© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Logos of car manufacturers Nissan and Renault are pictured at a Kyiv, Ukraine dealership June 25, 2020. REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko
(Reuters) – Nissan (OTC 🙂 Motor Co Ltd is pressing for partners Renault SA (OTC:) cuts its stake in the Japanese automaker and revamps its more than 20-year-old alliance, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. negotiations.
French carmaker Renault (EPA:) owns about 43% of Nissan, while the Japanese company owns 15% of the top shareholders but has no voting rights.
In June, Nissan revealed for the first time some details of an alliance agreement with top shareholder Renault to keep the company from unilaterally increasing its stake above 44.4%.
Their talks included the question of whether Nissan would join the new Renault unit being set up with its electric vehicle (EV) assets in exchange for its French ally to withdraw its stake in Nissan. , the newspaper said.
Nissan CEO Ashwani Gupta was among the company’s executives who visited France last month and discussed whether the Japanese automaker would invest in the company’s new electric vehicle business. Renault or not, the newspaper added.
Renault is pushing to split up its electric and internal combustion engine businesses in an effort to catch up with rivals like Tesla (NASDAQ:) and Volkswagen (ETR:) in the race to cleaner driving.
It is expected to reveal a detailed blueprint for the new EV entity this fall.
Renault and Nissan did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside of normal business hours.
