Car groups forge new alliance

飞雪寒冰

Renault, Nissan and Daimler yesterday revealed a strategic partnership that will see the three carmakers swap equity stakes and develop and build small cars, engines and vans together.

The tie-up will allow the Franco-Japanese auto alliance and the German luxury group to pool efforts on new vehicles and technologies and boost volumes at their plants at a time of intense competition and rising manufacturing and environmental compliance costs.

The companies said the partnership would yield combined benefits of

飞雪寒冰

The tie-up falls short of a full-fledged alliance such as the 11-year-old one between Renault and Nissan, which own large equity stakes in one another.

However, it goes well beyond the limited short-term co-operation on individual cars and engines favoured by rival carmakers such as PSA Peugeot Citroën, BMW and Ford.

Renault and Daimler had been discussing working together on a new model for the German carmaker's Smart sub-brand, but the talks were expanded to include Nissan and the exchange of mutual stakes.

飞雪寒冰

Daimler has an unhappy history of partnerships with other carmakers, notably Chrysler, with which it avoided sharing swaths of its technology during their nine-year pairing that ended in 2007.

The German carmaker's decision to join forces with Renault and Nissan was driven largely by Europe's tightening of regulation on carbon dioxide, which is forcing premium carmakers to expand into small cars.