Renault-Nissan should streamline decision-making, says Senard

Renault and Nissan should streamline decision-making in the automaking alliance and increasing the companies’ cross-shareholding are not present in their plans, Renault’s chairman stated in comments published on Sunday.

Japan’s Nissan Motor and France’s Renault, along with junior ally Mitsubishi Motors, agreed last week that they would retool the alliance to place themselves on a more equal footing.

“I’ve concluded that we need to considerably simplify our decision processes in the alliance,” stated Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard in an interview published on Le Figaro’s website.

“I want it to be tight and made up of those people who have the power to take decisions in each company,” he said.

The elimination of Carlos Ghosn, credited with rescuing Nissan from near-bankruptcy in 1999, from the head of the alliance has raised a cloud of uncertainty regarding its future.

Senard stated that increasing cross-shareholdings was not presently under consideration.

“The teams around me are not mobilized on this subject,” he stated. “The only merger I’m working on is that of our cultures.