Nissan will invest up to $663M in Renault’s Ampere EV spinoff

TOKYO – Nissan Motor Co. has agreed to invest up to 600 million euros ($663 million) in Renault’s electric vehicle spinoff Ampere under a finalized deal to restructure the companies’ longstanding alliance.

In announcing the rebalanced partnership in a statement on Wednesday, Renault and Nissan said they plan to complete the “definitive agreements” in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Nissan will become a “strategic investor” in Ampere and have a seat on its board.

The deal ends 10 months of negotiations and rebalances a long-term partnership that was thrown into turmoil by the 2018 arrest and ouster of former alliance Chairman Carlos Ghosn.

“The agreements that have been signed today allow us to step into the next chapter of the alliance,” Jean-Dominique Senard, chairman of the alliance, said in a joint statement. “They strengthen our long-standing partnership and will maximize value creation for each alliance member. This also lays the foundations for a new balanced, fair, and effective governance.”

As part of the deal, Renault and Nissan will rejigger their cross-shareholdings so that each company holds a 15 percent stake in the other. Renault will trim its share of Nissan from a controlling 43 percent, while Nissan retains its 15 percent holding in the French automaker.

Renault will transfer 28.4 percent of its Nissan shares to a French trust that will vote neutrally in Nissan affairs. Meanwhile, Nissan’s Renault holding will be converted from a non-voting stake to one with voting rights, attempting to address what critics called an unbalanced power dynamic.

Both companies will be able to vote freely within their 15 percent share rights.

Renault will instruct the trustee to sell its Nissan shares at an advantageous time for Renault.

Buying into Ampere will benefit Nissan in Europe and in electrification, CEO Makoto Uchida said.

“The investment opportunity in Ampere complements and strengthens Nissan’s ongoing electric push in Europe and will deliver numerous synergies, including cost efficiencies, regulatory compliance, and a broader range of EV products and powertrains,” Uchida said.

Under a preliminary agreement announced Feb. 6, the Franco-Japanese partners outlined a raft of new joint-business projects, centered around India, Latin America and Europe.

In Mexico, Nissan will produce a new model for Renault making it the first Renault vehicle produced there in 20 years. Renault Group models were last sold north of the border in the U.S. in the early 1990s, but CEO Luca de Meo said there are no imminent plans to reenter that market.

The repositioning comes despite the French automaker’s announcement that it plans to leverage the U.S. market as a key revenue driver for its Alpine sports-car brand.

The company want to sell two models in the U.S., including a midsize electric crossover, starting in 2027 or 2028.

De Meo said the restructured alliance has the potential to unlock hundreds of millions of euros in value from the three-way partnership of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors.

“We are all engaged with the right mindset and welcome Nissan as a strong partner in our upcoming EV and Software pure player Ampere,” de Meo said. “It confirms the attractiveness of the project to be front runner in Europe, allowing Renault and its alliance partners to position themselves ahead of the starting grid for the EV and software race in Europe.”

Mitsubishi is looped into the alliance through the controlling 34 percent stake Nissan holds in the smaller Japanese automaker. Renault has no direct stake in Mitsubishi.

Ghosn, who is suing Nissan for $1 billion in damages in a Lebanese court, engineered that acquisition of that holding in 2016, putting his alliance on the path to becoming the world’s biggest auto group.

Mitsubishi has said it is studying a possible stake in Ampere.

But the company was not directly mentioned in the statement as party to the agreement.