Renault, Nissan reboot auto alliance
LONDON — Automakers Renault and Nissan on Monday formalized their reboot of a relationship that had grown rocky, culminating in the spectacular fall of top executive Carlos Ghosn, who had led successful turnarounds at both companies before his arrest and daring escape.
The boards of both companies approved equalizing the stake each automaker holds in the other to 15 percent, bringing a better balance in the French-Japanese alliance, which also includes smaller Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. The uneven shareholdings had been viewed at times as a source of conflict.
Until now, Renault Group of France owned 43.4 percent of Nissan Motor Co., while the Japanese automaker owned 15 percent of Renault.
“We have been waiting a long time for this moment,” Renault board Chairman Jean Dominique Senard said at a news conference in London, calling it a “new era.”
Nissan intends to invest up to 15 percent in Ampere, Renault’s electric vehicle and software entity in Europe that Mitsubishi also will consider investing in. The automakers said they will collaborate in markets worldwide, including Latin America, Europe and India.
The moves come at a time when the extremely competitive auto industry is undergoing a major shift toward electric vehicles and other environmentally friendly models.
The long-speculated changes to the carmaker alliance were announced a week ago. Shares equivalent to a 28.4 percent stake will be transferred to a French trust, according to the companies.
Renault, whose top shareholder is the French government, and Nissan agreed on an orderly sale of that stake, although there will be no deadline.
Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida vowed to take the alliance to “the next level of transformation” to adapt to a new era.
“This is not a choice but a need,” he said.
The Renault-Nissan alliance, which started in 1999, was plunged into scandal when Ghosn, the executive sent by Renault to lead a turnaround at the then-near-bankrupt Nissan, was arrested in Japan in 2018 on financial misconduct charges.
Ghosn, who says he is innocent, jumped bail in a daring escape by hiding in a box spirited aboard a private jet and now lives in Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan. Renault and Nissan have been distancing themselves from the Ghosn scandal.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Senard emphasized that Renault is decidedly in the post-Ghosn era.
“That is in the past. I mean, nobody in Renault today is talking about that subject,” he said, without mentioning Ghosn’s name. “They’re all concentrated, honestly, on the future, on what we’re doing.”