GM’s stock price fell 2.6% yesterday on fears that alliance talks with Renault and Nissan may be stalling.
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The three companies are currently around three-quarters of the way through a 90-day period in which they agreed they would talk privately about potential cooperation. Talks are expected to end on 15 October.
The Detroit News said that the two automakers had disagreed about the potential for purchasing savings. The paper said that Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Renault and Nissan, has mentioned $US10bn in respect of potential savings from an alliance.
This level of saving would imply sharing platforms and engines, as well as product development resources, in a far-reaching alliance. Indeed, Ghosn is reportedly advocating a broad partnership that would keep the companies separate and independent, but would include some kind of capital tie-up.
Other parties appear to be treading more softly. GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner has been reported to be reluctant to take equity stakes while Nissan Motor co-chairman Itaru Koeda appeared to agree with Wagoner earlier this month when he noted that there are many other options for the alliance that could work without shares being held.
Citing unidentified sources, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that Renault and Nissan were unlikely to take a stake in GM after the 90-day study process.
The Detroit News reported that while the Renault-Nissan side had hoped to begin a full-scale analysis of purchasing costs in late August, the GM side wanted to limit the study to a handful of vehicles and few dozen parts.
While Renault’s CEO appears to be trying to an exert a considerable influence over GM, Renault’s unions are reported to be wary of an alliance.
According to the Detroit Free Press, a French union leader expressed fears that an alliance with GM could lead to engineering cuts at Renault. He said unions worry that an expanded alliance would divert cash and management attention away from Renault’s operations in France.
Rather than buying a multibillion-dollar stake in GM, the CGT union, which represents around 29% of Renault’s unionised workers, believes that Renault should spend the money to improve its French factories, engineering and research capability.
The union is already worried about the transfer of some of the company’s engineering to its Romanian subsidiary, Dacia, and Renault Samsung in South Korea.
