Reuters (Paris) - Sports car-loving electric vehicle visionary Carlos Tavares, the Americas head of Nissan Motors, looks set to speed to the top operational job at its alliance partner, French car maker Renault.
Tavares, a Portuguese national, is expected to be named Chief Operating Officer in the coming days after Patrick Pelata resigned in April, taking the flak for an embarrassing debunked spy case turned fraud investigation.
Like his predecessor, Tavares will be making the move back to Renault after a stint at its alliance partner Nissan. He spent 23 years at the French car maker in engineering and program management roles before moving to Nissan in 2004.
An engineer by training, Tavares' great talent lies in zooming out to see the big picture, said Joao Dias, national coordinator of the mobi-e electric vehicle (EV) charging network in Portugal, where Nissan has a groundbreaking EV partnership with the government.
Tavares, 53, was instrumental in getting the negotiations started, meeting national and local government officials in the early days of the project.
Dias was struck by his zeal: "His eyes are lively and shining: he's very enthusiastic, he transmits a lot of energy to you and he's a visionary," he said.
Portugal wants 750,000 electric vehicles on its roads by 2020, as part of a bid to make use of renewable energy and cut dependence on oil, and to this end is putting in place a network of charging points and offering subsidies to EV buyers.
Tavares' understanding that preparing society for a change in how people get around, was vital to the project's success.
"I've dealt with many OEMs but I've never dealt with anyone with such a broad view as Carlos Tavares. He understood that this is not a matter of technology," Dias said.
Tavares is known as a hard-worker but has an informal and approachable style.
"I think his human characteristics, his personality, are very important in him being able to make all these connections with many governments and important cities," Dias said.
Alliance partners Renault and Nissan are bidding to become EV leaders, jointly investing 4 billion euros in the technology, launching a raft of new models and signing partnerships with governments and companies to get the all-important charging networks in place.
Like his namesake, Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, a French citizen who was born in Brazil to a Lebanese father and French mother, Tavares has an international outlook.
He is comfortable flitting between his native Portuguese and flawless French and English, while as chairman of Nissan's America's committee he splits his time between Nashville, Tennessee and Tokyo.
In his down-time, his passion for cars becomes apparent -- his hobby is racing sports cars and he takes part in events around the world.
