Renault chairman vows to get Nissan alliance back on track next year

PARIS -- Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard is determined to get the automaker's alliance with Japan's Nissan back on track next year, he said on Tuesday, adding other matters such as a potential tie-up with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles were less of a priority.

The Renault-Nissan partnership was rocked by former alliance boss Carlos Ghosn's arrest in Tokyo almost a year ago on financial misconduct charges, which he denies.

The two automakers are still trying to repair relations, including through recent management overhauls, to focus again on combined efforts to cut costs and invest in new technologies -- among the pressing issues thrown into sharp relief by a Renault profit warning last week.

"My obsession is for the alliance to take off in 2020," Senard told France Inter radio.

"If, by 2020, we don't manage to start extracting ... all the potential of this alliance, I'll consider it to be a failure, on a personal level and by our teams."

Senard did not give further details.

The executive said that other matters such as attempting to revive merger talks with Fiat Chrysler, which were abandoned in June, were secondary to the industrial projects Renault and Nissan needed to work on.

"Today, it's not on the table," Senard said of an FCA deal, although he did not rule out it being re-examined at some stage in the future. He later added that "one must never say never" regarding speculation that Renault might re-look at merging with FCA.

Senard said reducing Renault's 43.3 percent stake in Nissan, which could help improve relations, was also not top of his list.

"Nothing can ever be excluded, (but) this is not what we're focused on," Senard said.

Senard was parachuted in from tire maker Michelin in early 2019 to help steady Renault, which is 15 percent owned by the French state.

Earlier this month, the automaker ousted CEO Thierry Bollore, a former Ghosn protegee known for having a strained relationship with Nissan, as it tries to wipe the slate clean with its Japanese partner.

"I discovered an alliance in worse shape than I'd imagined ... this takes time to mend," Senard said.

Renault, which said last week it was reviewing some mid-term targets, is due to release more details about its third-quarter performance on Oct. 25.