Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi to announce joint program May 27

Tokyo, May 19 (efe-epa).- The alliance between Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi will announce on May 27 a joint medium-term program to address the crisis in the sector stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, financial newspaper Nikkei reported Tuesday.

Nissan had said last week that it was preparing its own medium-term program to cope with the drastic drop in demand for cars, and would release it aling with its financial results on May 28.

According to Nikkei, the joint program of the alliance formed initially two decades ago by Renault and Nissan will be the first one in the era after former boss Carlos Ghosn, now a fugitive from Japanese justice.

Although the newspaper said the three firms are preparing their own program separately, there will be a joint plan to show cohesion of operations between the alliance members.

Nikkei noted that this medium-term program may focus on the reorganization of the production system between the three companies and measures for the development of next-generation vehicles, such as electric cars.

Nikkei had already reported on May 14 that as part of Nissan Motor’s medium-term program, there was a 20 percent reduction in its production capacity to cope with declining demand.

These plans involved the closure of its factory in Barcelona, among other measures, but a spokesperson for the company termed it as a “conjecture”, and stressed that the program Nissan has been preparing will be known on May 28.

Nissan Motor is expected to release its fiscal year 2019 results on the same day. On Apr.28, Nissan estimated losses of around $900 million for the year. EFE-EPA

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