Nissan and Renault rebalance power in race for electric cars

TOKYO — Two giant automakers tied in an uneasy alliance — Japan’s Nissan and France’s Renault — announced Monday that they had struck a deal to make their relationship more equitable, ending a yearslong power struggle that contributed to the downfall of the alliance’s former leader, Carlos Ghosn.

The agreement opens a path for the companies to increase cooperation in the growing market for electric vehicles, a critical area for the alliance as it seeks to respond to changing regulations and the challenges posed by upstart competitors like Tesla and China’s BYD, which have vaulted past traditional automakers in the race to meet consumer demand for batterypowered cars.

Nissan said that the agreement was “an important milestone in its discussions with Renault Group on defining new foundations for their partnership,” which has been dominated by the French automaker since 1999, when it bailed out the foundering Japanese company.

Renault eventually built up a 43% stake in Nissan with voting rights on its board, while Nissan held only a 15% stake in Renault and no voting rights.

The arrangement has long been a sore spot for Nissan, which produces far more cars than Renault and argued it deserved to have a more equivalent role in the relationship.

The agreement, Nissan said, would effectively equalize the companies’ shareholdings. Both would now hold 15% of the other, with Renault’s additional shares going into a French trust. The trust would be under no obligation to sell them, it said.

The companies will now also have equal voting rights, Nissan said.

Additionally, Nissan agreed to invest in Ampere, a Renault spinoff focused on developing electric vehicles and software.

The final agreement is pending approval by both companies’ boards.

The agreement is critical for the electric-vehicle ambitions of Renault, which is seeking to harness the engineering prowess and expertise of Nissan.

The power imbalance between Renault and Nissan was widely seen as a catalyst for the downfall of Ghosn, who has said that he was the victim of a coup by Nissan insiders who feared he would merge the two companies. Ghosn fled Japan for Lebanon in late 2019 after being arrested on charges of financial wrongdoing related to his role as head of the alliance.