In a meeting on Wednesday at the Renault headquarters, the four Alliance leaders tried to reassure the outside world of their determination to create a future for the Alliance between Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Renault.

“The future of the Alliance is ‘exciting’, ‘resilient’, and ‘innovative’,” the four stressed. “This Alliance is more flexible, open, eager, and concrete than ever before,” said Jean-Dominique Sénard, President of the Alliance.

Other methods of sharing

Where the partners were sharing their technical progress in the past, they now work independently and share technologies or produce cars for each other on a case-to-case basis. “But these projects are far more important than those of the past,” insists Renault boss Luca de Meo. “They are  important enough in size and financially viable, and the market will admit this in the future.”

Numerous cooperation projects are running. 60% of the vehicles produced by the partners have their platforms in common; the new Renault Scénic and the Nissan Ariya are an example of this. The new electric Nissan Juke and Leaf (to be produced in the UK) are based on Renault’s CMF-EV platform, and Renault’s electric arm, Ampere, will develop the electric Nissan successor for the Micra.

The Japanese partners, represented by Nissan CEO MakotoUshida and Mitsubishi boss Takao Kato, stressed that they are counting on Renault for their development in Europe, Latin America, and India.

The joint Renault/Nissan factory in Chennai will multiply its SUV production and models in India. In Latin America, the small New Niagara pickup is developed by Renault for both the French manufacturer and Nissan.

As the different partners have stopped their joint purchasing activities, Nissan will now become a client of Horse. The Renault department is still developing ICE powertrains, which will buy 500 000 powertrains (in six different versions) annually.

New equity

The relationship between Nissan and Renault had deteriorated in recent years due to the increased influence of the French state and, especially, the debacle around former boss Carlos Ghosn, which had serious consequences for the Alliance.

The uneven share distribution between Renault and Nissan has been halted, and they both have 15% of each other’s shares now. Renault still has to sell the additional 28,4% of its Nissan shares stored in temporary trust.

“We have been suffering these last four years,” commented Jean-Dominique Sénard, “I have multiplied the efforts to ensure that confidence and transparency were coming back. Without this, important common projects were senseless. Now, we can concentrate on the operations again.”

“The world is evolving rapidly,” Makoto Ushida confirmed. “It was no option to continue operating as we did in the past; the Alliance needed a new start,” he underlined.

The two Japanese top managers have reconfirmed their investments in Ampere (€600 million for Nissan and €200 million for Mitsubishi). Nissan also plans to participate in Renault’s circular economy project, ‘ The future is neutral’.