In her new alliance system french renault With Japanese Nissan Motor now the relationships are equivalent but also more complex. After close to twelve months of intense negotiations, the partners yesterday unveiled in London a new framework under which Renault will reduce its stake in Nissan, as well as plans for a number of new models with the smaller alliance partner it is also. Japanese Mitsubishi Motors. “This new agreement is based on business opportunities and simple, clear rules,” French Renault chief executive Luca de Meo said during a joint Bloomberg TV interview with Nissan president Makoto Uchina. “What we have today in terms of business opportunities is far greater than what we have ever done in the past 10 years.”

The deal loosens the reins held by Renault for a nearly 24-year high-stakes partnership, though it seems long overdue given the industry’s arduous transition to electrification and cutting-edge software. To keep up with the times, Luca de Meo proposes to Renault that they split up their operations and enter into new partnerships. This includes the consolidation of its old combustion engine assets with China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding, a technology partnership with Qualcomm, and a separate IPO of its new electric vehicle division, Ampere. “The main risk is that Renault could trade one known difficulty for another,” said Stifel management group analyst Pierre-Yves Chemenere.

Renault is cutting its stake in Nissan, with the latter planning to invest up to 15% in Ampere electric vehicles.

The disappointment on the Japanese side was rooted in the imbalance of capital ties between Renault and Nissan. In this context, the French automaker owns 43% of the voting shares, while the Japanese company has only 15% of the non-voting shares. This arrangement came after Renault bailed out Nissan with a cash injection and sent Carlos Ghosn (no longer in the spotlight) to clean up the mess and create a bilateral alliance, later joined by Mitsubishi as a junior partner. Since then, however, it has been Nissan that has thrived in sales. It sold 3.3 million vehicles internationally in 2022, compared to 2.05 million for its partner.

Meanwhile, fears five years ago that Carlos Ghosn, then chairman of the two automakers, would push for closer integration, including a merger, led to his removal and arrest in Japan on charges of not reporting enough of his earnings to Nissan. . . Today, in addition to Renault reducing its stake in Nissan, the latter intends to invest up to 15% in Ampere’s first electric car business. Finally, the two partners will collaborate on several projects that could bring them hundreds of millions of euros over time.