The car manufacturers Renault and Nissan, partners for 24 years, inaugurated this Wednesday the new, more egalitarian form of their alliance, announced in February.
«After obtaining the required regulatory authorizations, the New Alliance Agreement between Renault Group and Nissan comes into force today. "It replaces previous agreements that regulated the governance of the Alliance," the groups said in a joint statement from the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi.
«This new chapter of the Alliance will build on the robust foundations of a long-standing partnership. It will maximize value creation for all its members, laying the foundations for a new balanced, fair and effective governance,” said Jean-Dominique Senard, president of the alliance.
Renault owned 43.4% of Nissan, but from now on both companies "hold a cross stake of 15%," the statement underlines.
This puts an end to a long French domination that began in 1999 when Renault acquired part of the capital of Nissan.
This business was complicated by the surprise entry of the French state into the capital of Renault in 2015 and by the spectacular fall of Carlos Ghosn, who chaired the alliance, and who ended up detained in Japan at the end of 2018 accused of economic crimes.
Nissan boss Makoto Uchida, quoted in the statement, praised a “peer-to-peer agreement” that will allow Nissan “to continue developing [sus] key competencies and gain agility.
"This new era of the Alliance" will be "oriented towards business," said Renault CEO Luca De Meo, mentioning "common projects in Europe, Latin America and India."
In Argentina, Nissan is going to launch a truck designed by Renault and in Mexico the Japanese manufacturer wants to relaunch the French brand by producing its models.
Nissan and Renault also have a plan to launch two small common electric vehicles in this market, where their growth margin is large.
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi – of which Nissan owns 34% of the capital – collaborate on numerous vehicles and together, they have a workforce of 375,000 employees.
