Never mind the past, Noda embraces Renault

Posted 2024-03-11 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Mr. Uchida is at a crucial turning point in the car's management. Makoto Uchida, Nissan's new CEO, plans to revive performance by reinvigorating its US operations, cost control, product updates and adding next-generation technology, according to euronews. "Thanks to the alliance, Nissan has grown over the years," he said in his first speech since taking office. I intend to continue to strengthen the alliance while maintaining Nissan's independence. " This speech is like a "boy" named Nissan. In order to make the angry "girlfriend" Renault happy, he made a survey of himself and revealed his "sincere words" for the first time. However, the sentiment mixed with capital has always been "profit". It's very difficult for Mr. Uchida to ease the relationship with Renault, strengthen the relationship between Renault and Nissan within the alliance, and protect Nissan's autonomy at the same time. Why is it difficult? The first thing to do is to start with the arrest of the former leader of the league, Glenn. After Ghosn's arrest in Japan, the French media reported that Nissan had "revenge for kindness". As you know, Nissan was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1999. It was Renault where ghorn invested in Nissan, and led Nissan from loss to profit two years later, until today. Therefore, the occurrence of this event also makes the outside world suspect that the alliance may move towards division or collapse. In addition, Renault had been seeking closer relations with Nissan for many years, but was rejected by Nissan. Later, the ambiguity between FCA and Renault intensified the conjecture that the alliance would split. As we all know, FCA has finally got the courage to apply for a merger with Renault after looking for many objects. But on June 5, 2019, John elkane, chairman of FCA, decided to withdraw the merger proposal proposed to Renault group. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, FCA withdrew the proposal because two representatives of Nissan on the board of directors refused to support the transaction. Renault also held a board meeting on the matter, and issued a statement saying, "representatives of the French government have asked to postpone voting, so Renault's board is unable to make a decision at present." The French government saw Renault throw the pot on itself and rushed out to explain: "without Nissan's guarantee, it can't ensure the stability of Renault Nissan Alliance, and the government will not approve the merger of FCA and Renault." According to Reuters, the FCA and the French government have reached a preliminary agreement on the terms of the merger. Although Nissan has no power to prevent the merger of Renault and Fiat, winning its support is still seen as the key to the success of the merger of FCA and Renault. Renault and the FCA this tangled relationship, but also to the FCA "empathy do not love" PSA and ended. Since Renault failed to find a "new love", Nissan must have unusual attraction, such as good financial data, if it wants Renault to further focus on itself. For this year, Nissan's earnings figures are pretty ugly. According to the financial report, in the half year performance of March 2020 (April September 2019), Nissan's revenue decreased by 9.6% year-on-year to 5.3 trillion yen; its operating profit dropped by 85% to 31.6 billion yen; its net profit dropped by 73.5% to 65.3 billion yen. Nissan's consolidated net profit for March 2020 is expected to be about y110bn, a 66% decrease from the same period last year. Nissan's board of directors, which knows the "profit and loss", has asked the new CEO, Mr. Uchida, to restore profits as the top priority. Mr. Uchida, who understands the pains of the board of directors, said he will continue to push forward the medium-term recovery plan set by his predecessor, Xichuan Guangren. The plan includes cutting 12500 jobs worldwide, accounting for about 10% of Nissan's global workforce, which is expected to be completed by March 2023; integrating production lines to reduce global production capacity from 7.2 million to 6.6 million. The plan also calls for a return to 1.4 million U.S. car sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. In addition, Nissan also reduced its initial target of 6% operating profit margin by 2022, rather than the previous 8% target; its revenue target was set at 14.5 trillion yen ($130.84 billion), lower than the previous target of 16.5 trillion yen ($148.89 billion). In the words of Mr. Uchida, the target adjustment: "the sales and profit targets set by Mr. Ghosn during his time at the helm are unrealistic. We must set challenging, but achievable and understandable targets." In addition, for the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance, life will continue, which is the so-called "I don't know where to start, go deep; I don't know where to end, go and get lost." Since they decided to get along with each other, the three of them also got good news these two days. On December 2, the Nikkei news network quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi have agreed to set up a new joint venture to develop the electric platform shared by the alliance. More specific plans for the new joint venture are expected to be announced in January next year. Under the wave of electrification, the alliance must abandon internal differences and move forward together to ensure that it has sufficient strength to "resist the cold". Since last year, the growth momentum of the global automobile industry has been reversed. Global automobile sales have declined for the first time since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008. This year, the situation has further deteriorated. Last week, Fitch, the international rating agency, released a report forecasting that global car sales will fall by about 4% to 77.5 million vehicles this year, the worst performance since the financial crisis. The reason why Renault should strengthen cooperation with Nissan and Mitsubishi in electrification is also that. For example, at present, the global battery field of electric vehicles is almost occupied by China, Japan and South Korea: China, Panasonic, Samsung and LG of South Korea have become the number one players in the battery field. Recently, Ningde Times announced to increase the capacity of the battery factory under construction in Germany from 14 GWH to 7 times, which means that it will become the largest battery factory in the world. It is the huge battery demand of European automobile enterprises that promotes the expansion of production capacity in Ningde era. In this area, European companies are clearly lagging behind. With and, and, PSA and FCA announced their cooperation in electric vehicles and technology, they also announced recently that they will build a super factory in Berlin, Germany, which will be Tesla's first super factory in Europe, and the European traditional automobile industry will also face challenges and impacts directly. Japan's auto companies can't be outside the trend of global auto industry. Although there are many internal problems in the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance, some analysis points out that under the current industry background, the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance must change its loose strategy. "The Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance is very important for us to achieve our goals," he said. We need to study what works and what doesn't work within the alliance and then decide how to move forward. "

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