Q4 & FY 2019 Results

• Renault sold 3.75 million vehicles in 2019, down (3.4)% on a year-over-year basis, more than explained by declines in Iran, Argentina and Turkey. Renault said it was working on pricing more than chasing volume. (Renault)
• Reported 2019 full year financial results. Sales of 3.8 million units fell (3.4)% on a year-over-year basis. Revenue of €55.5 billion was similarly affected -- down (3.3)% YoY, although Renault said that ignoring exchange it wasn’t quite as bad. Operating income was €2.1 billion, down (30)% versus 2018 and net income was a paltry €15 million. For 2020, Renault hopes that revenue will be about the same, despite expecting sales declines of (3)% - (5)% in its major markets. The Guidance implied that restructuring costs would outweigh operational free cash flow. (Renault)

December

• Lada couldn’t resist jumping on the trend for rugged SUVs with creature comforts. Following in the footsteps of the new Land Rover Defender and soon-to-be-revealed Ford Bronco, the Russian brand updated its 4X4. (Lada)
• Rumoured to have offered the CEO job to SEAT’s CEO Luca de Meo. (Economic Times of India)
• Despite a recent labour agreement (in June), South Korean workers at Renault-Samsung have got the hump and are going on strike. (Korea Herald)
• Investing in Nino Robitcs, a developer of motorised mobility devices. (Renault)
• Appointed Renault’s Hadi Zablit as the general secretary for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. (Renault)
• Nissan and Renault both want to concentrate on improving their financial performance before returning to the subject of the correct capital structure for the alliance. (FT)

November

• Unveiled a mildly refreshed Espace large MPV. Apparently, 60% of vehicles sold are of the top trim level. (Renault)
• The head honchos of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi thrashed out a new organisation structure that will see combined activities led by a General Secretary (yet to be appointed). (Nissan)
• Removing the option to lease the battery for the Zoe in the UK because residual values are stronger than expected, reducing the lease payments for the car itself. (Fleet News)
• Renault’s former COO Patrick Pelata gave an interview in which he opened the lid on the current state of Nissan and Renault’s relationship (presumably based on well-sourced second hand information). He claims that no new joint projects have kicked off for ages; that Ghosn had stopped caring about details -- allowing executives on both sides to squabble; and that Renault had engaged in adversarial transfer pricing and mismanaged the changeover to WLTP, making Nissan shoulder some of the downside. (Les Echos)
• France’s government apparently favour an automotive industry professional as the next Renault CEO, potentially bad news for the caretaker CEO as she only came into the industry a few years ago. (Reuters)
• Renault thinks that used batteries from electric cars could have an application in boats. (Renault)

October

• Reviewing the “Drive The Future” plan, and targets; interim CEO Delbos stated that are no options off the table with the Formula One team and Alpine mentioned as two business areas that will face scrutiny. (Seeking Alpha)
• Renault will offer fuel cell versions of the Kangoo and Master commercial vehicles -- but they will be super expensive… the Kangoo (small) van will cost €48,500, plus sales tax. (Renault)
• Reorganising the UK sales network, but doesn’t intend to reduce the number of dealer sites. (Automotive Manager)
• A French minister suggested it was very likely Renault’s new CEO would be an external candidate. (Reuters)
• Invested in automotive cybersecurity developer Upstream Security. (Upstream Security)
• Fired CEO Bolloré and installed the CFO as interim chief executive. (Renault) Bolloré was understandably dismayed by the decision, having only officially held the job since January. Before the decision was officially announced, he told reporters that the move was a “coup”. (Reuters)
• Working on plans for enough electric cars to cover all segments of the portfolio. Executives said it was too early to say Renault would be in competition with Tesla, “Renault plasns bigger electric car to rival Tesla” boomed the headline. (Bloomberg)
• Renault and Waymo are working with authorities in Paris, France, to start a geofenced robotaxi service that would operate between the airport and city centre. No fixed timeline was given. (Renault)
• Created a new mobility division to house its various car sharing and ride hailing assets, most of which have been held within the finance company up until now. (Renault)
• Renault launched a service called Mobility Consulting in France, seemingly an attempt at solution-based selling for fleets by advising them how much Renault electric vehicles could save on their total cost of ownership. (Renault)

Q3 2019 Financial Results

• Renault sold 852,699 vehicles in Q3 2019, a (4.4)% decrease on a year-over-year basis. (Renault)
• Pre-announced Q3 2019 revenues of €11.3 billion, down (1.6)% on a year-over-year basis and issued a profits warning. Renault say that full year revenues will fall about (3)% - (4)% and operating margin will be around 5%. Even worse, the executive team is re-assessing whether it can meet medium term targets. Renault said the problem was the economy and higher regulatory costs (less clear was why this was a surprise). (Renault)
• Published Q3 2019 revenue (after earlier announcing headline figures). Renault sold 852,198 vehicles, a drop of (4.4)% on a year-over-year basis. Revenue of €11.3 billion, down (1.6)% YoY contained a (3.9)% YoY drop in the core automotive business excluding the finance company and Avtovaz. Renault said the biggest factor was a drop in sales to partners (primarily Nissan and Iran). (Renault)

September

• Renault and Mobivia are acquiring control of spare parts company Exadis, in which Renault already owes a stake, subject to approval by competition authorities. (Renault)
• Unveiled the next generation Captur B-sized crossover, saying that a plug-in hybrid version was on the way. (Renault)
• Although many manufacturers are fleeing the Sub-B (city car) segment due to rising technology costs, Renault says a fully electric version of the product is a must “to address customer needs”. (Autocar)
• CEO Bollore said the merger talks with FCA were over and Renault’s priority was helping Nissan. (Reuters)
• CEO Bolloré says that an all-electric car costing €10,000 will be on sale within the next five years. He thinks that diesel is finished as a technology for passenger cars, but that there is a future for commercial vehicles. (Handelsblatt)
• Alliance Ventures invested in design outsourcing company Superside (TechCrunch) and Sanity.io. (Sanity)
• Renault Master production restarted late after the summer shutdown because of a fire in the paint shop that took around a week to repair. (Usine Nouvelle)
• Fired several employees in Morocco after discovery of a fraud. (Morocco World News)

August

• Will no longer sell diesel vehicles in India beyond 2020. (Times of India)
• One of the key executives involved in managing the alliance with Nissan resigned, saying he was off to PSA and that CEO Bolloré told him no one liked him anymore. (FT)
• Renault and Nissan are reportedly making progress in discussions that will see Renault reduce its Nissan stake in return for the latter’s approval to a tie up with FCA. (Il Sole 24 Ore)
• Renault Samsung has apparently told unions it wants to reduce production volume by 25% and plant staffing levels by 20%. (Korea Herald)

July

• According to leaked emails, Nissan and Renault are in the middle of intense negotiations to see whether Nissan would approve the proposed FCA / Renault merger if the French company reduced its current 43.4% stake in Nissan. (WSJ)
• Linked up with Nigerian firm Coscharis to begin local production of two Renault (re-badged Dacia) models and sell those, and two imported products. (Renault)
• Confirmed a stake of 50% in the electric vehicle joint venture it is creating in China with Jiangling Motors. The prior press releases had only spoken of a “significant part” of the JV. (Renault)
• Renault’s chairman said the alliance with Nissan was back on track, there were no plans to restart merger talks with FCA and that no one talks about Carlos Ghosn anymore. (AP)
• French Police raided Renault’s headquarters apparently looking for dirt on Carlos Ghosn. (Reuters)
• Renault and Nissan might stop publishing their customary annual cost saving declaration. (Reuters)
• Alliance Ventures invested in Maniv Mobility’s new $100 million fund. (Economic Times of India)

Q2 2019 Financial Results

• Renault sold 1,030,231 vehicles in Q2 2019, a drop of (8)% on the prior year. (Renault)

June

• French president Macron said that nothing would justify changing Renault’s ownership stake in Nissan, or the French government’s shareholding in Renault and told managers to get on with running the alliance instead of trying to change it. (Bloomberg)
• Nissan’s CEO said he was postponing talks on further integration between alliance partners, preferring to focus on his firm’s financial recovery, warning the alliance could break apart “quickly” if Nissan wasn’t happy. (Reuters)
• The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance VC unit invested in The Mobility House, a company that uses batteries from electric cars to provide storage for power grids. (Renault)
• Renault and Nissan signed an “exclusive” deal with Waymo for mobility services in France and Japan. (Renault)
• CEO Bollore dismissed recent rumours that Renault could reduce its stake in Nissan. (Reuters)
• Nissan plans to add Renault’s chairman and CEO to two of the new oversight committees. (Nissan)
• Off-the-record sources said new Renault chairman Senard has decided that the CEOs of both Renault and Nissan are “irritants” impeding good relationships between the alliance partners. (Reuters)
• Renault Chairman Senard told shareholders that he was confused about the French government’s attitude towards the proposed merger with FCA because it had been the finance minister’s idea in the first place. (WSJ)
• Agreed terms of a wage deal with Renault-Samsung workers in South Korea. They will get a $10,000 bonus but no pay rises. Union bosses wouldn’t agree to Renault’s request to stop striking until at least 2021. (Yonhap)
• FCA called off the merger proposal with Renault, saying the French government had been unreasonable. After agreeing to job guarantees, improved financial terms and governance structures, it seems as though demands to get Nissan’s buy-in were the final straw. (FCA)
• Said an audit concluded that some of the expenses by Renault-Nissan’s jointly-owned Dutch subsidiary raised “concerns” and that it would work with Nissan to take action against Carlos Ghosn. (Renault)
• Threw a spanner in the works of Nissan plans to change the corporate governance structure, complaining that Renault was under-represented in the new plan, but not objecting to the new framework. (Reuters)
• As wage negotiations with Renault Samsung bosses faltered, many line workers appeared to break ranks with union calls for an all-out strike. Union leaders said it was gossip spread by malicious managers. (Korea Times)
• The French government is prepared to reduce its stake in Renault if it helped to safeguard the future of the alliance with Nissan. (AFP)
• Nissan could refuse to support any revamped merger proposal between FCA and Renault unless the latter sells some of its Nissan stake. (Reuters)
• FCA may reportedly sweeten the merger deal in Renault’s favour by offering a special dividend and basing the new company’s headquarters in France. (Reuters)
• France’s finance minister said the government would have several conditions, including job guarantees, to agree to a Renault-FCA merger, but was cautiously supportive. (Reuters)

May

• FCA Made a public proposal (FCA stressed it was not an offer) for a 50:50 merger with Renault, following weeks of secret meetings between executives of the two firms. FCA estimates that a combined business could save €5 billion annually by 2025, mainly in the fields of purchasing, R&D efficiency and manufacturing economies of scale. The firm foresees €3 billion - €4 billion of implementation costs. FCA says that since it is worth more, its shareholders will have to be paid a €2.5 billion special dividend. (FCA)
• Renault’s board said they will study the FCA proposal with interest. (Renault)
• France’s finance minister said the status quo of the Renault-Nissan alliance was harming Renault. (Reuters)
• Says that Renault Samsung’s South Korean operations will remain an important part of the global research and development operations. (Korea Herald)
• Engaged Publicis to create content that, Renault hopes, will make people want to sit in their cars for longer. (Renault)
• Nissan announced a plan for Renault’s CEO to join the board, whilst current CEO Saikawa stays in charge, despite indicating he might be ready to stand down. (Nissan)
• The Alliance Ventures VC unit is partnering with Plug and Play China to reach start-ups in the country. (Renault)

April

• Says that electric vehicle sales are “already quite profitable”, depending on the country and vehicle. Executives believe that if the Renault group can capture around 29% market share in Russia (as planned), then the market will be “very profitable”. Renault has also been reducing inventory levels at European dealers. (Seeking Alpha)
• There is “no question” that Renault will meet European fleet CO2 targets and avoid paying fines. (Seeking Alpha)
• Unveiled a set of minor updates to the commercial vehicle line-up, mainly powertrain changes. Renault also previewed the next generation Kangoo small van. (Renault)
• Continues to explore ways to strengthen ties with Nissan, with the latest idea reportedly being a joint holding company. Unfortunately, it seems that Nissan aren’t much interested. (Reuters)
• The head of Renault India says that new products will double sales because the portfolio will extend from 24% of the market to more than 50%. He is concerned that Renault’s profitability in the country is dependent on the performance of Nissan because the two firms share a 480,000-unit factory and believes that the market for small diesel vehicles will disappear by 2023. (Autocar)
• Opened a new innovation hub and design centre in Shanghai, China, in partnership with Nissan. (Renault)
• Completed an audit of executive payments between 2010 and 2018. Although there wasn’t anything wrong, some of the expenses paid on behalf of Carlos Ghosn were a “source of concern”. (Renault)
• Wants to pay Carlos Ghosn as little as possible for his work in 2018, but that will require the agreement of the AGM, and even then he will still receive €1 million. Renault also will only pay out part of Ghosn’s pension pot. (Renault)

Q1 2019 Financial Results

• Reported Q1 2019 automotive revenue of €12.5 billion, down (4.8)% on prior year (Renault only reports profits every six months). Renault blamed falling sales and exchange rates. (Renault)

March

• Renault reportedly wants to give Nissan a short post-Ghosn cooling off period and then resume talks on a full merger within the next 12 months, so that after that the combined entity can take on FCA. (Reuters)
• The Renault-Nissan Alliance owned three private jets that apparently nobody knew about. (FT)
• New chairman Senard said that decision making speed in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s alliance needed to improve, whilst boosting autonomy for executives at each company. He also said no one was working on changing the alliance’s shareholding structure. (Reuters)
• Iranian ministers said that a “mechanism” had been found to allow Renault to reenter the country without falling foul of US sanctions. Renault didn’t comment. (Radio Farda)
• Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi published an MoU for their new governance structure. Although the existing joint operating companies will not be dissolved, they will become vassals of a new supreme council made up of CEOs from each OEM, plus Renault’s chairman. As part of the deal, Renault appear to have accepted a demotion: Renault’s chairman will be a “natural candidate” to become vice chairman of Nissan. (Nissan)
• Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi are discussing a new governance structure that would oversee joint projects, in a way that would not require a change to the shareholding structure. (Renautlt)

February

• Said that if labour unrest in South Korea continued, Renault-Samsung could lose export vehicle production contracts that account for about half the manufacturing volume. (Nikkei)
• Standard & Poor’s cut Renault’s outlook to negative. (Reuters)
• Allegedly under investigation for being part of a cartel fixing prices for spare parts in Europe. (Automotive News)
• Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s VC unit invested in PowerShare, a Chinese company that coordinates transactions between EV owners and different charging networks. (RNM Alliance)
• Claims to be making “good money” on some battery electric vehicle lines. (Seeking Alpha)
• Won’t give Carlos Ghosn the €30 million or so in severance pay that he could have been entitled to, arguing that because he is in prison he cannot fulfil the terms of his non-compete clause (although oddly Renault retains sufficient confidence for him to remain on the board). (Reuters)
• Renault Nissan Mitsubishi is rumoured to be in talks with Waymo to use the latter’s self-driving system. (Nikkei)
• Reportedly criticised Nissan’s handling of the investigation into Carlos Ghosn in a letter between the two alliance partners. Renault pointed to Nissan arranging Ghosn’s arrest rather than questioning him first as an example of where it believes the probe should have been handled differently. (Economic Times of India)
• The French government has apparently signalled to its Japanese counterpart a willingness to consider reducing Renault’s stake in Nissan to create greater balance in the relationship. (Nikkei)

January

• Will start a new night shift at the Palencia, Spain, plant in April 2019 thanks to demand for Kadjar. (Europa Press)
• Carlos Ghosn gave an interview from prison attributing his detention to a plot from Nissan executives set against his integration plans for Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. Ghosn described a plan for an umbrella holding company that would own all three OEMs but allow them considerable arm’s length autonomy. Nissan’s reservations appeared to stem from Ghosn guaranteeing equilibrium only if each unit displayed “solid performance”, something he implied that Nissan was failing to deliver. (Les Echos)
• Avtovaz committed to spend about $1 billion in Russia over the next ten years, create 2,300 jobs and increase the amount of localisation. (Renault)
• Renault has withdrawn the Twingo from sale in the UK. Falling sales were blamed. (Autocar)
• Carlos Ghosn resigned from Renault and was replaced (exactly as the French government had hoped, coincidentally) with Jean-Dominique Senard as chairman and Thierry Bolloré as CEO. (Renault)
• Senard will continue in his existing role of Michelin CEO until May 2019. (Michelin)
• Renault’s lead independent director issued a cryptically-worded message which seemed to imply that the board was now actively seeking a replacement CEO, without actually saying it. (Renault)
• Reported global sales of 3,884,295 units in 2018, an increase of 3.2% on 2017. Passenger car sales were down, as were Renault-badged models. Strong performance of Dacia and Lada made up the difference (but presumably at lower average revenue and profit). (Renault)
• The French government took steps to impose an end to the Ghosn saga by openly championing Michelin’s CEO as an ideal replacement for Ghosn and reportedly telling the Japanese government that it wanted to integrate Nissan and Renault under a single holding company -- something Nissan is resistant to and the government appeared to back away from publicly (for now). (Reuters)
• Senior sales and marketing executive Thierry Koskas abruptly left the company. (BBC)
• Will not stockpile vehicles in the UK ahead of Brexit, calling the approach “expensive and short-termist”. Renault instead says that it will adapt extremely rapidly to changes as they take place. (Reuters)
• Said that an internal probe had concluded payments to the executive team for 2017 and 2018 were lawful and had been properly disclosed. The investigation will continue to look at previous years. (Renault)
• Renault’s head sales planner outlined the volume forecast process. Ultimately, because Renault do not work on the basis of a retail customer “pull” (in common with virtually all other brands), the method is a series of checks and second-guessing as market demands are compared to central production flexibility and overlaid with changes in the market between the time the process kicked off and when it ends. (Automotive Logistics)