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Renault chairman dismisses reports Nissan wants to split from alliance

PARIS — Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said on Thursday there was a "real desire" within the top ranks of both companies for its alliance with Nissan to succeed, dismissing suggestions the partnership was on the rocks. Turmoil within the Franco-Japanese alliance, long dogged by internal rivalries, deepened following the November 2018 arrest in Tokyo of its architect and long-time boss Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial crimes, which he denies. Attempts to restore calm were dealt a fresh blow by Ghosn's dramatic flight from Japanese justice and a series of no-holds-barred allegations he has made from his refuge in Lebanon, including that he was the victim of a plot to oust him and that the alliance is now a "masquerade". Nissan has vigorously rejected Ghosn's stance, while both the Japanese firm and Renault have tried to rubbish suggestions their two decades old partnership is falling apart. "We have a board overseeing the alliance which is made up of people who are all extremely in favor of the alliance," Renault Chairman Senard told a briefing with reporters. "There is a common desire to associate our strategic plans and a real desire to make this alliance a success," he added, dismissing a report that Nissan was examining scenarios for a possible future outside of the alliance as "fake news." The 66-year-old declined to comment on anything related to Ghosn, adding: "I only think about the future." Renault shares were down 2% by 1123 GMT, underperfoming the broader auto sector which was down on news that Washington has threatened to impose tariffs on European car imports due to Europe's stance on Iran. Renault's French rival and Peugeot maker PSA Group also gave a flavor of some industry headwinds, reporting a 10% fall in its global sales last year as Chinese demand tanked. Renault is due to publish its 2019 global sales on Friday. JOINT PROJECTS Analysts see Renault-Nissan's cost-saving alliance as vital to both companies as the car industry battles a slowdown and huge investments in cleaner vehicles and automated driving, particularly as rivals PSA and Fiat Chrysler are merging to help meet these challenges. Renault held ultimately unsuccessful talks to combine with Fiat Chrysler last year, which Ghosn described at a Beirut news conference as a huge missed opportunity. Senard, who chairs the alliance's operating board, said on Thursday that once the partnership has been rebooted, other firms might potentially want to join.

Nissan NV200 finds new work as ambulance, Gibson guitar repair truck

We live in a world now where not every police cruiser and taxi is a Ford Crown Victoria, not every executive car is a Lincoln Town Car and not every ambulance is based on a Ford Econoline van. Vehicles like the new Nissan NV200 are making inroads into the service, livery and emergency vehicle markets, and we've got a couple cases in point to share.
The first one is a fleet of 30 new ambulances based on the heavier-duty NV2500 chassis. They are entering the Mexican Red Cross fleet of emergency vehicles this year after performing well in pilot tests last year. The Mexican Red Cross says it receives 1,200,000 ambulance service requests per year, so the mettle of these new machines will be tested in a hurry.
The second example is less useful for life-saving, but may save a guitar from going to the scrap heap. Called the Gibson NV200 Mobile Repair & Restoration Van, it can take the services of an authorized Gibson rep anywhere they're needed to repair or restore an axe in need. The van features a whole aesthetic designed to evoke the classic Gibson look, with wood veneer and shades of brown and black used throughout. There's a guitar rack that holds four instruments, a sliding 56-inch long repair table, toolbox, genuine Gibson stools and a sound system by Gibson Pro Audio.

Nissan happy with plug-in vehicles for now, will wait on hydrogen

Anyone who's driven the Nissan Leaf knows that it won't set any land speed records. Still, ask Nissan Vice Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga, and the battery-electric vehicle will be miles ahead of any hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles for the foreseeable future in Nissan's advanced-powertrain plans. Figuratively, of course. Shiga, speaking in Singapore, elaborated on Nissan's interest in developing a production hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, and, to put it bluntly, he said the company didn't have much interest, the Japan Times reports. Sure, Nissan reached an agreement with Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and Ford early last year to work together to speed up fuel-cell-vehicle powertrain development. Like Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, the automakers appear to be following the axiom that hydrogen fuel-cell technology is the best-of-all-worlds option for advanced powertrain because of the combination of zero emissions and conventional-vehicle-like full-tank range. Still, the prohibitively high cost of building hydrogen refueling stations will prevent any substantial adoption anytime soon, Shiga says, hence Nissan's focus on battery-electric vehicles. Nissan sells the all-electric Leaf in about 40 countries, and the model is the best-selling battery-electric vehicle in the world. In the US, Nissan sold 24,411 Leaf vehicles through October, up 35 percent from a year earlier.