One does it before and one does it after

President Emmanuel Macron certainly enjoyed this show. Renault has deployed an entire management team to present the new strategy of the alliance of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. The day before, Macron had spoken eight billion euros for the French automotive industry, one of which was for purchase premiums alone. And now the 15 percent state-owned car maker Renault with transition boss Clotilde Delbos and President Jean-Dominique Senard is showing its strength. For her colleagues at Nissan and Mitsubishi, only staging roles remain in the staging.

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Senard announces: The alliance that has existed since 1999 – Mitsubishi was only added in 2016 – is repositioning itself. The reasons lay – of course – in the economic consequences of the Corona crisis and the rapidly intensifying competition in the automotive industry. Right: Even without the global pandemic, the alliance was far behind its goal set by the former strong man at Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, to be the largest automaker in the world by 2022. VW and Toyota are still in the sun. Nissan has already announced the loss of approximately 12,500 jobs worldwide. Renault is in acute need of an extra five billion euros.

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The Ghosn era has ended

Senard distances himself from Ghosn several times and repeatedly emphasizes the cohesion in the alliance. In the past few months, Renault and Nissan had carried out their Ghosn quarrel openly and violently. The Brazilian-Lebanese-French manager was fired in Tokyo in 2018 on charges of infidelity and tax evasion, then lost all positions in the alliance and fled spectacularly in a suitcase from Japan in January this year. He himself presented the affair as an internal intrigue, with which Nissan wanted to prevent a definitive merger with Renault, which he repeatedly pushed for. Senard makes it clear that the merger is definitely off the table. “We have smarter solutions to become more efficient.” Become the greatest? Passé.

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At first glance, everything seems to be the same: Nissan and Renault want to continue to work more closely together in development, purchasing and sales. Model pairs such as Renault Clio and Nissan Micra, Kadjar and Quashqai, Alaskan and Navara are already on offer, sharing an average of around a third of the parts. At the same time, companies should remain as independent as possible so that they can act flexibly in their markets.

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One brand leads, the other follows

At second glance, however, deep cuts are made and thus some speculations are confirmed in advance: Up to two thirds of the parts should now match without questioning the brand-typical design. With the doors of its SUV models at Seat, Skoda and VW, the VW group is already showing how this could be done. Above all, however, the collaboration should take place according to the leader-follower principle: one brand sets the tone, the others take over. In the future, 80 percent of the Allianz models will be on common platforms – only 40 today. All models in a segment will be produced on one conveyor across all brands – this should bring some plants into trouble. And the brands divide the segments: Renault leads in commercial vehicles and in the small and compact car segment, including matching SUVs, and Nissan remains the lead in the mid-range SUVs.

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The same goes for the key technologies. Nissan will become head of autonomous driving and for the new large electric platform with a range of up to 500 kilometers, on which the Ariya will be the first model and which is to push battery costs below the magical limit of $ 100 per kilowatt hour of capacity. Renault leads the way in electronics, networking and electric drives, but also in conventional gasoline and diesel engines for small and compact cars. This division is intended to reduce development costs by around 40 percent.

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Mitsubishi’s role is unclear

And finally, Nissan and Renault split up the world. Renault will serve Europe and South America, where it is traditionally strong. Nissan focuses on North America, the home market Japan, the Middle East, South Africa and China. Renault has already largely ceased its activities there. However, Nissan will remain in Europe as a follower.

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Only one thing remains unclear in Senard’s presentation: What role should Mitsubishi play in the future? The brand still only has independent models in its range – so there would still be significant efficiency potential. Regionally, it should focus on Southeast Asia and Oceania, where it is already very successful. She will also be responsible for models with plug-in hybrid drives, where she can build on her bestseller Outlander PHEV. But the connector hybrids only appear marginally at Senard; the alliance primarily relies on battery power. And what will become of the strengthened European business? LOOK asks. “This is still being discussed, I can’t say anything about it,” replies Mitsubishi CEO Takao Kato.

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In the next few days, the companies want to inform about the consequences of the tightened austerity measures for the individual brands. Renault alone is expected to save up to two billion euros, and job cuts and plant closings are already being speculated. Even if Renault repeatedly emphasized during the strategy show that important battery research and production, for example, would remain in France. There could be a big row with the traditionally strong French unions. Emmanuel Macron wouldn’t like that at all.

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