Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance

The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, originally known as the Renault–Nissan Alliance, is a French-Japanese strategic alliance between the automobile manufacturers Renault (based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France), Nissan (based in Yokohama, Japan) and Mitsubishi Motors, Japan), which together sell more than 1 in 9 vehicles worldwide. Renault and Nissan are strategic partners since 1999 and have nearly 450,000 employees and control eight major brands: Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Infiniti, Renault Korea, Dacia, Alpine, and Venucia. The car group sold 10.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2017, making it the leading light vehicle manufacturing group in the world. The Alliance adopted its current name in September 2017, one year after Nissan acquired a controlling interest in Mitsubishi and subsequently made Mitsubishi an equal partner in the Alliance.

, the Alliance is one of the world's leading electric vehicle manufacturing groups, with global sales of over 1 million light-duty electric vehicles since 2009. The top selling vehicles of its EV line-up are the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Zoe all-electric cars.

The strategic partnership between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi is not a merger or an acquisition. The three companies are joined together through a cross-sharing agreement. The structure was unique in the auto industry during the 1990s consolidation trend and later served as a model for General Motors and the PSA Group, and Mitsubishi, as well as the Volkswagen Group and Suzuki, though the latter combination failed. The Alliance itself has broadened its scope substantially, forming additional partnerships with automakers including Germany's Daimler and China's Dongfeng.

Following the November 2018 arrest and imprisonment of Alliance chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn, accompanied by his dismissal from the alliance and its components, press analysts have questioned both the stability of the Alliance's shareholding agreement and its long-term existence. These analysts also note that, because the companies' recent business strategies are interdependent, attempts to restructure the Alliance could be counter-productive for all of the members.

Corporate structure and strategy

The Alliance is a strategic partnership based on the rationale that, due to substantial cross-shareholding investments, each company acts in the financial interest of the other—while maintaining individual brand identities and independent corporate cultures. Renault currently has a 43.4% voting stake in Nissan and Nissan holds a 15% non-voting stake in Renault effectively giving Renault control. Although more companies have adopted such an arrangement, it remains controversial. Some business journalists have speculated that the companies should be joined in a conventional merger to make a "bold" move, while other interested parties have said that the companies should separate.

Carlos Ghosn, the founding chairman and CEO of the Alliance, is a Brazilian-Lebanese-French businessman who was also chairman and CEO of Nissan Motors until November 2018 and held the same positions at Renault for two months longer. Ghosn compared the Renault–Nissan partnership to a marriage: "A couple does not assume a converged, single identity when they get married. Instead, they retain their own individuality and join to build a life together, united by shared interests and goals, each bringing something different to the union. In business, regardless of the industry, the most successful and enduring partnerships are those created with a respect for identity as the constant guiding principle."

Ghosn consistently advocated an evolutionary approach that results in increasing integration and synergies for partners within the Alliance. "You have to be careful that at the end of the day, by trying to do more in the short-term you don't end up destroying what had been delivering so much result on the mid-term and long-term," Ghosn was quoted as saying in a March 2011 Reuters Special Report, in which he said conventional, top-down acquisitions in the auto industry in the past decade have failed. "It is not validated by any example in the car industry that this works. Not one example. And saying something different is just rubbish."

According to public statements, the goal of the Alliance was to increase economies of scale for both Renault and Nissan without forcing one company's identity to be consumed by the other's. After forming, the Alliance achieved its scale and also sped time to market by jointly developing engines, batteries and other key components. For instance, Nissan's market share increases in Europe's competitive light commercial vehicle segment have been partly a result of badging various Renault van models such as the Renault Kangoo/Nissan Kubistar, Renault Master/Nissan Interstar, Renault Trafic/Nissan Primastar. In addition, Renault builds nearly all of the diesel engines in Nissan cars sold in Europe. Nissan uses these engines to accelerate sales throughout Europe, where it has already become the number one Asian brand in many key markets.

Collaboration between Renault and Nissan also focuses on capital-intensive research projects such as sustainable, zero-emission transportation and development of automobile manufacturing in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia and India. The Alliance also oversees purchasing for both companies, ensuring larger volume and thus better pricing with suppliers. Renault and Nissan have also consolidated logistics operations under the Alliance to reduce costs. The companies claim that they generate more than €200 million per year by sharing warehouses, containers, shipping crates, seagoing vessels and customs-related processing. In total, the Alliance reported more than €1.5 billion in synergies in 2010.

The Alliance develops "best practices," borrowing systems and controls from one company to strengthen the other company where appropriate. The "Nissan Production Way" became the cornerstone of the "Système de Production Renault" standard used by all Renault plants. Renault reported productivity increasing by 15 percent due to the new system.

History

The Alliance began on 27 March 1999. At the time, the auto industry was in a period of rapid consolidation. Numerous companies merged or were acquired in high-profile deals, most notably Daimler's acquisition of Chrysler in 1998 (which dissolved in 2007, when the companies separated).

At the time it was created, Renault bought 36.8% of Nissan's outstanding stock for $3.5 billion pending court approval and Nissan vowed to buy into Renault when it was financially able. In 2001, after the company's turnaround from near-bankruptcy, Nissan took a 15% stake in Renault, which in turn increased its stake in Nissan to 43.4%.

In 2002, the Alliance created the Renault–Nissan BV (RNBV), a strategic management company to oversee areas such as corporate governance between the two companies. Based in Amsterdam, it is owned 50/50 by Renault and Nissan and provides a neutral location for the Alliance to exchange ideas, build strategy and help leverage the maximum synergies between the two companies.

In 2006, the Alliance began exploratory talks with General Motors regarding the possibility of creating an industrial alliance. The talks were instigated by GM minority shareholder Kirk Kerkorian. GM reportedly demanded payment of several billion dollars to engage in an alliance, prompting Ghosn to call the terms "contrary to the spirit of an alliance." Discussions ended without agreement in October 2006, when Ghosn said, "It's clear the two sides have completely different appetites for an alliance."

Since 2010, the Alliance has undertaken a number of projects as part of a strategic cooperation deal with the German Daimler AG company.

In 2014, Renault and Nissan combined various research and development, manufacturing and business operations to increase money savings, integrate the two companies and accelerate development.

In May 2016, in the wake of the fuel-efficiency scandal uncovered by Nissan, Nissan began the acquisition of a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, with the aim of making Nissan the largest and controlling shareholder of Mitsubishi and turning Mitsubishi Motors