Renault to move ahead with breakup plan even without Nissan

PARIS: Renault SA will carry out a plan to carve out electric and combustion-engine businesses, even without its Japanese auto-making partners.

"They know that we have to do it, that we will do it and we’ve opened the door for them to each project,” chief executive officer Luca de Meo said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

"At the end it’s their decision if they want to jump in the boat, but the train is leaving the station.”

The CEO’s plan to split the struggling manufacturer’s operations is gaining traction after talks with French unions got under way and also discussions with top management of its alliance partners Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

De Meo has pledged to reveal details of the transformative plan in the fall after "transparent” discussions with the Japanese companies.

Hundreds of people are working on the projects that may go beyond spinning off an EV operation and could include other partners, he said in the interview.

"We’re talking to a lot of people,” he said, adding that these include potential partners from the automotive and tech industries.

Relations between Renault and Nissan and Mitsubishi management are "very good,” de Meo said, pointing to upcoming initiatives for joint industrial projects.

The CEO was speaking after Renault raised its financial outlook for the year in a bid to draw a line under the company’s costly withdrawal from the Russian market.