The Car Giants Are Getting Pretty Desperate
Renault hopes to have another go at merging with Nissan, even after the downfall of Carlos Ghosn. It shows how few choices the industry has.
If the downfall of Carlos Ghosn was a message to France to back off on Nissan, the memo doesn't seem to have arrived.
Photographer: Bloomberg
In view of the bad feeling unleashed by Japan’s detention of Carlos Ghosn in November, one might have expected Renault SA to keep things quiet for a while. Ghosn was head of the giant Renault-Nissan carmaking alliance and one theory for his downfall was that he was pushing too hard for a full combination of the French and Japanese companies.
But now, according to the Financial Times, Renault SA hopes to restart those merger talks with Nissan Motor Co within 12 months and then launch a bid for another big carmaker, possibly Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. This is surprising, to put it mildly. Seeking fresh discussions about a tie-up risks opening barely healed wounds in Tokyo.