"The world should build vehicles with the same frugal mentality of the Chinese and the Indians -- it's a matter of survival," Ghosn was quoted as saying in the Brazilian weekly magazine Veja.

The interview was published on the eve of the centennial edition of the blockbuster US auto show in Detroit, Michigan, the 2007 North American International Auto Show.

The Brazilian-born Frenchman pointed to the Indian automaker Tata's recent launch of the world's cheapest car, a four-door with a retail price of 2,000 dollars.

China and India have unleashed a true "revolution" and Western automakers must adapt if they want to stay in business, he said.

"Five years ago, for example, there was neither the Chinese market, nor the Indian, nor the Russian.

"Now these are markets where vehicle sales are rising the fastest and where it is necessary to invest in innovation and distribution models," he said.

"It's the new challenge," he emphasized, recognizing the difficulty of certain automakers to change "rigid and implanted structures" in their mentalities.

Some firms will disappear, he said, warning that "there's no room for complacency."

The giant US automakers General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are battling financial crises and are trying to restructure.

Ghosn is known in the auto industry as the turnaround specialist who rescued Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy in only five years, beginning in 1999.

"More than 50 million vehicles are sold in the world every year. Any automaker could disappear and no one would notice it," said Ghosn, who is president and chief executive of French automaker Renault and Japanese automaker Nissan, and also chairman of the latter.

The Renault-Nissan partnership holds nearly 10.0 percent share of the global market. Renault owns 44.4 percent of Nissan, which owns 15 percent of its French partner.

Ghosn said the current industry crisis was "inherent in a sector" which demands enormous investments: 300-400 million dollars to build a factory capable of producing 250,000 vehicles a year and 300-500 million dollars for the development and launch of a new model.