Mr Carlos Ghosn
Chairman & CEO
Renault
13-15 quai le Gallo
92100 Boulogne-Billancourt Cedex, France
2 March 2016
Dear Mr Ghosn,
Further to my letter dated 17 February I have received a copy of a letter from your colleague Olivier Murguet (Chairman of the Americas Region) to the European and Latin New Car Assessment Programmes. In his letter he confirms that Renault has wrongly advertised the Megane III sold in Uruguay as being a five star model based on ratings from Euro NCAP. However, we have now discovered that Renault is also using a Euro NCAP five star rating in adverts for the Renault Clio in Chile. Unfortunately, therefore, misleading Renault adverts with unauthorized Euro NCAP ratings with no applicability in Latin America are now a region wide problem.
To date no Renault model has ever been rated as five star by Latin NCAP. Therefore Renault’s advertising in Latin America is seriously misleading and is a clear breach of your company’s own Code of Ethics. Section 3 of the Code ‘Protection of Consumers’ states that Renault must “only deliver to customers and consumers verified and honest information about the products and services delivered and their characteristics”. Evidently this is not happening in Latin America where consumers are being given a false impression of the safety ratings of your products.
Whilst it is true that Renault over the years has achieved five star results in Euro NCAP crash tests this does not validate any claims by the company that their products in Latin America offer the same levels of vehicle safety. To do so is wrong and unfair both to consumers and to those manufacturers that have genuinely obtained five star ratings in Latin NCAP. Renault’s advertising in Latin America is a form of cheating in independent safety tests that is unacceptable and should not be excused as simply an error by local importers. Renault’s Code of Ethics also states in Section Two ‘Protection of Assets’ that “all communication must first be approved by the management, who must inform the competent authorities”.
Global NCAP, therefore, requests that in your capacity as company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer you personally take responsibility for these very serious mistakes and authorize the following action to redress this unfortunate situation:
1. Carry out an urgent review of all Renault advertising in Latin America and withdraw all the misleading adverts.
2. Issue a public apology to both Euro and Latin NCAP for misusing safety rating and labeling systems.
3. Offer to test the Latin American specification of all Renault models that have been advertised as ‘Euro NCAP five star rated’ using Latin NCAP’s test protocol so that an accurate rating for the region can be made available.
It is noteworthy that over many years Renault has systematically sought Euro NCAP ratings for virtually every new model launched on the European market. As a way of moving forward from the current controversy surely Renault should try to do the same and test its entire product rage with Latin NCAP? That would give Renault the opportunity to build trust with Latin America consumers and demonstrate a high level commitment to leadership on road safety.
I look forward to receiving your reply to this letter. Yours sincerely
David Ward Secretary General
Attachments:
Letter from Olivier Murguet Renault Megane advert (Uruguay) Renault Clio advert (Chile) Renault Code of Ethics
YOUTUBE
