Daimler, Renault-Nissan to Form Alliance

Automotive giants Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co., and Daimler AG announced a partnership on Monday.
Daimler, Renault-Nissan to Form Alliance
The logo of German car maker Daimler AG is seen during the annual general meeting at the ICC Berlin on April 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
4/5/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/daimler-85859917.jpg" alt="The logo of German car maker Daimler AG is seen during the annual general meeting at the ICC Berlin on April 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)" title="The logo of German car maker Daimler AG is seen during the annual general meeting at the ICC Berlin on April 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1821428"/></a>
The logo of German car maker Daimler AG is seen during the annual general meeting at the ICC Berlin on April 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Automotive giants Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co., and Daimler AG announced a partnership on Monday to share technology and development costs in a three-way equity swap that will allow each company to own between 3-4 percent of each other.

According to a report in the Nikkei, Japan’s leading business daily, the automakers will sign an agreement for cross-shareholding as early as this week, citing people with direct knowledge of the talks.

The deal will help all three automakers better save costs, swap parts, and share fuel-efficient technologies in a new global auto market place that emphasizes development speed and fuel economy. Technologies on electric vehicles are also part of the deal, Nikkei reported. Analysts say that the structure of the deal will be similar to the one signed between Italy’s Fiat S.p.A. and the Chrysler Group, and the alliance between Volkswagen AG and Suzuki Motor Corp.

Currently, France’s Renault is 44 percent shareholder in Nissan, and Nissan is 15 percent shareholder in Renault. Renault’s CEO, Carlos Ghosn, is also the chief executive of Nissan. Renault purchased a controlling stake in Nissan in 1999 after the then-struggling automaker was near bankruptcy.

Daimler, the second-largest automaker in Germany, owns Smart and Mercedes-Benz brands.

‘‘The issue is not how high or low the (investment) ratio is,’‘ a senior Nissan official told Kyodo News. ’‘The cross-shareholding will be symbolic of each other’s confidence and sense of security as we prepare for exchanging technological secrets.’’