Renault and Nissan have agreed to thoroughly review the organization of their alliance. Renault had to let go of the ballast, but hopes in exchange for better cooperation.
More than 20 years after its creation, the Alliance formed by Renault and Nissan (to which Mitsubishi is also attached) will make a new start. The French and the Japanese have just reached an agreement to review their ties. Currently, Rhombus owns 43.4% of Nissan, while Nissan owns 15% of Rhombus. The two parties have agreed to a rebalancing. Each will now have 15% of the other (Renault will gradually sell the excess shares so as not to melt their value).
Above all, there will be a real balance of power, because Nissan was deprived of its voting rights, while Renault had seen its influence reduced to almost zero on the side of Nissan, following amendments added in 2015 to the contract binding the two parts. Nissan then took revenge for the weight of the French state at Renault, the state holding 15% of the capital of Losange but with voting rights doubled by the Florange law.
To this were added other points of tension at Nissan, where we were annoyed, for example, by the imbalance of links when the Japanese sell much more than the French in the world or by the power of Carlos Ghosn, who was beginning to work on a merger project.
5 common bases for electrics
So many elements that derailed the Alliance. This had not been running smoothly for a few years, with therefore increasingly limited benefits. The arrival of a new management at Renault (Jean-Dominique Senard as president and Luca de Meo as general manager), after the fall of Ghosn, made it possible to relaunch discussions with Nissan, which had also changed of boss.
All these little people first succeeded in agreeing to overhaul the links for industrial projects. In mid-2020, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi announced a new operation based on the leader/follower principle: a brand takes care of the management of a project and helps others benefit from it.
However, this was not enough on the Japanese side. He therefore finally won his case, Renault and the French State letting go of a lot of ballast to finally find an agreement that allows us to turn the page. Quoted by Les Echos, a leader of Losange summarizes the situation as follows: “Better 15% useful than 43% useless”.
On an equal footing, Renault and Nissan will be able to accelerate on the projects already launched, particularly on the electric side. They did not wait to restore order. After imagining the Zoé and the Leaf each on their own, then hybrid engines, they finally share the costly technical elements linked to electrification.
At the start of 2021, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi unveiled a common roadmap. In particular, they have planned 35 new electric models on five shared platforms. The colossal development costs generated by the forced market towards electricity had also brought brands to their senses, aware of the importance of their ally to share them.
Renault and Nissan did not wait for the Alliance to overhaul it to design the CMF-EV modular base, already used by the electric Mégane and Ariya. On his arrival at Renault, Luca de Meo had also praised the qualities of this platform, proof that together Nissan and Renault can work well!
What is the link between Nissan and Ampere?
However, if Renault and Nissan are once again on the right track to cooperate, they keep their distance well by each remaining a separate group. And for its part, the Diamond is preparing a big bang of its organization, with in particular the creation of two sub-entities, one dedicated to its thermal / hybrid engines, one dedicated to electric. The latter, named Ampere, will be listed on the stock exchange. Nissan is expected to take a stake, but the amount is unknown.
Another element that shows that the Japanese are not yet totally reassured: one of the points of negotiation in recent weeks concerned intellectual property. Nissan has therefore obtained a limited use of Japanese patents! For its part, Renault has decided to work on solid battery technology with Airbus, while the Alliance’s roadmap indicated that Nissan was the “leader” on this project!
The new organization of the Alliance must be formalized at the beginning of February. This will surely be an opportunity to dispel the last doubts and misunderstandings.
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