Talks touched on the possibility of Nissan joining the new Renault unit (AFP)
Informed sources said that Nissan Motor Company pressure on her partner.RenaultTo reduce its stake in the Japanese automaker, and renew their more than 20-year alliance.
The French car company Renault owns about 43 percent of Nissan, but without voting rights, while Nissan owns 15 percent of the shares that have the right to vote.
In June, Nissan revealed for the first time some details of its alliance agreement with the largest shareholder, Renault, which prevents the latter from making a unilateral decision to increase its stake to more than 44.4 percent.
The Wall Street Journal quoted informed sources as saying yesterday, Friday, that the two companies’ talks cover the issue of whether “Nissan” will join the new “Renault” unit, which is being created to combine the assets of its electric cars, in exchange for the French ally reducing its stake in Nissan. .
The newspaper added that Nissan’s chief operating officer, Ashwani Gupta, was among the company’s officials who visited France last month to discuss whether the Japanese carmaker would invest in the new Renault electric car company.
Nissan Motor Co., which is allied to French carmaker Renault, was among the first to adopt zero-emissions all-electric cars with The Leaf, which went on sale in 2010.
More than 600,000 LEAF electric vehicles have been sold worldwide to date.
Major automakers around the world recently announced investments to accelerate the move toward electric cars, as concerns about climate change and gas prices grow.
As for Renault, its car sales fell in the first half of 2022 after closing its activities in Russia, its second largest market, following the invasion of Ukraine.
The group said its worldwide sales fell 29.7 percent compared to last year to just over one million vehicles.
Renault, which makes popular models such as the Dacia Duster and Renault Clio, has closed its Russia activities amid the conflict in Ukraine, and said it would sell Renault Russia and a 67.69% stake in AvtoVAZ, the largest carmaker in the world. Russia and the owner of the Lada brand, to a Russian science institute, for one symbolic ruble with an option to buy back for six years.
(Archyde.com, The New Arab)