In the murky world of what some have referred to as industrial espionage and economic war, that has seen Renault suspend three senior executives, the auto industry has rallied somewhat to the French automaker’s cause.
It’s a fair bet Renault could not have envisaged a storm such as the one that broke crashing over its bows last week, as claim and counter-claim roared back and forth, while it now appears the French unions are starting to take an interest.
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But the beleaguered manufacturer has received some staunch support from some of its fellow-automakers at this week’s Detroit show, while the Chinese – who were mentioned in the affair – have come out with appears to be a firm rebuttal of any involvement.
Reports emanating from Beijing cite a foreign ministry spokesman as noting: “The accusations are baseless and irresponsible, and the Chinese side cannot accept them,” while Renault has distanced itself from any interest from the DCRI or French secret service.
And this from General Motors CEO Dan Akerson this week: “I have some empathy for what Renault found,” he said. “We have 200,000 employees – we don’t know of any individual – all you need is one person to make you look foolish, but we would not tolerate that behaviour.”
And Renault also received stout support from Opel CEO Nick Reilly, who defended the right of OEMs to shield their hard won intelligence. “Clearly the auto industry is a lot about protecting your IP – particularly when you have got something ahead of the others,” he said.
And although Reilly leap to Renault’s defence, he nonetheless cautioned against over-protectionism, urging instead greater co-operation by sharing technology.
“Certainly that is what we have done with our Chinese partner and [it] has never misused our IP,” he said.
“To have it stolen or given away, that is a real blow.”
Perhaps the reason why GM and Opel have given Renault such staunch support is they – and every other OEM involved in ground-breaking technology – is only one employee away from its jealousy-guarded secrets being given away.
No system is perfect to protect what companies hold most dear and human nature is always susceptible to being tested, but every major manufacturer reading about Renault’s troubles must be anxiously crossing its fingers the same thing doesn’t happen to them.
