Renault's new engineering chief, Gilles Le Borgne, was blunt in his diagnosis of the automaker's shortcomings. "Engineering and capex-wise, we are really far from excellence," he told investors.

Hubertus Troska will lead Daimler's China business for another five years after Mercedes passed Audi last year to become the country's best-selling luxury car brand.

Renault said its Morphoz concept car previews the automaker's new family of electric models.

Former Bernstein analyst Max Warburton's "out of the box" views could help CEO Olla Kallenius to get more bang from his investment buck at Daimler.