Renault-Nissan alliance turns 15
The Renault-Nissan alliance is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a closer integration in engineering, manufacturing, and purchasing. Renault and Nissan came together in 1999 when Nissan was close to bankruptcy. In 15 years the combined annual sales volumes have climbed from 4.8 million to 8.3 million. Renault holds a 43.4 per cent stake in Nissan and Nissan has 15 per cent of Renault. The alliance now encompasses eight brands: Renault, Nissan, Renault-Samsung, Infiniti, Venucia, Dacia, Datsun and Lada.
Members of the alliance already use common platforms and powertrains but it now plans greater convergence with the appointment of alliance executive vice presidents for engineering, manufacturing, purchasing and human resources. This should achieve an annual saving of 4.3 billion Euros by 2016.
The Renault-Nissan alliance can now claim to be the motor industry's longest-standing and most productive collaboration. Its chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn (who turned round Nissan when the alliance was first established) has always maintained that the secret is in the name â€" an alliance, rather than a merger or takeover.