The arrest of former Nissan Motor Co chief executive Carlos Ghosn has raised doubts over the future of the alliance among automakers Nissan, Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motor Corp that he helped to forge.
Such partnerships wax and wane over time, but they have grown in importance as companies develop electric vehicles, net connectivity and artificial intelligence for vehicles.
Ghosn was arrested on Nov. 19 in Tokyo on suspicion of under-reporting his income and other financial misconduct.
Photo: Bloomberg
The boards of Nissan and Mitsubishi voted unanimously to oust him as chairman, while Renault of France has kept him while seeking more information about his case.
With Ghosn gone, speculation is growing that Nissan might review its alliance with Renault.
Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan, while Nissan owns 15 percent of Renault, with the French government also holding a 15 percent stake.
Renault rescued Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy in 1999, but the Japanese automaker is now more profitable than its French partner.
This is not the first time East-West auto alliances in Japan have run afoul, underlining the challenges of such collaborations. Here is a look at some other alliances and why they folded:
FORD-MAZDA
US automaker Ford Motor Co helped engineer a turnaround at Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp forming an alliance in 1979 and taking a 25 percent stake, which was raised to 33.4 percent in 1996, considered a controlling share in Japan.
Ford sent executives and shared technology and auto parts to help cut costs at struggling Mazda, but the US automaker ran into its own problems and needed cash.
Mazda began buying back stakes, spending ￥17.8 billion (US$156.72 million at the current exchange rate) to buy back 6.8 percent of its own shares in 2008.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker in 2010 gave up its top stakeholder position in Mazda and now owns no stake in Mazda.
Ford executives sent to Mazda over three decades included Henry Wallace, the first foreigner to head a major Japanese company, and Mark Fields, who later became CEO of Ford.
Japanese managers retook the helm in 2003, as Mazda insiders quietly rejoiced.
Hiroshima-based Mazda, which makes the Miata roadster, has more recently entered a partnership with Japan’s top automaker Toyota Motor Corp, investing in a plant that makes vehicles for both brands in the US and sharing technology.
GM-TOYOTA
The 50-50 joint-venture plant in Fremont, California, between Toyota Motor Corp and US automaker General Motors Co (GM) started rolling out cars in 1984 and was heralded as a pioneer in international collaboration.
Known as New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI), the plant inspired feel-good stories about how US workers were learning and taking pride in Toyota’s famed super-efficient production methods.
Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota’s founder who now heads Toyota, worked at NUMMI from 1998 to 2000, as have other top Toyota executives, an experience meant to ready them for a globalizing industry and increasingly diverse workforce.
However, the NUMMI plant, which had produced the Pontiac Vibe and Chevrolet Nova, closed in 2010 after GM declared bankruptcy and Toyota pulled out, moving production to other plants in North America.
DAIMLER-MITSUBISHI
German-US automaker Daimler Chrysler bought a 37 percent stake in Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp in 2000, but the alliance felt rocky from the start.
Mitsubishi was embroiled in a years’ long scandal over its systematic cover-up of auto defects.
Rolf Eckrodt, sent in by Daimler Chrysler, in 2004 stepped down as chief at Mitsubishi.
The Mitsubishi group gradually recovered the stake in Mitsubishi, and Ghosn in 2016 engineered a 34 percent stake purchase by Nissan amid another scandal.
Daimler Chrysler never managed to fix the debt and lagging sales at Mitsubishi, which makes the Pajero sport utility vehicle and the i-MiEV electric car.
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