Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi tighten ties
Alliance moves closer to single group with joint executives leading key functions
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors will move ever closer to becoming a single company with joint executives leading all key functions, as the rival carmakers push towards aggressive savings targets from their global alliance.
The RNM Alliance, the world’s second largest vehicle maker by sales behind Volkswagen, is aiming to make joint savings of €10bn by 2022, up from €5bn in 2016, by working closer together and using more common parts across its vehicle range.
On Thursday, it announced an executive shuffle and added new areas, such as quality and car servicing, where its businesses will work together.
The savings will drive up profits and help the companies make the vast investments they need into electric vehicles and self-driving systems, at a time when global car manufacturers are facing rising costs from new technologies.
Carlos Ghosn, who is chairman of all three carmakers as well as being chief executive of the Alliance and Renault, said the decision was not intended to take power from leaders of each business.
“The CEO of each company is in charge of its own business, that is the bottom line,” he said. “This is not about change of responsibility, it’s about acceleration of the synergies that are not possible without working together.”
He added: “Everything we are doing here is about efficiency.”
Mr Ghosn was last month reinstated as Renault’s chief executive for another four-year term after a search for a successor that saw it consider internal and external candidates.
The group also promoted chief competitive officer Thierry Bolloré to become chief operating officer with responsibility for day-to-day management of the business, a position that looks increasingly like a chief executive role as the company’s finance and HR functions will report to him.
Renault and Nissan, which have been working together since 1999, three years ago began combining engineering, manufacturing and supply chain work.
They will deepen merged areas such as manufacturing and supply chain, and will launch new projects around quality, customer satisfaction, aftersales and business development, the Alliance announced on Thursday.
Mitsubishi will join the purchasing, business development, and quality organisations in April 2018, and will then gradually move towards full participation in engineering and manufacturing as well as aftersales starting from next year.
Each strand will have its own director at the Alliance level, the company said.
Currently Renault and Nissan own shares in each other, while Nissan has a stake in Mitsubishi.
Yet the group still remains held back from a full merger or even closer capital or legal integration by the French government’s shareholding in Renault, as well as disagreements over where the eventual business would have its shares and pay tax, Mr Ghosn said on Thursday.
He said that the savings from the Alliance would “turbo-charge” the individual businesses, rather than see them lose their brand identities.