A Decade Up for Nissan-Renault Alliance
By any measure the alliance forged between Renault and Nissan – which brought the Japanese giant back from the brink of bankruptcy – has been a massive success.
Much of the credit for this must go to Mr Carlos Ghosn, the Chairman and CEO who came to Renault having achieved a similar miracle in saving French tyre manufacturer Michelin.
With shared platforms, powertrains, standardization of manufacturing methods, co-operation on advanced technologies and expanded model lineups, combined sales for the two companies have risen from 4.9 million vehicles in 1999 to 6.9 million in 2008.
But it’s an ongoing process. This year alone, identified synergies between the two companies will free some €1.5 billion in cash to the alliance companies – most coming from manufacturing and logistics with a total of 11 vehicle types being cross-manufactured by the end of the year.
“Over the last decade, we used the Alliance to develop win-win synergies between Renault and Nissan and that approach worked well when both were profitable and growing,” Mr Ghosn explained. “Today we have to move faster. Seeking synergies is no longer optional, but mandatory. We have assigned a group of experts to focus on building greater synergies to get us through the crisis and position us competitively for the future.”
