Renault and Nissan redefine their Alliance amid falling sales
- Renault and Nissan, the main partners of the Renault-Nissan group, have decided to redefine their alliance, in particular by rebalancing their capital ties. Until now, Renault held 43% of Nissan while Nissan held only 15% of Renault. The two automotive groups will now be on an equal footing regarding capital ties, the French carmaker and its Japanese partner having agreed to reduce Renault's stake in Nissan to 15%.
- This agreement comes at a time when the Renault-Nissan group has fallen from third place in the world in 2021 to fourth in 2022, due to a drop in global sales of Nissan (-20.7%) and a fall in Renault sales (-23.9%) mainly due to the sale of Renault Russia and Avtovaz. It should be noted that on the scope of the Renault group without Russia, Renault sales fell only by 5.9%.
- Nissan sold 3,225,500 vehicles in 2022, Renault 2,051,000 and Mitsubishi 873,500, i.e. a total of 6,150,000 vehicles for the group as a whole, while it exceeded 10 million sales per year in 2017, in 2018 and 2019, and another 8 million sales per year in 2020 and 2021.
- The sales decline of the Renault-Nissan group has been strong since 2019, and we can compare this situation to GM and Ford which had started a few years earlier. Admittedly, the Renault-Nissan group had indicated some time ago that profits would now come before volumes, but we note that the group's sales in 2022 represent 80% of those of 2020 and 60% of those of 2018. The question today is to know if the future new organization of the alliance will make it possible to relaunch the group's sales and to optimize exchanges between the two entities.