Renault Eyes Taking on More Nissan Production

Renault SA is considering a plan that would allow its underutilized European plants to handle more production for alliance partner Nissan Motor Co., The Nikkei reports.

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn tells the Tokyo-based newspaper that the French company is in talks with its partners, including Nissan, about building more vehicles for them. Daimler AG also is considered a partner because Renault makes Mercedes-Benz commercial vans in northern France.

Ghosn says the details of such a plan would be worked out after the Renault completes negotiations with its unions in France.

Renault has promised workers there that if they accept the company's labor proposal, its factories in France will add 80,000 units of production from Nissan and Daimler AG. The Nikkei implies Renault might take on even more output than it has pledged to the unions.

Last year the French company's factories operated at about 60% of capacity in Europe, where the car market is expected to continue shrinking. But the newspaper notes that Nissan's own sales in the region are sagging, and the Japanese company needs to maintain capacity utilization at its assembly plants in the U.K., Spain and Russia.