Article | Dr. Teng Martin and Teng Sanmao

This is a product of Cheteng. Reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited

●?●?●

At the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance mid-term strategy conference on May 27, Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said that Renault and Daimler may usher in a new cooperation. "I hope to have some good news to report to you in the coming weeks."

To put it simply, Renault will once again cooperate with Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. So, the question is, why does Daimler want to cooperate with Renault?

▌In-depth exchanges without affecting personal families

“Everything in the world has a cause and effect.” For commercial companies, the cooperation between Renault and Daimler is nothing more than Benefit. In fact, the cooperation between the two began in 2009, when Dieter Zetsche, then Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler Group and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, were sympathetic to each other. Both men have spoken highly of each other publicly on many occasions.

In April of the following year, the Renault-Nissan Alliance officially announced extensive strategic cooperation with Daimler on a series of substantive projects, and also announced a cross-shareholding structure between the two parties: Renault-Nissan will hold There is a 3.1 stake in Daimler Group, and the Daimler Group will hold a 3.1 stake in Renault and Nissan respectively.

One brand is positioned as a popular brand, while the other is positioned as a high-end brand. The cooperation between Renault and Daimler seems unequal and unrealistic, but in fact the two are eye-catching.

Regarding the cooperation between the two parties, Daimler CEO Zetsche gave this evaluation in 2010: Daimler and Renault-Nissan Alliance combine the common interests of both parties to achieve a series of practical and attractive projects, laying the foundation for successful strategic cooperation between the two parties. The respective advantages of both parties are complementary, and we can directly strengthen our competitiveness in the field of small cars and compact vehicles and enter into long-term cooperation in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Both parties can also share resources to produce products suitable for their respective brand characteristics without affecting their respective brand independence.

In layman's terms, they are complementary. Both parties can "make friends" and have in-depth interactions, but they will not affect their respective existing "families."

To this end, Daimler and Renault have formulated 8 cooperation plans, including cooperation on SMART FORTWO models and Renault TWINGO models, cooperation in powertrain research and development, and diesel and gasoline engines from the Renault-Nissan Alliance. The cooperation is applied to SMART and Renault TWINGO models, and Daimler's gasoline and diesel engines are used in Nissan Motor Company's high-end luxury brand Infiniti.

Since then, the cooperation between Daimler and Renault has begun to accelerate. By September 2013, the cooperation projects between the two parties had increased from three "key projects" mainly concentrated in Europe to 10 projects involving Europe, North America, and Japan, and the cooperation had further deepened.

Take the Mercedes-Benz four-cylinder gasoline engine jointly produced at the Deckard plant in Tennessee, USA, as an example. Both parties have benefited a lot. The factory broke ground in May 2012, took one and a half years to complete the factory building, and was put into production in mid-2014. The engines produced here are installed on both the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Infiniti models, indirectly sharing the power research and development costs of the two companies. Later, the Infiniti Q50 equipped with this engine was also introduced into the country, which greatly increased the sales and attention of this model.

In 2015, Daimler and Renault continued to deepen their cooperation. The two parties established a joint automobile assembly plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, with each holding a 50-50 stake. In 2017, the factory Started producing Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz A-Class cars to supply the North American market.

In 2016, the cooperation between Renault and Mercedes-Benz continued to deepen.

Based on the Nissan Navara model, Renault built Daimler's first luxury pickup truck, the X-Class, which was officially launched in 2017. However, users don't seem to buy it. After three years of dismal performance, Mercedes-Benz announced the termination of the X-Class project at the beginning of this year.

In addition, Daimler announced this year that it will cooperate with Renault to develop the next generation Citan. The new car will be developed and produced based on the platforms of Renault Kangoo and Dacia Dokker.

It can be seen that Daimler is quite satisfied with Renault as a partner, otherwise it would not have new projects launched one after another.

▌The presence of Renault

Speaking of Renault, this brand does not seem to have made much progress in China in recent years. After establishing Dongfeng Renault as a joint venture with Dongfeng Group, it has not made much of a splash. However, the recent news about Renault’s withdrawal from China has been endless.

In mid-April, Dongfeng Group issued an announcement titled "Insider Information: Dongfeng Renault Plans to Reorganize". Renault planned to transfer its 50 shares of Dongfeng Renault to Dongfeng, and Dongfeng Renault stopped Renault brand-related business. Activity.

Some netizens said in this regard, "It has no sense of existence in the first place, and this withdrawal will have little impact." However, in sharp contrast to Renault's lack of presence in the country, its performance in other global markets such as Europe is not inferior. In the past 2019, the Renault brand sold 3.7537 million vehicles globally, which shows its strength.

Of course, when talking about Renault, we cannot just talk about the Renault brand. The influence of Nissan and Mitsubishi in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance cannot be ignored. In the same year last year, Nissan Motor sold 5.1762 million vehicles globally and Mitsubishi Motors sold 1.2253 million vehicles. The alliance's total sales ranked third in the world, only behind Volkswagen and Toyota. The absolute magnitude of tens of millions of vehicles made many rivals Extremely envious.

It should be pointed out that Renault also has the largest say in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, which is reflected in the equity structure of the three parties.

In the 1990s, Nissan was in trouble due to redundant manpower and poor cost control. In 1999, Nissan's market share, which had been losing money for seven consecutive years, was less than 5%, and it was still burdened with a debt of 3 trillion yen (approximately 3 trillion yen). 230 billion yuan) and is on the verge of bankruptcy. In May of that year, Renault exchanged 36.8% of Nissan's equity for US$5.4 billion and became Nissan's largest shareholder.

Today, Renault already holds 43.4% of Nissan's equity with voting rights, and Nissan acquired 15% of Renault's equity (without voting rights) in May 2002. Therefore, Renault can influence Nissan's related operations to a certain extent. Later, with Nissan's acquisition of Mitsubishi shares, Renault also had the ability to indirectly influence Mitsubishi and had the largest say in the alliance. From this point of view, Renault's strength in the automotive industry is quite impressive.

Even so, the cooperation between Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance is full of variables. Due to the turmoil in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance last year, many industry insiders are worried that the cooperation between Renault and Daimler will be negatively affected or even break up.

In this regard, Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard has stated that the cooperation between the two companies will not be affected by former Renault CEO Ghosn, and there will be further cooperation plans in the future.

However, combined with the impact of the current epidemic on the global auto market, it is unrealistic for the cooperation between Renault and Daimler to return to the level of ten years ago. Perhaps both parties will focus more energy. on new energy.

▌The Renault-Nissan Alliance is going the opposite direction of Ghosn

While strengthening cooperation with Daimler, the Renault-Nissan Alliance is going the opposite direction of Ghosn.

Also at the mid-term strategy release conference of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, the alliance announced that the three parties will deepen cooperation and focus on their respective core markets under the "leader-follower model"—— This is the "divide and conquer" strategy mentioned before.

This is the best compromise between "merger" and "separation".

More importantly, the latest strategy seems to show a tendency: under the leadership of Renault Chairman Senard, the entire alliance is not only "going to Ghosn", but quickly moving towards Ghosn. "The flip side".

No one denies Ghosn’s brilliant achievements, but despite his fame, there have always been various doubts. Is it too radical, too strong, or even "running blindfolded"?

In 2017, the combined sales of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance under Ghosn reached 10.61 million vehicles, beating the Volkswagen Group's 10.53 million vehicles and becoming the global car sales champion.

In September of the same year, Ghosn traveled a long way to China and announced an ambitious mid-term plan, aiming to reach 14 million vehicles in 2022.

After Ghosn fled, the alliance fell into turmoil, with sales and financial performance declining repeatedly. Of course, some people believe that this is the "legacy" left by Ghosn.

According to the warning issued by Nissan, its fiscal year 2019 performance is expected to show a net loss, which is the first time Nissan has suffered a loss in 11 years.

In February this year, Groupe Renault’s bond rating was downgraded to junk status by Moody’s. The French Finance Minister even publicly stated that without government assistance, the Renault Group may "disappear."

At the same time, Mitsubishi Motors announced its annual report for fiscal year 2019 (April 2019 to March 2020), which showed that operating profit fell sharply by 8.86 billion yen to 12.8 billion yen (approximately 844 million yuan) during the period. , a net loss of 25.78 billion yen (approximately 1.7 billion yuan).

Whether it is in terms of power struggle or company performance considerations, it seems imperative to implement the opposite strategy to Ghosn.

In the Ghosn era, the keywords of the Renault-Nissan alliance were "merger" and "expansion."

Now, the keywords of the alliance have become "cooperation" and "contraction".

▌From merger to cooperation, from expansion to contraction

Ghosn has always been pursuing a strong merger strategy, hoping that Renault and Nissan can integrate to the maximum extent. According to insiders, Ghosn integrated multiple divisions of Renault and Nissan and had the heads of those divisions reporting directly to him, with Ghosn serving as the ultimate arbiter.

However, this was strongly resisted by Nissan. There is a faction at Nissan (the faction that lost out in the power struggle after Ghosn stepped down) that believes that integration has led to inefficiency and must be reformed.

The advancement of the merger strategy was also the direct reason why Ghosn was imprisoned and the alliance was on the verge of "separation."

Now, the tense situation has eased.

“We don’t need a merger, it’s not a merger that will be efficient,” Senard said at a news conference.

(Senard, Chairman of Renault and the new generation leader of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance)

This is not a "retreat", but a retreat to advance.

Most importantly, the new leader seems to believe that the opposite strategy of Ghosn can achieve the same purpose.

"I would bet that given what we are doing now, in a few years, this alliance will become the most powerful combination of companies in the world." Senard said.

In addition, Ghosn once advocated a growth strategy, especially reflected in Nissan's development path in the United States.

Now, Nissan is planning to cut production capacity by 1 million units. This means that the previously ambitious 14 million vehicles have now become a more rational 10 million vehicles.

Of course, cutting production capacity must mean closing factories and laying off employees. Although no relevant details were disclosed at this mid-term strategy conference, foreign media reported recently that Renault plans to lay off 5,000 employees by 2024 to save 2 billion euros (approximately US$220 million) in costs; at the same time, Nissan is planning to cut one of its production lines at two U.S. auto assembly plants to reduce annual costs by 300 billion yen (approximately $2.79 billion).

At the press conference, Alliance Secretary-General Hadi Zabulit said: “Previous strategies focused on growth and volume... (Today) we focus as much as possible on differentiated models to achieve growth.

“Today, we have a wider range of benefits across brands. ”

▌Who leads and who follows?

Whether it is “cooperation” or “contraction”, the specific implementation plan is the “leader-follower model”.

The so-called "leader-follower model" means that each has a division of labor and allows professional people to do professional things. According to different regions, the strong will lead and the weak will follow.

The goal of the alliance is. By 2025, nearly half of all cars will be developed and produced using this new model, thereby reducing investment by 40% for each model and saving up to 20% in areas such as technology sharing.

One important point is that in the future, the alliance will not focus on increasing production, but on producing models more efficiently. By 2025, the types of models produced by the alliance are expected to be reduced by 20%.

You know, Ghosn. It has always advocated the development of more and richer models as much as possible.

Under the divide and conquer strategy, the alliance has also named different regional markets around the world as "benchmark regions". As the leader in the North American market, Renault is responsible for Europe, Russia, South America and North Africa, and Mitsubishi is responsible for Southeast Asia and Oceania.

In terms of models, for example, the C-class SUV market model updates in Europe and Russia after 2025 will be dominated by Nissan. The future updates of B-class SUV models will be led by Renault, and the future updates of light commercial vehicles and B-class sedans will be led by Renault.

The benefit of this is mutual benefit, as Senard said, "the leader-follower model." The idea is not to pit each other against each other, but to make each alliance partner a leader in the automotive industry. ”

In addition, the three parties also have their own division of labor in the fields of platforms, powertrains and key technologies:

Nissan is responsible for autonomous driving, Renault is responsible for the Android platform for Internet of Vehicles, and Nissan is responsible for China’s intelligent Internet technology development;

Nissan is responsible for the powertrain of large gasoline cars and small cars, Renault is responsible for the powertrain of small gasoline cars and diesel cars, and Mitsubishi is responsible for the powertrain of C/D-class plug-in hybrid vehicles. Assembly;

In terms of platforms, Nissan is responsible for small cars, CMF-C/D and CMF-EV, and Renault is responsible for CMF-A and CMF-B.

"The new strategy will allow. Each alliance member enhances its core competencies and benefits from the capabilities of other companies, with the aim of increasing profitability and competitiveness. "Senard said.

The last remaining question is, will talks of a full merger be revived in the future?

"No one knows. Everyone must be prepared for this. Reuters quoted a source as saying, "But as far as I know, Renault and Nissan are no longer pursuing a full merger. At this time, this is completely no longer considered." ”

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.