Renault once bailed on Jeep, after having bought a controlling stake in AMC. They ended up selling AMC to Chrysler, but now Renault wants it back. According to this story in autonews, the Financial Times is reporting that Renault wants to restart merger talks with Nissan within 12 months, and then bid for FCA,creating a global powerhouse to challenge Toyota and VW.
China is on the verge of a pickup boon for personal-leisure use, on a scale that would make it the second largest pickup market after the US. needless to say, Ford is salivating.
Deposed Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance CEO Carlos Ghosn had of course been pushing for a merger between Renault and Nissan, but Nissan wasn’t having it, as it has increasingly been feeling like it was the whale ($35 billion market cap) getting swallowed by the minnow ($18 B market cap). But of course there was more there than just that, as the power dynamics surrounding Ghosn were creating tensions of their own. Now that Ghosn is out of the way, the Alliance partners have re-affirmed and redefined their relationship, and things are apparently working more smoothly.
But whether Nissan would allow itself to be absorbed, twice in this case, is a big question.
FCA had of course been courting a merger several years ago, as its former CEO Sergio Marchionne felt that was the only solution to reduce unnecessary capital investments in development and production. After being rebuffed by GM and Ford, Marchionne decided to focus on making FCA stronger by eliminating its debt and improving margins. Mission accomplished, and now FCA CEO Mike Manly is clearly open to bids. But they better be the right ones, as apparently he rebuffed an overture from PSA, because he didn’t want to increase FCA’s exposure to the European market.
Stay tuned…
China is unleashing a new market segment, pickups for (American style) leisure use. Pickups were strictly commercial vehicles, and restricted in where they could be used and were required to have signage on them identify them as such. But that’s been falling away, and pickup sales, like this Great Wall Fengjun 6, are surging.
Sales last year topped 450k, which is ahead of Canada, making China the 32 market for pickups. But that’s just the starting point, as sales are projected to increase to 1 to 2 million per year (US: 3 million).
Great Wall and other domestic makers along with Ford are gearing up production capacity. More at autonews.com
My CC on how Renault played a key role in the most successful Jeep ever, the Cherokee, is here
Chrysler Corporation improved its financial position, eliminated its debt, increased its cash reserves…and then Daimler-Benz took it over and raped it, leaving a barren, bankruptcy-vulnerable shell. What now, with FCA having done much of the same?
It’s long past time for Willys to stand on its own again, after bearing the burden of rescuing a dozen incompetent failing companies.
Free Wlllys!
Ha ha. I see what you did there. Funny stuff!
Yeah, give Wllys a bit of Espace. Despite the Valiant effort of Chrysler to have profit, they Renault of money a long time ago. Wasn’t it for Willys and they would have sank to the bottom of a Laguna.
/taps like button on both of these
¡Viva Toledo Liberation Front!
The curse of Jeep continues.
I always thought the 1st gen Nissan Murano looked like an AMC Gremlin. Some sort of cosmic foreshadowing?
Even earlier
QX
Funny you mentionned cosmic foreshadowing. The grille of that proposed 1962 DeSoto looked more or less like the one used by the Peugeot 404.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/puddleboy/2349984006
https://i.imgur.com/IqprPL5
Another entry by the Wall St nattering class in the long running “who will buy FCA” follies
Who hasn’t been floated as an FCA suitor? There have been rumors about PSA, GM, Ford, VW, Chinese SUV maker Haval, and I forget who else. There have been so many rumors, all encouraged, if not originated, by FCA management, that I have lost count.
For the heck of it, I’d like to start a rumor that FCA is looking at buying Ford’s South American operations. It would confound the nattering class that is looking for a rerun of Ford’s South American hookup with VW of the past. That alone would make starting the rumor worth the effort.
Last summer, Ford was rumored to be shopping it’s South American ops to both VW and FCA, but that was before the “partnership” with VW was officially announced.
Then we can start another rumor that GM’s Chinese partner, SAIC, is sniffing at GM’s South American ops.
Mary Barra is “exploring alternatives” for their loss making South American ops.
You mean like Autolatina, part 2?
The automakers are looking for partners to amortize the high cost of developing EVs, autonomous vehicle development, and shrinking sales due to ride sharing.
You’ll see many strange hook ups in the near future due to the cost burden of developing new technology. They cannot just rely on SUVs and pickups for revenue under the burden of government regulation. Even Trump tried to delay the ever increasing CAFE regulations, but the car companies knew better and focused on meeting the impending regulations.
Nissan and Renault already have in-house-developed EV capability and have been shipping EVs for some years now. Here’s a 250-mile-range Renault Zoe. If they merge it won’t be because one or the other needs EV tech.
FCA has outsourced their Fiat 500e drivetrain from Bosch. They could presumably continue to outsource their EV tech, like GM and Ford are.
Having said that, I can imagine companies getting together to secure their supply of EV batteries. As all the big automakers ramp up EV production there could be pressure on availability of raw materials and finished batteries.
Nissan gets its batteries from its AESC joint venture with NEC and Tokin. Renault partners with LG Chem for theirs.
A combined Nissan-Renault could be in a stronger position to deal with partners, deal with battery suppliers on the open market, and/or build their own battery manufacturing.
My understanding is that upstream of Panasonic, LG & NEC the mining industry is reluctant to spend the tens of billions to build more lithium capacity until they see higher prices and/or have long term contracts.
Why not just build a car with one wheel and call it the Unicar?
Ah, the classic monowheel, 1931.
South Park did an episode on those
It would get stuck on a banana peel.
No thanks.
Renault/Nissan/FCA. There’s a marriage made in Hell! Can you imagine the nightmare of integrating their supply chains? The FCA merger still hasn’t gotten that right yet, as there is little (if any) commonality with their product lines.
Heck, the 300/Challenger/Charger are still using ancient M-B suspensions!
Since American Bantam / American Austin technically created the original Jeep, what if it managed to remain part of Austin (later BMC) in the post-war beyond initially producing licensed built Austin 7-based cars prior to WW2?
Especially since Jeep has largely been the most profitable part of many a carmaker up to the present day and in Austin’s (later BMC’s) case, would have definitely fared better compared to the Austin Champ and Austin Gipsy.
Part of Austin, BMC and later British Leyland. Just imagine Jeep and Land Rover under the same umbrella.
What makes such a scenario interesting would not only be fact the Jeep’s would be powered by 4/6-cylinder “Austin D-Series” engines, which were essentially reversed-engineered versions of the 2nd generation Chevrolet Straight-6 that remained in production in 4-cylinder petrol / diesel form (see Austin FX4) until the early-1980s (with Austin-Healey investigating 142-178 hp Twin-Cam 2520cc 4-cylinder versions for its stillborn version of the MGC).
It is also the fact that Rover when they were independent were not only offered the all-alloy 215 Buick V8, but also the rights to the 225 Buick V6 for Land Rovers as well prior to Kaiser acquiring license to produce it as the Dauntless V6 (with Buick also selling the tooling for the V6 to Kaiser in 1967).
How Jeep and Land Rover would have coped under the same umbrella is another matter, though Austin / BMC / etc would basically have a presence in the US market via Jeep.
It is also possibly the case that Jeep’s success under Austin / BMC butterflies away the formation of British Leyland (due to BMC having its real-life financial issues remedied / offset by Jeep, etc), meaning Land Rover would remain under Leyland Motors.
What is even more fascinating is the prospect of Austin / BMC managing to develop an OHC version of the “D-Series” loosely akin to the 3rd Gen Chevrolet Straight-6 derived Pontiac OHC-6.
It is also possible that the Austin Ant prototype becomes an entry-level Jeep to rival the likes of the Suzuki Jimny.
I hope Nissan stays far far away from the FCA design department.
For FCA’s sake, right?
Yes, nothing Nissan has looks good at all. FCA seems to be hitting their stride design wise.
I’m still waiting for someone to bring back the”Chicken Wing”.