Rumor: New Daimler CEO could end Renault-Nissan Alliance

1. Renault-Nissan Alliance: Probable cause of the end

Ola Kallenius who is set to take the Daimler helm in May will eventually take the lead on the company’s drive to save more money. They’re seeking up to 6 billion euros in fact from a more efficient overall operation from their Mercedes-Benz marque and another 2 billion euros from their Truck division. This is according to a German business publication called Manager Magazin all the while not providing sources at all.

Unsubstantiated or otherwise, the move will ultimately lead to a massive 10,000 job cut at Daimler. The car company has yet to offer a statement regarding the matter. It is also said by the German magazine, again without any sources, that these cost cuts and money-saving moves are the brain-child of Daimler’s new CEO.

Ola Kallenius will take the Daimler helm in May

The last statement does have a little bit of credence as Daimler itself has revealed that their operating profits had gone down to 22 percent due to increasing costs in research and development especially with regards to electric cars and also the recent trade wars.

Compounding the issue is the recent Mercedes-Benz issue wherein they had produced about 30 thousand vehicles with faulty electronics. This lapse in quality has required them to perform very costly reworks and inevitable delays.

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This delay in production, specifically at Mercedes-Benz’s Tuscaloosa plant in Alabama is said to have shortened the company’s revenue by 2 billion Euros which could further depress their earnings for the first quarter of this year, according to that said report by Manager Magazin.

Also stated by the German magazine, is that Daimler is also aiming to become a more eco-friendly, carbon-neutral company by 2040. Entailed in this plan is to make certain that all their new vehicles, their production methods as well as their suppliers will function is such a way that is more environmentally sound.

2. The effect: The possible end of the Renault-Nissan Alliance

This all leads to what we’re concerned about, the future of Renault-Nissan projects as Manager Magazin has also said in their report that Kallenius is planning to end common projects pursued by the partnership.

What is entailed in this partnership was engine and vehicle sharing specifically with the Mercedes-Benz X-class truck based on the Nissan Navara and a shared plant in Mexico for Infiniti compact cars like the Smart ForFour and the Renault Twingo. This is also according to Manager Magazin with again, no sources.

The Renault-Nissan autonomous driving joint project will definitely be affected

This is despite the fact that in March, Nissan’s North American chairman, Jose Valls’ efforts in smoothing out the relationship between the two companies during a Nissan US dealer advisory board wherein he had pledged more consistency and marketing support.

This was in lieu of the tension that has been caused by Carlos Ghosn’s arrest in connection to allegations of financial misconduct. Ghosn’s arrest had also been the cause for Renault-Nissan projects to perform rather below expected.

Carlos Ghosn was removed from his position as CEO of the Renault-Nissan alliance due to pending cases of breach of trust

Compounding this is the political tensions between the French and Japanese constituents of the partnership as the Japanese side has made known before that they had felt that the partnership has favored Renault.

 Whether true or not, Ghosn’s removal from his seat as the Renault-Nissan chairmanship has indeed been a large factor in this cost-cutting and discontinuation of joint projects between the two companies.

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