No, it wasn’t Snake Plissken

January 5, 2020 11:40 AM

How A Former Green Beret, Black Roadie Cases, And Two Private Jets Got Carlos Ghosn To Lebanon (the fall of Ghosn previously)
posted by Etrigan (11 comments total)

it seems that Ghosn was actually secreted aboard the plane in a set of wheeled black cases like the ones roadies use to transport stage show equipment.

So, someone watched Breaking Bad.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:45 PM on January 5, 2020

Just more confirmation of the Taylor-Swift-Travels-in-Luggage thing
posted by grandiloquiet at 2:46 PM on January 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Those are called "flight cases", which I thought was a well-known term, perfect for a flight from justice.
posted by w0mbat at 5:05 PM on January 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

“The Bronco’s been discontinued. We’re trying to shed that whole fugitive on the run thing. This is the Escape.”
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:12 PM on January 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

As a LEAF owner this story is rather. . . Interesting.

Ghosn gambled big on BEV but in retrospect taking Musk’s strategy with $45,000 to $85,000 Infinitis might have worked better...

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GASMIDWCM shows how gas prices doubled 2000 - 2010 but haven’t risen at all since the Leaf’s introduction in 2011.

Not good for a car that only works well as a daily commuter replacement!

To make me a happy 2018 LEAF owner I got invoice pricing plus $3000 factory cash plus 0% financing saving me another $3000 vs. a 3% APR.

There’s padding in the MSRP of course but clearly Nissan’s BEV initiative is a money loser and as a strategy is totally adrift at the moment.

By the looks of it my next (& last) vehicle purchase is going to be either a tesla truck, or maybe a competing camping-capable BEV if they come out soon enough.

Crickets from Nissan on this front, sigh.

None of the Japanese companies want anything to do with electric apparently....
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:26 PM on January 5, 2020

Turkish jet worker aided Ghosn escape under 'threats to family' (Nikkei Asian Review)

BEIRUT -- A manager at private jet company MNG Jet reportedly admitted he took part in the escape of former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn from Japan, telling the court that an acquaintance in Beirut had forced him to participate by threatening his wife and children.

The manager said he did not know the passenger was Ghosn, Turkish media reported Saturday.
posted by Umami Dearest at 5:43 PM on January 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ghosn was certainly an advocate of electric vehicles at Renault Nissan. Both with the LEAF and with the Renault Zoe. You can see him being interviewed in a LEAF by Robert Llewelyn of Fully Charged - that was back in 2011 - a time when just 20,000 out of 73 million car sales were electric. LEAF means "Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Affordable Family Vehicle" -and that is the criteria the car fitted, an offering available a full 6 years before the first Tesla Model 3 rolled off a production line (for substantially less outlay). Ghosn appears to have been as visionary as Musk in this respect - a corporate sell that must have been as tricky as persuading a team of people to smuggle you away from Japanese custody and half way round the world.

By rights, the substantial lead that Nissan/Renault had in producing EVs, should have them in a position to expect enormous sales in the coming years. It is interesting, therefore, to compare the more troubled progress of the LEAF against the timeline of his departure as CEO in 2017: this video by "EV Man" - a long time LEAF owner summarises the design and marketing shortcomings with the latest models.
posted by rongorongo at 10:33 PM on January 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

So, someone watched Breaking Bad.

Or read Mr Nice?
posted by pompomtom at 10:37 PM on January 5, 2020

Thanks to the Japanese artist that rendered this conspicuously legged double bass cover that everyone thought he used to escape.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 4:01 AM on January 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

In case anyone else did a double take at the fact that more than 99% of Japanese prosecutions result in convictions (which Ghosn alluded to in his statement about his escape, referring to "the rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied"), the unimpeachable source that is Wikipedia has some interesting details about the reasons for that figure.

tl;dr - Prosecutions are comparatively rare and generally only brought where there is overwhelming evidence.
posted by inire at 9:39 AM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

For those who are interested in the EV angle, Robert Llewelyn of Fully Charged has posted a podcast update in which he talks about Ghosn's recent adventures. He draws parallels between the timeline of Ghosn's departure as Nissan CEO and a tack by Nissan - and other Japanese companies - away from an immediate embrace of EVs and more toward hybrids.

By embracing EV production at such an early stage, Gohsn could have put the company on track to make some serious money in the long term. But only at the expense of considerable pain by those parts of the company invested in producing and selling ICE and Hybrid vehicles. That will have made him some enemies, and it seems like his departure has left those people in charge.
posted by rongorongo at 8:56 AM on January 7, 2020 [1 favorite]