Mr Patrick Pelata's resignation as Chief Operating Officer of Renault on Monday could be a hard void to fill from the viewpoint of its India operations.

“He was an important link from Paris with the top management here and was a huge pillar of support,” sources told Business Line .

Mr Pelata has been associated with Renault's progress in India for over five years and continued to remain bullish despite the initial setback of the Logan.

“His faith in the country's potential was unwavering and he would constantly check out how the parent company could help out,” sources said.

While his resignation will obviously not impact Renault's product plans for India, the local management could still be concerned with the loss of a vital communications link.

This also comes at a time when Renault is rebuilding its innings here and has buried the Logan chapter.

Foregone conclusion

In auto industry circles, Mr Pelata's resignation was almost a foregone conclusion ever since it was discovered that the company had egg on its face over the spy scam that resulted in three employees being fired without sufficient evidence. Renault will now have to cough up a huge compensation package to the trio for this goof-up though the bigger loss clearly is Mr Pelata.

“Somebody had to be the fall guy in this fiasco,” an industry veteran said.

Mr Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan, had reiterated on Monday that Mr Pelata would continue to stay in the group. Indications are that he could play a more active role in the Nissan alliance though the bigger challenge for the company is to find a solid replacement as COO.

The timing could not have been worse what with Renault keen on growing its presence in geographies beyond Europe especially Brazil, Russia and India.

Rivals' advantage

The spy scam revolved around Renault-Nissan's electric car project which is tipped to be over five lakh units by 2015. It now remains to be seen if the recent pace of developments will affect the plan. There have been reports doing the rounds that other European car rivals will, in fact, snap up the three wronged employees and fast-track their own electric vehicle projects.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW