Nissan Motor Co chief executive officer Makoto Uchida is heading to France for more talks with French partner Renault SA aimed at resetting a two-decade-old alliance, people familiar with the situation said.
Uchida is to attend a board meeting of the operating alliance at Renault headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt tomorrow, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
Nissan chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta is also expected to attend, one person said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Nissan, Renault and junior alliance member Mitsubishi Motors Corp are trying to reboot a partnership that has become problematic over the past few years.
Tentative plans for a meeting in London on Wednesday to discuss the alliance’s future were scrapped, the people said.
Discussions with Nissan started earlier this year as Renault began work to carve out its Ampere electric vehicle brand.
Photo: AFP
Nissan might invest US$500 million to US$750 million for a stake of about 15 percent in Ampere, but the agreement hinges on a wider deal that would see Renault gradually trim its 43 percent stake in Nissan to about 15 percent.
The shift would alleviate a power imbalance that has been a source of friction between the companies for years.
The three-way alliance holds meetings every month.
Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, chief executive officer Luca de Meo and senior vice president of international development and partnerships Francois Provost, along with the company’s entire board of directors, flew to Tokyo last month for in-person meetings, the people said.
Nissan is in talks “every day” with Renault to bring the alliance “to the next step” and “become stronger together,” Uchida said in an interview with Bloomberg in New York on Thursday.
De Meo and Uchida still aim to sign a nonbinding agreement before the end of this year, but the talks could also drag on or collapse, with differences over shared technology and intellectual property among the sticking points, the people said.
The alliance was struggling even before the 2018 toppling of then-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was widely seen as the glue holding the group together.
The reset is all the more urgent as automakers globally grapple with a costly and difficult transition to electrification.
Senard and De Meo in the past few weeks expressed optimism about the Nissan talks, but called the negotiations complex and cautioned about setting any deadlines.
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