Freed from the supervision of the Renault Group, Nissan thought it could finally stand on its own two feet, but the situation seems dramatic.
Nissan no longer hides that it is looking for benchmark financial support to help it survive a decisive year, while Renault has sealed its withdrawal from the capital of the Japanese car manufacturer in crisis. Nissan did announce a new partnership with its great rival Honda a few months ago, but partnership does not necessarily rhyme with financing and the imbalance is too marked between the two manufacturers for this alliance to be truly give-and-take. Thus, Nissan no longer excludes Honda from buying back some of its shares after having done everything to ensure that Renault resells them! Japanese pride seems to have been a poor advisor…
So what is Nissan's real situation? Well according to a senior manager of the manufacturer, widely relayed by the leading financial media: “We have 12 or 14 months to survive”
After completely missing out on the electrification of its offering with the failures of the Leaf and Ariya, Nissan failed to seize the opportunity of the recent boom in the popularity of hybrid sales despite having models in the catalog. But the Nissan range is now aging with the lackluster Juke and a disappointing Qashqai which has failed to reinvent itself after its golden years. Worse, the e-4ORCE home electrified technology is, like its name, a gas factory that is totally incomprehensible to ordinary mortals!
So ultimately, salvation could come from… Renault! Above all by making its Renault 5 available to Nissan to develop a 100% electric Micra. Then, although Renault is not directly involved in the discussions, the French could be open to collaboration with Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi to develop electric vehicles in response to the Chinese offensive. If Renault has to date confirmed no discussions on such a partnership, it is an open secret and we know that the diamond manufacturer would be more than favorable to a win-win deal with Nissan and Honda. Well especially with Honda!
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