Chris Bryant, Columnist

Fiat-Renault Mega-Merger Is Born of Desperation

Politics and the cost of developing electric vehicles have pushed two of Europe's biggest carmakers together.

May 27, 2019 at 9:08 AM UTC

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for the Financial Times.

Renault’s self-driving concept car.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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When the U.S. auto industry was looking down a barrel in 2008, General Motors Co. did the unthinkable and quietly proposed a merger with cross-town rival Ford Motor Co.

It didn’t happen – GM ended up filing for Chapter 11, while Ford managed to avoid a bailout. But the fact they even broached the matter spoke volumes about the pressures those rivals were under.