Nissan-Renault alliance is shifting
This was reported by the Financial Times, citing insiders. According to the report, Nissan is “seeking a long-term, steady shareholder such as a bank or insurance group to replace some of Renault’s equity holding.” Stronger ties with Honda are also considered an option. Renault is also said to have already signalled that it would be open to selling its Nissan shares to Honda.
But first things first: Nissan only announced at the beginning of the month in its annual report that it would be introducing a radical cost-cutting programme. The Japanese company intends to reduce its global production capacity by 20 per cent and cut 9,000 jobs. Nissan also indicated that it intends to focus more on hybrids in the medium term. Nissan made it very clear in the business report that the Group is in a “difficult situation” and urgently needs to become leaner and more resilient in order to adapt quickly to changes in the market. To this end, Nissan also wants to make changes to the tectonics of its corporate alliances. Specifically, the company has announced that it will reduce its stake in Mitsubishi (from 34 to 24 per cent).
Renault is now rumoured to be making further changes: The French group is said to want to reduce its stake in Nissan – the extent of which is not known. The close alliance between Renault and Nissan has existed since 1999, when the French firm rescued the Japanese company from bankruptcy with their investment. For a long time, Renault held 43 per cent of Nissan – and Nissan 15 per cent of the French group. At the beginning of 2023, both sides loosened their alliance somewhat. Renault already reduced its stake to just under 36 per cent at that time, while Nissan took a minority stake in Ampere, the independent electric car division of the Renault Group.
Since this relaxation, both sides have also been cooperating with new partners, Renault with Geely, for example. Since this year, Nissan has been exploring an alliance with Honda and Mitsubishi in the field of software-defined electric vehicles, among others. The main areas of the intensified collaboration will include batteries and e-axles. Interestingly, this effectively divides the Japanese market into two large blocks – with Toyota on one side and the Honda-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance on the other.
According to the Financial Times, Renault’s suspected partial withdrawal could soon lead to an equity tie-up with Honda, although both sides played down the option for months, according to the report. However, Nissan is no longer ruling out the possibility of Honda buying some of its shares, with “all options” being considered as the company embarks on a series of restructuring measures due to declining sales in China and the US, an insider is quoted as saying. He adds: “We have 12 or 14 months to survive.”
Nissan had already announced its intention to change course in the spring – albeit less radically at the time than the cuts to jobs and production announced a fortnight ago now suggest. In its strategic plan ‘The Arc’, the manufacturer stated that it wanted to achieve cost parity between electric cars and combustion engines by 2030 and increase sales of electric vehicles by one million vehicles over the next three years. Nissan wrote that it intends to launch 34 new models with electric drive systems worldwide by 2030 – seven more than previously planned. In addition, electrified cars should make up 40 per cent of the global model mix by the 2026 financial year. By the end of the decade, it should even be 60 per cent – five per cent more than previously planned. Nissan did not specify in its annual report presented in mid-November whether this will remain the case or whether these target figures are already outdated.
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