Daimler, Renault to team up
The alliance Daimler, Renault and Nissan are to announce today could go either way. Detroiters will be watching closely. Previous failed alliance attempts by the automakers wreaked varying degrees of havoc on General Motors and Chrysler. The trio's Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Renault and Infiniti brands compete with all three Detroit-based automakers and Chrysler's new partner, Fiat, so the alliance will affect jobs and businesses in Detroit.
The deal is expected to see the automakers take a small symbolic shareholding in one another. They plan to share the cost of developing small cars and purchasing, which could save billions of dollars.
04/06/10 The Renault-Nissan Alliance was rebuffed in 2006 when it reached out to General Motors, and a year later, Germany's Daimler AG wrote a big check to break off its relationship with Chrysler. But the European automakers haven't given up on partnerships.
Now they're ready to try again — with each other.
Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of Stuttgart-based Daimler, and Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co., are expected to announce the start of a partnership as early as Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The deal is expected to entail small cross-shareholdings as a sign of the companies' mutual commitment, and joint projects on models and components.
Renault-Nissan and Daimler both stand to gain because there's little overlap between their product lines and areas of expertise, analysts say.
A partnership could help to resolve longstanding challenges at both Renault-Nissan and Daimler, they say.
Paris-based Renault specializes in small cars but isn't competitive in the large and luxury car segments. It also is struggling with excess capacity at some of its European assembly plants. Detroit news