Renault-Nissan Alliance
The Renault-Nissan Alliance is now moving into step two of adding battery manufacturing to its core business model.
The gist is that the Renault-Nissan Alliance is adding battery manufacturing and development to it business model, as we mentioned earlier. The Alliance is now finalizing a joint venture with France’s government.
Strategic Battery Alliance. The Alliance signed a letter of intent for the newly created joint venture with French government agency, Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement that contribute €125 million, or $186 million to the project. The total investment in step one is around €600 million, or close to $900,000 million for the production if 100,000 batteries a year, according to the WSJ.
Why France? France has traditionally heavily helped its local industry and has pledged a €5,000 bonus to anyone buying an electric vehicle, EV by 2012. The country wants to purchase 100,000 EVs for government and business fleet use by 2015. It does not stop here, the country will also put €900 million into developing infrastructure such as recharging points.
Why is this important? When governments and car makers get together, they can move mountain, sometimes, quite literally. Nissan and Renault have actively promoted EVs around the world, worked closely with governments and strategically partnered with startups, such as Better Place. This puts the Alliance at a serious advantage for the wide spread adoption of EVs. Partnered with a government owned car maker as Renault, the Alliance has access to funds and special treatment.