Nissan-Renault Alliance had earlier joint hands with Indian auto makers Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ashok Leyland. But now, the Head of Nissan-Renault, Carlos Ghosn, says that he is keen on continuing partnership with only one of these auto makers.
French car maker Renault already has a joint venture with SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra. Renault has 49 per cent in the venture, while M&M occupies the rest.
Renault is also working with Bajaj Auto, along with Nissan to launch a small car in India. But no formal joint venture agreement has been signed so far. It also has a partnership with Ashok Leyland through Nissan for light commercial vehicles in India.
The Head of Nissan-Renault also commented that if things did not work out, it can sever ties and may even drive in its new products in India with a different partner. Nissan-Renault wants to strengthen its position in India.
The Renault-Mahindra partnership could not do well. Their child, Logan, has failed to live up to expectations and sales have been falling steadily. In September alone, 510 units of the car were sold against 1,752 units in the same month last year. In the first six months of this year, the joint venture sold just 2,901 units of Logan compared to 9,217 units in the same period last year. The Renault-Mahindra joint venture posted a loss of Rs 490 Crore in the last financial year.
Mahindra was the first to express dissatisfaction over the working of both Renault and Nissan when it exited a planned three-way venture in January last year. Renault-Nissan, however, went ahead and set up a mega car plant with capacity of 400,000 units in Chennai.
Although Renault has postponed its production plans from the plant for the time being, Nissan has stated that its first car will roll out in May 2010.
In a statement issued in India later in the day, Renault said Ghosn’s comments were related to the Renault-Nissan alliance operations in India and they should not be construed to be referring only to Renault India’s operations.
The small car venture with Bajaj Auto also has not gained much momentum ever since the companies jointly announced in end-2007 their plans to put the car on the road in early 2011.
Tags: Mahindra-Mahindra Small-Car Bajaj-Auto, Nissan, Renault
