In France, the average duration of a marriage is fifteen years, according to INSEE. In this sense, Renault and Nissan have obtained better results than average by joining together for 24 years. But the alliance of the two automakers (with Mitsubishi since 2016) is coming to an end. On Wednesday they confirmed that Renault, which until now owned 43.4% of Nissan’s capital, drops to 15%. Concretely, this means that Renault will no longer control Nissan.
The French and Japanese manufacturers have reached a new 15-year agreement under which they will have “15% cross ownership.” They also announced the end of their joint purchasing center, a drastic change from the old version of the agreement, where it occupied a fundamental place.
No more joint purchases, return of the competition
Starting Monday, Renault employees were asked to stop sharing their files and data with Japanese manufacturers Nissan and Mitsubishi, taking another step in softening their alliance.
“The Renault-Nissan alliance ends on November 6. So from this date there will be no more communication with Nissan,” is indicated in an internal email from the management of a department, which AFP was able to consult.
Specifically, on Monday the Alliance Purchase Organization was dissolved, the first structure created by Carlos Ghosn when he formed the Alliance in 2001, and which still employed 1,400 people. The group indicated that no central purchasing employees will be fired and that “the reorganization is underway.”
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi “will now act independently and as competitors”, “information will no longer be able to be exchanged, except in strictly supervised cases”, is specified in another email from the training service of one of the Renault facilities.
According to a source close to the matter, who confirms the cessation of shared libraries and data between the two manufacturers, this step constitutes the logical continuation of the reduction of Renault’s participation in Nissan, as required by antitrust laws.
“We have always been competitors in the market, this word ‘competition’ is not new,” says the same source, moderating the emails. “We are heading towards a new chapter for the Alliance, but it does not have the same shape,” she added, rejecting the term “divorce” used by concerned unions.
A case-by-case alliance
This decision is part of the reorganization of the Renault-Nissan Alliance – to which Mitsubishi has belonged since 2016 – announced at the beginning of the year and which aims to be less fusional and more egalitarian. In fact, the euphoria of the great alliance founded in 1999 has diminished since then: Japan periodically denounces the “unequal” conditions of this marriage, with Renault, in reality, in a position to dictate its conditions to its partner.
At the end of September, Renault had already indicated that, before the end of the year, the Alliance organization will move from a “globally standardized model” to a “project-oriented cooperation.” In other words, Renault and Nissan will now work on a case-by-case basis, without a common entity or structure.
“We no longer live together with Nissan, but that doesn’t stop us from sometimes going on vacation,” a source close to the company summarized to BFM Business in September.
It is not enough to reassure the unions. “We are not going to hide it, it is a registered divorce, it is an open secret,” said Fabien Gloaguen, representative of the Renault FO union in Sandouville.
“We are not here to judge Renault’s strategy,” he added, but the evolution of the Alliance “lacks clarity.”
The unionist is especially concerned about the “uncertainty” that hangs over the future of the 1,400 employees who work in the common purchasing center or in the French Renault factories that produce, among other things, Nissan cars, such as in Maubeuge, Batilly or even Sandouville. .
The group reaffirmed that the vehicles whose construction Nissan has entrusted to Renault will continue to be manufactured in its French factories and that the manufacturers will continue to exchange data on their joint projects.
Source: BFM TV
