TOKYO -- Carlos Ghosn still wants a North American partner for the Renault-Nissan alliance, more than a year after a proposed tie-up with General Motors fizzled.
Ghosn’s remarks here echoed similar comments the Renault and Nissan CEO made in August. He told participants at a Nikkei automotive conference today that “if I have the opportunity to make it happen, I will do it.”
Ghosn explained that the Renault-Nissan alliance is “the only automotive alliance which works.” He added, “when something works, you have a tendency to want to expand it.”
The reason Ghosn’s partnership with GM led to nothing was because the North American partner wasn’t keen on the idea, he said. “It works only in case you have mutual consent.” And he said that an expansion of the Renault-Nissan pact cannot happen “if a third party doesn’t want an alliance.”
The Renault-Nissan alliance was founded in March 1999. The companies hold shares in each other, with Renault being the senior partner. The two groups share engineering and manufacturing resources as well as some sales operations and information technology. They also have a joint purchasing organization.
Ghosn noted that joint sales of Renault and Nissan, which totaled about 6 million units last year, will rise to between 7 million and 8 million a year in the next two years.
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