Detroit (AP)- Discussions about a possible three-way alliance between General Motors Corp, Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co have found several areas for useful collaboration, but GM so far has been skeptical of the benefits, a Renault executive said, according to published reports.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner and Renault-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn have talked several times, have met at least once and were to meet again this week in Paris, where the Paris Motor Show opens with a news media preview Thursday.
“I think the meeting with Rick Wagoner and Carlos Ghosn will help move things along,” said Renault Vice President Patrick Pelata, whose comments to reporters in Paris on Monday were reported in The Wall Street Journal and the Detroit Free Press.
Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with GM officials.
Renault and Nissan see the urgency of forming a common front against Toyota Motor Corp, which is pushing to pass GM as the world’s No. 1 automaker, Pelata said. So far, GM officials do not share that view, he said.
Pelata said he told GM finance chief Fritz Henderson, “If you delay solving your performance issues, it is just going to get worse” for GM in its battle with Toyota.
Pelata said he was frustrated because GM executives do not yet seem to be convinced of the wisdom of an alliance with Renault and Nissan. GM officials said the company had bad experiences with previous alliances with Italy’s Fiat SpA and Japan’s Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, maker of Subaru vehicles, Pelata said.
“I told them, ‘The synergies exist if there’s a will, and an acceptance that on each of these 1,000 (performance) parameters you are not the best,’” Pelata said.
Pelata said the participants in the talks “are discussing the big issues seriously” and that “the accumulation of things we are discussing is not small.”
Pelata said Renault and Nissan could benefit from GM’s engineering and technology expertise.
“GM has a lot of engineering resources,” said Pelata. “They are better at localizing products for individual markets than we ware. …They also have better information technology and software.”
In July, Detroit-based GM, France’s Renault and Japan’s Nissan agreed to conduct a 90-day review of the potential benefits of an alliance that could create an auto giant with a combined annual production of 15 million vehicles. The study came after GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian, who owns a 9.9 percent stake in GM, called for the carmakers to pursue an alliance.
GM has been stumbling amid intense competition from Asian rivals. It has announced plans to close 12 plants by 2008, slash its work force and cut costs.