These days are pretty turbulent in Renault Nissan Alliance, due to Carlos Ghosn’s affair. Ghosn, who is considered as the architect of this alliance, has been arrested due to all kinds of charges, in terms of financial misconduct.
Of course, the logical step would be to re-group the forces and to figure out what to do next. Therefore, a big meeting is about to be hold this week. Renaults new manager, Gilles Le Borgne and Nissan’s executive, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi. Of course, the focus will be on future joint engineering venture. Simply, that’s the only way to survive in today’s automotive industry, where investments in new technologies are huge. As you may presume, the focus is on various forms of electrification and self-driving systems.
Nissan Could Get Out From the Alliance
According to some reports, the Japanese side could leave the partnership. It looks like Nissan isn’t very happy with the way things are going for a quite long time and after Ghosn’s arresting, it looks there is a pretty huge reason to continue in the same direction.
Ghosn has been arrested in 2018 by Japanese authorities and we heard some pretty interesting words from him. He said that the affair was fabricated and that the main reason is lack of trust from the Japanese side about future projects.
Joint Ventures Go On
Despite the affair, things will continue in the same way, at least in the near future. This includes advanced systems as well. The management may change, but engineers will definitely remain the same, so we may expect tighter cooperation between them in the future, particularly in terms of electrifications.
So far, each side has been developing its system independently. Renault came up with the E-Tech hybrid system, which Nissan offers an e-Power system. Also, keep in mind the new partner, Mitsubishi, which makes some of the best plug-in hybrid systems in the business.
The mutual use of advanced systems already started. The new Juke with E-Tech system is ready, while the new Kadjar will come with the e-Power system. At this point, the future of Mitsubishi’s PHEV system that can be found in the Outlander is uncertain.
E-4orce For Everyone
One of the latest novelties from Nissan’s kitchen is a new E-4orce system. It is a brand-new 4WD system, designed exclusively for electric cars. The new system is smart and brings benefits to various aspects. The core of the system is a twin-motor setup, which delivers 304 horsepower and pretty impressive 502 pound-feet of torque. Still, the new system is much more than just plenty of power. The new all-wheel-drive unit is designed to provide perfect stability. Count on more traction, better braking and cornering with this system.
The new system is expected to debut in the near future. Of course, the first model to receive this setup should be the famous electric car Nissan Leaf, but we have no doubt that the system will be used in future Renault models as well. Moreover, the latest reports suggest Nissan may use this technology in the next GT-R, which may come with an all-electric powertrain, or we might just see some kind of its equivalent.
The regular meeting of three companies has been held a couple of days ago, so we expect that officials will start coming up with interesting details about future plans.
Source: Reuters
