Renault CEO: I'm confident about alliance with Nissan
“I think we are finding, let’s say, a good setup and we are trying to focus on four or five key projects where we can really prove to each that by working together it’s going to bring a benefit,” he said on a conference call with analysts
The new CEO of French carmaker Renault (RENA.PA) said on Thursday he was confident that his firm's troubled alliance with Japanese partners Nissan (7201.T) and Mitsubishi (7211.T) would demonstrate that it was valuable for all sides.
The alliance, for years a model of success, was roiled by the ouster of the man who forged it, Carlos Ghosn, in 2018. He has since said it is riven by tension and jealousies between French and Japanese executives.
Renault CEO Luca de Meo, speaking in a week when both Renault and Nissan announced record net losses, said: "With these results, the first priority is for both companies to focus and fix their miseries internally."
But he said contacts between the French and Japanese parts of the alliance had taken on a new tone in the past few months.
"I think we are finding, let's say, a good setup and we are trying to focus on four or five key projects where we can really prove to each that by working together it's going to bring a benefit," he said on a conference call with analysts.
"We are making it not too philosophical, very pragmatic and concrete, and you know the Japanese are very concrete people, so I think they are starting to appreciate that kind of new way of playing the game.
"We will see in the next months and years the result of that very operational and pragmatic work. I am confident we can give a lot to one another."
