While it seems as though things are rather bleak in Detroit, it strikes me that there is no reason to think that things can’t get better in a not-too-long period of time.

Which some of you might consider analogous to whistling past a graveyard.

But if we look to the not-too-distant past, it is clear that substantial changes can be made, pronto, if there is a willingness to throw out the old thinking that seems to be entrenched in some of the offices in Detroit.

I started thinking about this when I saw the news that the government of Portugal and the conglomerate known as the “Renault Nissan Alliance” were joining in a partnership to promote zero-emissions vehicles in that country.  (I must confess that part of this noticing of the news was predicated on my having been in Portugal with Nissan a couple months ago; see: http://www.autofieldguide.com/articles/070804.html ).  To be sure, this involves studies of the market and the infrastructure and so on and so forth—let’s face it, when governments are involved, there is lots of tape, red and otherwise.  But the partnership is committed to the mass availability of electric cars from Renault Nissan in Portugal by 2011.  “Promoting electric cars in Portugal will reduce our dependence on imported oil and will contribute to a cleaner environment,” said José Sócrates, the country’s prime minister.

In 1999, Nissan looked like it was done.  Failing.  Ready for the proverbial scrap heap of history.  Renault, which was in significantly better shape, invested $5-billion in the firm.  And thus the Alliance was born.  There were skeptics, notably Bob Lutz, who suggested that the French company might as well have sunk $5-billion worth of gold in an ocean.

But Nissan is, to use a cliché that may begin to not being a cliché if there is a proliferation of electric vehicles, running on all cylinders.  While it may not be a huge player in the U.S. market, there are 117 other countries there as sales in, so as the Detroit makers talk “global,” keep that in mind.

Much of the credit for the change in fortunes goes to Carlos Ghosn, the president and CEO of Renault and the president and CEO of Nissan.  He revolutionized Nissan’s status quo by doing such things as (1) establishing stretch goals; (2) listening to the people who are responsible for achieving those stretch goals; (3) making sure that the goals were accomplished.  (They are now working on “Renault Commitment 2009,” which is targeted at making it the most profitable European mass manufacturing company.)

Ghosn’s undertakings have shown remarkable results.  Yet they are little more than common-sense practices—at least common sense from the point of view of someone not mired down in the politics, practices, and procedures that are characteristic of Detroit, conditions that make it about as quick-moving as Washington, DC.

In 1999, it seemed as though the lights were going to go off at Nissan.  Now they are getting ready to electrify transportation.

Can Detroit change?  Of course.