Mobilising business growth

THE traditional automotive industry’s business of selling vehicles to individuals will soon have to make way for pay-per-use services such as Uber and Grab.

The ride-sharing trend is growing stronger especially in developed countries and cities where the cost of car ownership is becoming ridiculously high.

Seeing the trend, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi have confirmed that the automotive alliance will invest in mobility start-ups amounting to as much as US$1bil (RM3.9bil) over the next five years.

The three companies, headed by Carlos Ghosn (pic) as chief executive officer, believe that whatever they have been doing is not enough, despite being the world’s largest automotive group in terms of sales.

Last year, the alliance sold 10.6 million passenger and light commercial vehicles, outselling Volkswagen Group and Toyota that recorded 10.53 million and 10.2 million units respectively.

With a high ambition of doubling annual synergies to €10bil (RM46.6bil) by 2022 and selling more than 14 million vehicles annually, the RenaultNissan-Mitsubishi alliance understands that it must implement new strategies to survive in the businesses.

Another investment will be to fund Ionic Materials, an American company that develops cobalt-free

Renault and Nissan will each fund 40% of the Alliance Ventures while Mitsubishi will foot the remaining cost.

solid battery materials that can be used in electric vehicles (EVs).

Last September, the alliance announced that it would launch 12 new EVs by 2022, all with an extended range and more affordable batteries.

Renault and Nissan will each fund 40% of the Alliance Ventures while Mitsubishi will foot the remaining cost.

The Alliance

Ventures will have offices in Yokohama,

Silicon Valley,

Beijing and

Paris.