Nissan executives are making contingency plans for separating from Renault, Automotive News Europe quoted the Financial Times as saying. The backup plans included Nissan returning to independent efforts in engineering and manufacturing as well as changes to the board of management at Nissan, the Financial Times reported.
The plans for independence had been accelerated by the Japanese company since former chairman Carlos Ghosn fled Japan, where he was accused of financial crimes, to his childhood home of Lebanon, the paper reported. Bloomberg also reported that Nissan’s consideration of splitting with Renault arose from concerns that its relations with its longtime French alliance partner has turned sour.
The feasibility of any potential separation is unclear, the reports noted, given that Renault is Nissan’s largest shareholder and the French automaker has been pushing for a repair of ties between parties. The companies are trying to find solutions to problems with the long-standing partnership and launch new industrial projects, people familiar with the situation told Automotive News Europe.
Among the projects from the Alliance started during the Ghosn era are due to see production reality this year. The 2019 Tokyo Motor Show saw the emergence of the Nissan Ariya, a concept electric crossover built on an all-new joint EV platform featuring a dual-motor, AWD layout, and a Renault equivalent is expected arrive in 2021.
Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard stated his doubts in a French radio interview last November about the partnership’s longevity when he was appointed to replace Ghosn. “If in 2020 we don’t extract the whole virtuous potential of this alliance, I will consider that I and my teams have failed,” Senard said.
Relations between the two Alliance partners were further strained when the proposed merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had failed to materialise, though the roots of the tensions between Renault and Nissan date further back. A major point of contention since 2015 was the equal division of costs for research and development into new technology and products, sources close to Nissan told Reuters.
The arrangement “did not compensate Nissan’s work properly; Nissan’s engineering output was 40% better, meaning Nissan engineers on average produced 40% more than their Renault counterparts in a given amount of time spent on a job,” one of the sources said, and when measured more strictly, Nissan’s output was in some cases double that of Renault’s, the source added.
Financial prospects for both Renault and Nissan have been a struggle since Ghosn’s arrest on allegations of financial misconduct, resulting in his removal from positions at Nissan and at Mitsubishi, and eventually resigned from his roles at Renault.
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This is good Nissan. But make sure you get a leader who wears pants to run the new entities. Don’t get a leader who takut bini. Then, it is not the CEO that runs the company, but the bini.
Nissan so ungrateful. When they were down, when they were practically bankrupt, they went to Renault begging on their knees for help.
And Renault was so generous to send in their best A Team and their best CEO and tons of money to save them. And save them they did, all thanks to Ghosn whose achievements are like Messiah. And what the japanese did, they backstabbed him and paraded him around to be shame just like Messiah. They were about to sacrifice him just like Messiah but he was smart to run in the end. Japan didn’t syukur for him coming to save them but instead wanted to end him. And there are many examples like these japanese that never syukur for being saved.
These japanese and others like them don’t deserve leaders such as Ghosn & Najib & Jeez that only appears once in 2000 years, willing to put everything they had into saving their company/country/souls, but see what those got saved do to them? Jailed, spat at, publicly humiliated, willing to sacrifice them w/o thinking what they had done to save them.
The world and its people and history doesn’t deserve such luminaries.
Topkek Nissan. When they were bankrap and went to Renault & Ghosn, they weren’t shameful to ask for help. Now they are just as shameless to betray their saviours. This is Japan kemaluan besar, but they don’t know that because Japan is shameless. What a shame. Malu malu malu.
Well… this really shows the level of ego large Japanese MNC’s have… Once they feel comfortable enough they will try to oust foreigners in top management and ensure only the Japs run it.. took them 17 years to finally show their true colours
That is the problem with Japan corporate mentality. When they are this egoistic and resentful of others better than them, they seek unscrupulous ways, more crook than hook, to regain their sense of self superiority. Just as reflected on their fanboys, they are egoistic about supposedly superior Japanese products and resentful when others, even from a homegrown brand, can make a better product. And just like their idols lack of ethics, these fanboys troll and harass those who disagree with their brand of delusions.