Although the Nissan Micra is already assembled at Renault’s Flins factory in France, also sharing the previous Clio’s underpinnings, the move fro Renault to develop and assemble the next-generation Micra is likely to mean even less input from Nissan’s side on the car’s styling and interior.
PARIS – Renault will develop and assemble the next generation of alliance partner Nissan’s Micra hatchback, a senior executive at the Japanese firm said. This comes as the two companies try to reboot their alliance with even tighter cooperation in production.
Ashwani Gupta, Nissan’s chief operating officer, said in an interview with France’s Le Monde newspaper published on Monday that the Micra plan was an example of their “leader-follower” strategy, with one firm taking the lead on certain car types.
Although the Nissan Micra is already assembled at Renault’s Flins factory in France, also sharing the previous Clio’s underpinnings, the move is likely to mean even less input from Nissan’s side on the car’s styling and interior. It has previously been suggested that future alliance projects could even share car bodies, and that could certainly apply to the next Micra.
“For the next generation of Micra, we will follow Renault, and we will ask Renault to develop and make the future Micra for us,” Gupta said.
With both carmakers struggling financially, Renault and Nissan have cleared the decks of old managers and outlined joint cost-saving plans as they try to move on from a scandal surrounding former alliance boss Carlos Ghosn.
Ghosn, who fled detention in Japan and is now in Lebanon, denies financial misconduct charges against him.
Reuters
