Ghosn says hybrid sales may slow

NEW YORK — Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday he feels vindicated that hybrids could be seeing a sales slowdown, since he has repeatedly warned that it is too early to fully back the technology.

Ghosn also said Nissan employees have been given another month to decide whether they want to move from southern California to the company’s new U.S. headquarters in Nashville. Employees now must tell the company by May 1 if they plan to move this summer.

Ghosn said the long-term financial and organizational benefits of the move outweigh the short-term disruption. He downplayed the problems the move will cause, saying Nissan has received 20,000 applications from people interested in working in Nashville.

Ford Motor Co. said last week it would offer zero-percent financing on the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids nationwide. Ghosn said hybrids already are money-losers for automakers because of the expense of developing them, so to put incentives on top of that indicates hybrid sales are slow.

“At least admit I was the only guy saying, ‘Watch out, the consumer decides, don’t be excited about it,”’ Ghosn said in an interview with reporters at the New York Auto Show. “I have some kind of satisfaction of being a little bit right on this one.”

Ford Americas President Mark Fields said Wednesday that Ford decided to expand the incentives because they had proven popular in Washington and San Francisco, where they were first released. Ford doesn’t break out its hybrid Escape sales from traditional Escape sales, but Fields said March was the hybrid Escape’s best month since it was introduced last fall.

Ghosn said some consumers are finding hybrids don’t save enough gas to justify their extra expense. Hybrids run alternately on gasoline or electricity. He said vehicles running on diesel or ethanol might hold more promise.