you believe, Nissan was in a bad way, and when Foxconn came in and attempted to buy the company it resulted in a failed merger with Honda that exposed all the issues Nissan was facing, and that’s before tariffs or electrification.
Nissan’s board finally reacted, booted the old CEO and put in charge the relatively young Mexican exec Ivan Espinosa. My general view is that Espinosa is a seemingly smart guy who loves cars and is a pretty skilled drummer, and he’s doing the best job anyone in a nearly impossible position could do. The company has way too much production capacity, and shutting down plants sucks, but it probably had to be done. Before they started making Carlos Ghosn tribute manga, Japanese investors and employees were wary of him, too. All of this takes time and Espinosa deserves the time to get it right.
Will he get that time? It seems like Renault is starting to throw its weight around, as Bloomberg reports:
The French carmaker, which holds 15% of voting rights, abstained from voting for the re-appointment of influential outside director Motoo Nagai at Nissan’s annual meeting Tuesday, resulting in his ouster from the board.
Nagai, a former banker from the company’s main creditor Mizuho Financial Group Inc., played a pivotal role during Ghosn’s own ejection from the company in 2018 and held sway over subsequent executive appointments as the only director serving on the nomination, compensation and audit committees.
There are a lot of ways to read this. Is it Renault finally getting revenge for Ghosn? I don’t think Renault was that happy with Ghosn’s questionable side quests, either, so maybe not. Nagai was also reportedly influential in getting Espinosa put in charge. Here’s what Renault said, again via Bloomberg:
In a statement, the French carmaker said it chose to abstain instead of opposing the nominees as a “deliberate decision which reflects Renault Group’s restraint, not opposition.”
“We could not support their appointments as they are linked to Mizuho, the main creditor of Nissan, and hence cannot be considered independent,” Renault said. “In addition, Nagai-san has served Nissan as statutory auditor, board and committee member for 12 years.”
Sometimes, when you’re doing something right, it has to suck for a while. You gotta crawl through a few hundred yards of crap and hope you come out clean on the other side. It seems like Espinosa is still in the crawling phase.
Goodbye, Winterhoff
Will I never get to use this photo of David Hassehloff in front of a mountain again? Perhaps, as interm CEO and former Lucid COO Marc Winterhoff gets the boot along with 18% of the company’s workforce, which is the second time Lucid has done a round of layoffs this year.
Did Winterhoff leave or was he forced out? Here’s what Car And Driver says:
The executive shakeup at Lucid also continues. Former CEO Peter Rawlinson, who was instrumental in the brand’s launch, stepped down in February, and now COO Marc Winterhoff, who also briefly served as interim CEO, has left, with Lucid fully eliminating the COO position. Lucid has also lost key engineers recently, including Emad Dlala, the senior vice president of powertrain and engineering, and Zach Walker, who was leading the development of the new platform that will underpin the Cosmos and two other SUVs.
Hmm… Here’s what Lucid said in an SEC filing:
On June 22, 2026, Lucid Group, Inc. (the “Company”) announced a plan (the “Plan”) designed to advance the Company’s path toward profitability and positive cash flow generation by streamlining its organizational structure, optimizing operating expenses, and aligning production plans with anticipated demand. This involves a reduction of the Company’s current U.S. workforce by approximately 18 percent, including full-time employees, contractors and hourly production workers in manufacturing. As part of this reduction, the Company has eliminated the second shift of production at its AMP-1 factory. The Plan is expected to provide the Company with annualized cost savings of approximately $158 million. The Company estimates that it will incur cash charges of approximately $32 million related to severance, employee benefits, and employee transition. The Company expects to substantially complete the Plan by the end of the third quarter of 2026, subject to local law and consultation requirements.
As I wrote earlier this month, it’s gonna be a tough go for Lucid, though if I’m cutting Espinosa some slack I suppose I should do the same with the new guy at Lucid as well.
‘Bust-Out Fraud’ Led To $250 Million In Fake Auto Loans Last Year
When you get an automotive loan it takes some time for it to be reported, meaning that the credit agencies wouldn’t necessarily notice if you suddenly took out a dozen car loans and then shipped the cars overseas after skipping town. This is called ‘Bust-Out Fraud’ and it’s been made worse by AI tools that are faster than the various institutions involved in stopping that from happening reports Bloomberg:
Bust-out fraud generated at least $250 million in dodgy loans last year, up 83% over the past five years, Point Predictive says. That figure, though, is likely a significant understatement, according to both Point Predictive and payroll processor iSolved Inc., which says bust-outs may account for as much as 10% of all auto loan defaults.
Individuals can generally bust out only within a single monthlong window. But some enterprising hustlers have begun to industrialize the practice by recruiting straw borrowers and creating false identities cobbled together from stolen data. Law enforcement in Miami last year uncovered a ring that fraudulently obtained more than $5.5 million worth of vehicles. Investigators in Texas are chasing a person who, using a variety of tricks, got more than 100 vehicles in California, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
This isn’t just bad for the industry, it also makes things worse for everyone as it drives up costs associated with lending.
Feds Probe Tesla Autopilot After Fatal Crash Into House
Tesla has not generally earned the trust of reporters or all of the public given the company’s habit of exaggeration. That becomes an issue when, say, a vehicle allegedly using Autopilot crashes into a house at high speed and kills someone. Here’s what CNBC is reporting:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday that it has opened a special crash investigation into a Tesla incident where a Model 3 slammed into a home in Katy, Texas, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila.
Harris County authorities said that the driver, Michael Butler, was cooperating with their investigation on the scene and said that he had been using Tesla’s partially automated driving systems when his vehicle barreled out of its lane and into the home in the Houston suburb.
That’s strange, right? After the Toyota unintended acceleration debacle I am usually skeptical of claims like this. Couldn’t the driver have hit the brakes? Was he paying attention?
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
As you can see above, CEO Elon Musk and execs are denying that this is what really happened, and, based on what they’re saying, it sounds conceivable that the driver could have, possibly, not been paying attention and then panic-reacted and hit the accelerator instead of the brakes, maybe? Or maybe the system didn’t work and Tesla is intentionally misreading the data? The investigation will likely reveal the true cause and, in the meantime, we’ll have to all deal with Tesla stans claiming it’s a media conspiracy and anti-Tesla folks saying that the company is lying.
What this reveals, no matter what the actual cause, is that self-driving-type systems invite a huge number of complications. Unless the driver is making the whole thing up, his lack of attention could have still contributed to the crash as the car handed back control of the vehicle.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
There’s a new Arcade Fire album and, hmm… here’s ‘Breaking Into Heaven.” Gonna have to think on this one for a while.
The Big Question
Who would be the most entertaining CEO to put back in charge of a company they once ran?
Top photo: Nissan
There’s a case to be made for Ghosn.
Doesn’t Tesla have an autopilot setting that basically lets you tell it to ignore all traffic laws and drive as fast as possible?
“We need a person like Carlos Ghosn. He had bad aspects, but he had good aspects as well,”
-Gharlos Cosn, “Random” Shareholder
Malcolm Bricklin being back in charge of Subaru of America would be peak. The amount of fraud and bullshit he put into Yugo would make him the perfect modern CEO.
Make a deal with the god/the devil to hand over Elon Musk to hell in exchange for Ferdinand Piech returning to this mortal coil and put him in charge of the dumpster fire that is VAG. Will it work? Probably not, but at least they’ll be making entertaining cars again.
VW would certainly go out in a blaze of glory, that’s for sure.
Which is better than it going out in a cold, blob shaped, grayscale whimper like it’s currently on pace to do
Sergio Marchionne – one of the most interesting Auto CEOs. Who would have thought he’d be replaced by John Lovitz or that that would be a terrible mistake?
I’m sure the Tesla driver claimed the house merged into their lane. This is why a dashcam is so important. Maybe it was Stephen Wright driving his house around again, the hooligan.
“The other night, I came home late and tried to unlock my house with my car keys. I started the house up. So, I drove it around for a while. I was speeding, and a cop pulled me over. He asked where I lived. I said, ‘Right here, officer.'”
What I’m Listening to: Arcade Fire
Matt, you know I love this feature, but today’s was a whiff. What’s to think about? The track is an intro, an interlude, aural parsley. Either they’ve gone New Age or you’re pranking us, or it’s an ersatz callback to last week’s Vangelis track without the pathos.
That said, fluff like this is probably a great accompaniment for writing TMD, so okay!
And Win Butler is a sex pest at best. That really soured me on Arcade Fire and I used to be a huge fan.
Bob Lutz is the only answer.
I was going to post that I don’t understand why Tesla is still allowed to use the terms “autopilot” and “self-drive” when clearly these are not a thing, but then I remembered there’s about 300 million reasons why.
Basically American car company CEO belongs in jail too LOL
John DeLorean.
*snort*
Indeed.
Now, I’m no Govermence Scientitian, but what are the odds that an individual could continue to hold an accelerator to the floor after HITTING A HOUSE at over 70 miles an hour?
I’m calling it now as one of two things:
-A faulty throttle position sensor
-A straight-up lie
Ghosn but not forgotten.
TBQ: Put Luca di Montezemolo back in charge of Ferrari. The cars made under his leadership are some of the hottest commodities on the car market right now, and I would LOVE to see what he would do to the Luce.
Jon Lovitz is pretty entertaining, but I think he did a horrible job as CEO.
Soichiro Honda could be amusing. No telling what he would do looking at balance sheets.
Stay strong, Espinosa. The Board will be tough. The ego may be bruised. The company may continue to sink and create headlines. Decisions will have impacts on your employees. Tough decisions.
Just be strong and remember why you are here: the parachute. It’s golden, it’s ripe, and it’s luscious. When the time comes it will whisk you away no matter the outcome.
Or, if worst comes to worst, there’s lots of room inside a bass drum.
TBQ: Enzo Ferrari, who I’m sure would be delighted at his company’s turn toward “lifestyle brand” since his passing.
TBQ: Henry Ford I. I imagine he’d make Musk look tame by comparison
“The company has way too much production capacity, and shutting down plants sucks, but it probably had to be done.”
Too bad they don’t make anything people want to buy at a price they want to pay.
“That’s strange, right? After the Toyota unintended acceleration debacle I am usually skeptical of claims like this. Couldn’t the driver have hit the brakes? Was he paying attention?”
Or he’s just flat out lying to avoid the consequences of speeding.
Once the vehicle forensics guys get their hands on the car, it ill all be clearly logged as to what inputs were being operated before during and after the crash. We don’t need to speculate; only wait for the data to be provided.
“Too bad they don’t make anything people want to buy at a price they want to pay.”
I’ve actually seen a TON of the new Sentras around town lately. They’re good looking, cheap, and efficient enough.
So what I’m thinking is that Japan and Israel collaborated to concoct the invasion of Lebanon as cover to extract Carlos Ghosn. Pretty sure I saw video of Netanyahu driving a new Armada.
Somehow, Ghosn returned…
Stop it.
Mary Sue CEO then.
Check out the old CEO, looking over Espinoza’s shoulder like Carlos the Friendly Ghosn.
DeLorean someone respectable has to run kilos hidden in a car across the border again.
Ghosn can only return if he is also brought back in the same cello case in which he was smuggled out.
Can it be a cello shaped cake that he pops out of?
There’s always room for Cello.