Update: Nissan, Renault not considering consolidation

Thursday, Mar 31st, 2011 @ 4:52 a.m.

Although the Renault-Nissan partnership is already well established and generally considered to be a strong, mutually beneficial relationship, a report out of Japan based on an interview with the CEO of the automakers suggested a true merger was in the works.

Update:
Not so, said a representative from Nissan following the apparently erroneous report by Nikkei. “Mr Ghosn didn’t say that Renault and Nissan are leaning toward establishing a holding company,” Nissan spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa told the Associated Free Press.”Mr Ghosn has insisted that the alliance will continue to evolve.”

So despite Nikkei’s interpretation of Mr Ghosn’s words, it appears that we’re back to where we started when Ghosn said in February that no merger was in the works.

(Previous report found unedited below)
In fact, it was just February that rumors began circulating yet again that Nissan and Renault were looking to merge, but they were quickly shot down by joint-CEO Carlos Ghosn. Now, it appears as if Ghosn has had a serious change of heart given that he told Japan’s Nikkei newspaper that he hopes to bring the two companies under a single umbrella in the future.

The details of the proposed combining include establishing a holding company that would potentially hold Japan’s Nissan, France’s Renault, Russia’s (largest) AvtoVaz, Romania’s Dacia and South Korea’s Renault Samsung Motors. The interrelationships between those companies are already complicated by shared stakes, including a 15 percent stake in Renault by the French government, which would need to sign off on such a plan.

Nissan and Renault are also thoroughly tied together, with Renault owning a 44.3 percent stake in Nissan, and Nissan returning the favor with a 15 percent stake in Renault.

Should all of these automakers come together under a single ownership umbrella, Ghosn believes it would take 2-3 years to go through, but the end result would be an automotive giant that could be very near the output of global giants like Volkswagen, General Motors and Toyota.

References
1.’Nissan denies report…’ view
2.’Nissan, Renault eye…’ view

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Ghosn Not Gone: Nissan CEO, Renault Boss Survive Spy Scandal, for Now

Nissan and Renault’s chief executive officer and president, Carlos Ghosn, and his Renault right-hand man, Patrick Pelata, have survived the massively embarrassing Renault spy scandal, for now. Ghosn and the Renault board have rejected Pelata’s offer of resignation, and both Ghosn and Pelata, the French automaker’s chief operating officer, as well as other top managers, have returned their 2010 executive bonuses. They will forego bonuses this year.

Ghosn also has six closed Nissan factories on his hands in the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.

“Ghosn remains head of Renault, Nissan and the Alliance,” a spokeswoman said, via email. While Renault management and its board are anxious to put the case behind them, the French government, which owns 15 percent of Renault, is not. There have been suggestions that the case could jeopardize the Alliance with Nissan.

It is “not illegitimate” to consider Ghosn and Pelata’s jobs as being in the balance, French Industry Minister Eric Besson said Wednesday, according to Bloomberg, which quoted an interview on RMC radio. The issue, Besson told RMC, is Ghosn’s earlier statement to France’s TF1 television that there were “certainties” about the case.

The Alliance spokeswoman said the board, which includes government, union and industry officials, has “unanimously backed Ghosn’s plan to restore confidence and overhaul the security division.”

Here’s what happened. In January, Renault suspended product development chief Michel Balthazard, his subordinate, Bertrand Rochette and Matthieu Tenenbaum, chief of the electric car program, on suspicions of receiving payment from Chinese companies for electric car technology. Renault and Nissan are working on the same electric power chemistry and technology, no doubt sharing resources, though they’re working on different kinds of applications.

Renault fired Balthazard and the two others after management received “verbal information” that alleged Chinese payments to them via Swiss and Liechtenstein bank accounts.

On March 9, Renault attorney Jean Reinhart said the automaker paid 250,000 euros, or about $347,000, for information about the bank accounts, without knowing who supplied it.

On March 11, French police opened a fraud investigation and detained Dominique Gevrey, a former French intelligence agent in Renault’s security department, as he was about to board an airplane for Guinea. France’s RFI radio says on its English language website that Gevrey had claimed to be in contact with the alleged informer, who he refuses to identify.

“The attitude he is taking is that of a professional protecting his source. If any such source exists,” said Jean-Claude Marin, Paris’ chief prosecutor, in a March12 press conference.

Gevrey was jailed and faces charges of “organized fraud.”

“We were able to rule out the claims presented in Renault’s complaint within a very short period,” Marin said. Swiss and Liechtenstein authorities quickly confirmed that bank accounts for the three accused product development managers do not exist, he said.

The case against Gevrey is just beginning. While Ghosn and Pelata have survived so far, the case against them could intensify as French authorities learn more about how Renault management bought (literally) the allegations against Balthazard, Rochette and Tenenbaum. As I write this, a planned meeting between Ghosn, Pelata and Balthazard – a vin summit? – is not yet organized.

Balthazard, Rochette and Tenenbaum are very legitimately peeved, and mere re-hiring is not going to be enough (perhaps they deserve to receive Ghosn’s and Pelata’s 2010 bonuses?).

If the heat doesn’t dissipate on top management, Pelata is the obvious fall guy, though Ghosn could legitimately withdraw from his Renault duties and concentrate on Nissan and the earthquake aftermath in Japan. I don’t know how much time Pelata has remaining on his current Renault contract, but he might have some trouble getting it renewed.

After adding the Renault president title to his resume in 2005, Ghosn eased up slightly on the notion of running both companies head-on, and promoted Pelata to the COO position in 2008. Whether Ghosn was hands-on or hands-off the January investigation of the product managers, he’s quickly finding out that running two car companies is even harder than it sounds.

The Chinese angle is troubling, too. Why is it easy to make up allegations of Chinese spying on Western automakers? Because the Chinese Domestic Market, the part of the market not related to the joint-venture local manufacturing of foreign models is exemplified by poor-quality cars wearing familiar, Western- or Japanese-cribbed sheetmetal. Results have not matched the level of the CHM’s earnestness. The world’s largest automotive market still can’t produce a homemade design that’s worthy of European or North American competition.

View the original article here

Report: Renault considering Le Car revival

Thursday, Mar 17th, 2011 @ 1:57 p.m.

It may give George Costanza – aka “Le George” — nightmares, but Renault is said to be considering a modern version of its Le Car small car. Originally called the R5 in Europe, the revived three-door would stand as Renault’s premium small car.

According to InsideLine, Renault is considering a new small car inspired by the R5 supermini of the 1970s. The neo-R5 would be positioned as a premium offering, taking on the MINI Cooper, Citroen DS3 and the Fiat 500.

The original R5 was brought to the United States as the Le Car in 1976, but it’s highly unlikely the new model would ever make it to our shores.

The revived R5 is still in the early planning stages, but Renault designers are keen to use retro styling cues. The original’s rectangular headlights, impact bumpers and vertical taillights would likely find their way on the new car. The new R5 would ride on a version of the Clio’s small car platform.

The project has yet to get the green light, but a production version of the re-born R5 could arrive in European showrooms as early as 2014.

References
1.’Renault May Revive…’ view

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2011 Renault R-Space Concept Live Photos: 2011 Geneva Motor Show

Imagined as a family car for the future, Renault's new R-Space concept offers a sporty, flowing silhouette with a unique interior space and wide-opening suicide doors.

The inside might look a bit familiar if you're a fan of TV's Cash Cab, but otherwise, it's pure concept. Futuristic tiled themes meet with organic shapes and interlocking seating that will never see a production line, but looks cool on the floor in Geneva.

It's designed to be environmentally friendly, too, with a 900-cc three-cylinder engine paired to a dual-clutch gearbox. Renault says it produces the same performance as a typical 1.6-liter four-cylinder, and is rated at 110 horsepower and 118 pound-feet of torque--impressive figures for such a tiny engine. That could equate to fuel economy as good as 63.5 US mpg--in a vehicle designed to seat five.

Not bad Renault. Now lets see it as a Nissan, in more production-ready trim.

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