by Gilles Guillaume
PARIS (Reuters) – The alliance formed by car manufacturers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi will put an end to its joint purchasing organization, the founding stone of the partnership founded more than twenty years earlier, continuing its transformation into a more flexible and autonomous.
“The Alliance’s purchasing organization will evolve into separate organizations focused on a project-by-project approach,” the diamond group announced in a press release. “This new organization will enable decisions to be made more quickly and improve operational efficiency.”
The evolution of the common structure for purchasing parts and components, created in 2001 and which has continued to grow over the years to reach no less than 85 billion euros in 2022, illustrates the profound change in the alliance established by former CEO Carlos Ghosn.
The high point will be the rebalancing of the stakes between the two founding members, a long-cherished wish in Japan, once the trust has been created where Renault will place part of its Nissan shares. This should follow the completion of the new alliance agreement, expected in the fourth quarter.
“By the end of 2023, the Alliance organization will move from a globally standardized model to project-driven cooperation to enable faster and agile decisions, tailored to requirements of each region,” added Renault in its press release.
JOINT PROJECTS IN EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA AND INDIA
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi finalized the restructuring of their partnership at the end of July after several months of tense discussions. These lasted longer than expected due in particular to Nissan’s concerns about the future protection of its patents while Renault is now increasing partnerships outside its historic alliance.
The new agreements provide member companies with the freedom to focus on their own most pressing issues as the automotive sector, in geographic, technological and regulatory terms, has become a shifting terrain.
Nissan must above all face the deterioration of prospects for foreign car manufacturers in China, the world’s largest market, while for Renault, the priority is the creation of its entity “Ampère” to stay in the electric race in the face of European ambitions of Tesla and Chinese brands.
Despite divergent paths, the partners still have several joint projects in Europe, Latin America and India.
This will be discussed at the next Alliance Operating Board which is due to take place in France at the end of the week, a source close to the matter told Reuters. The general director of Nissan should be present at this working meeting which is held alternately in France and Japan.
According to another source, Makodo Uchida was at Nissan Europe headquarters, west of Paris, on Tuesday to speak to the manufacturer’s regional teams.
The day before, he was in London for the 20th anniversary of Nissan’s London design studio, where he unveiled “20-23”, a concept for an urban and sporty electric car. He also announced on this occasion that all the new models that the Japanese group will launch in Europe will now be entirely electric.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, with Daniel Leussink in Tokyo and Nick Carey in London, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Jean Terzian)
Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters
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