Motoring disruption
Fiat Chrysler is wooing Renault, in the hope of creating the world’s thirdbiggest vehicle manufacturer.
It was no secret Fiat Chrysler was looking for partners to help cope with the seismic and expensive shift to electric and autonomous vehicles. And Renault and Alliance partner Nissan have been among leaders in developing mass-market electric vehicles.
Others have been happy to organise partnerships and alliances to help plot a course amid unprecedented disruption, so any surprise was Fiat Chrysler’s upfront full merger proposal.
The scale of the proposal is breathtaking, given the RenaultNissan-Mitsubishi alliance already makes more passenger cars than any other company in the world.
A merger would reshape the global industry.
It would produce some 8.7 million vehicles annually, putting it ahead of General Motors, and
behind only Volkswagen and Toyota.
Fiat Chrysler and Renault products are complementary, with one stronger in the US and in SUVs, the other in Europe and in EVs.
But the merger comes at an awkward time for the Alliance, reeling in the wake of its architect Carlos Ghosn’s arrest in Tokyo. The merger clearly looks more tempting in Europe and North America, than in Japan.
Not all mergers on this scale work (painful memories of the failed effort to merge Chrysler with Daimler remain) but this proposal shows how desperate some of the biggest industry players are to cope with the unprecedented disruption reigning on the world’s motor industry.