Earlier, Uchida and Renault interim CEO Clothilde Delbos said there would be a thorough review of alliance operations and product plans, with “no taboos” as to what might be cut or postponed. Luca de Meo, the former CEO of Volkswagen’s Seat brand, will become Renault CEO in July, with Delbos as his deputy.
Citing sources familiar with the situation, the newspaper said Nissan could close factories in Spain, and the Renault brand could withdraw from the Chinese market, where Nissan is relatively strong.
Bloomberg reported in October that Nissan was gauging interest from potential buyers for its factories in Sunderland, England, and Barcelona, Spain, and that divesting one or both facilities was an option as Nissan’s market share in Europe has plummeted. Potential buyers could include Chinese automakers, sources told Bloomberg.
Renault returned to China in 2016, a market it had previously left to Nissan, when it opened a factory in Wuhan with Dongfeng Motor. Former CEO Ghosn had targeted annual sales of up to 800,000 vehicles. Its volume in China fell 17 percent to 179,571 in 2019, Renault said on Jan. 17 when it released global sales results for st year.
Renault and Nissan have sought to reassure investors about their liquidity. Renault can call on state-guaranteed credit that it has not yet requested and has a credit line of 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion), while Nissan can make use of a credit line worth around $12 billion.
Other automakers have either drawn on credit lines or set up new ones in an effort to prepare for the financial shock of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Their words are intended to be reassuring in a context where carmakers are being badly hit by the markets, and rightly so given the drastic drop in sales in the Covid-19 era,” Gregoire Laverne, European equity manager at Apicil Asset Management, said of the interview with Senard and Uchida.
Reuters contributed to this report
