at the End of the race to the volumes and drastic reduction of costs in the hope of a return to profitability. The alliance of builders between the French Renault and japanese Nissan, and Mitsubishi has finally cut the umbilical cord with its founder, Carlos Ghosn, continued for a year and a half by the justice japanese for embezzlement and now a refugee in Lebanon. "The new model of the Alliance focused on efficiency and competitiveness rather than on volumes ", insisted Jean-Dominique Sénard, during a virtual press conference organized between Boulogne-Billancourt, france (home of Renault), Yokohama (Nissan) and Tokyo (Mitsubishi).
The president of Renault and president of the Alliance turns their back on the previous strategy of his predecessor, who was to sell more cars to occupy the rank of number one in the world of the automobile, a place reached in 2017, with 10.6 million units sold off. According to the CEO of Nissan, Makoto Uchida, " the year 2020 will be crucial. We focus on the reconstruction. The japanese automaker will be able to focus on its strengths and take advantage of the resources of the Alliance ". "Pooling the forces of the alliance will be crucial," added the boss of Mitsubishi Motors, Osamu Masuko. In respect of the production Renault electric vehicles in France and his participation in " the Airbus batteries ", including PSA and Total, the two commitments made Tuesday by the Diamond at the request of the president Macron, the director-general Clotilde Delbos considers that there "is no contradiction" with the new strategy announced.
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Among the new areas of development, the Alliance has decided to reduce the models of platforms to use to assemble the cars and do this for every car segment and every technology to a manufacturer, who will be the contact person, the " leader ", associated with a follower, called " follower ". In addition, each member of the Alliance becomes the leader of each region of the world where it is more powerful than the others : Nissan for China, North America and Japan, Renault in Europe, Russia, South America and North Africa, and finally Mitsubishi Motors for Oceania and the rest of Asia. Specifically, the members of the Alliance will share a single platform, called CMF-B, in order to assemble the chassis and "the inner parts of the car which are not," said Clotilde Delbos, director general of Renault. Items high external will allow each brand and each model to differentiate itself from other.
No merger of the order of the day
This standardization push will help to reduce costs and capital expenditure of approximately 40 % per model, considers the Alliance to be a global saving of 2 billion euros. "For example, in Brazil (or even chart), there are now 4 platforms Renault and 2 Nissan for 6 models (Sandra, Stepaway, Logan, Captur, March, Kicks, ED). With the new system, we will only have a single platform to make 7 different models. We will be able to build up to 300,000 vehicles through this unique platform ", says Jean-Dominique Sénard. By car segment, Renault will be the leader for small petrol cars and diesel. Nissan will hand-for large species, and the " kei cars ", the minivoitures specific to the japanese market. It will in addition of autonomous cars and engines of future electric models. Finally, Misubishi will be responsible for the development of the great hybrid vehicles (so-called PHEV for " Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle "). For example, Nissan will manage the renewal of the SUV (4x4 urban) medium-size (Renault Kadjar, Nissan Qashqai), for Renault to do it for the small SUV (Renault Captur, Nissan Juke).
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The integration between the members of the Alliance will, therefore, be more extensive. However, no merger between the three manufacturers is in the study, was repeated by Jean-Dominique Sénard. "The Alliance is the keystone of our resilience and competitiveness, ( ... ). Thanks to the decisions taken today, we will be tomorrow, more efficient, and a true model for the rest of the world. There is no proposed merger between the companies. We do not need a merger to be effective, " he says. Now all that remains is for each manufacturer, in red, to cut his costs and reveal plans for job cuts. Nissan will do it on Thursday, and Renault, on Friday morning. Several thousand jobs are expected to be removed. Nissan could reduce 15 per cent of its workforce in the world by 2023. According to Le Figaro, Renault would cut 5,000 jobs in France, or 10 percent of its workforce, by not replacing retirements.
