RENAULT's chairman has dismissed claims that the 20-year partnership between the French manufacturer and Nissan might be breaking down.

Jean-Dominique Senard said yesterday that there was a "real desire" at the alliance to make a success of it.

This comes despite more than a year of turmoil caused by the arrest of its architect Carlos Ghosn. The former Nissan boss was detained in Tokyo in November 2018 on financial misconduct charges, all of which he denies. Ghosn disrupted attempts to restore order by fleeing the Japanese justice system for Lebanon. At his subsequent press conference in Beirut he said the alliance, now little more than a "masquerade", was doomed.

Nissan has robustly denied his allegations that it plotted to unseat him to rid the alliance of French influence from Renault. Meanwhile, both firms have poured scorn on suggestions that two decades of collaboration have turned sour.

"We have a board overseeing the alliance which is made up of people who are all extremely in favour of [it]," Senard said.

"There is a common desire to associate our strategic plans and a real desire to make this alliance a success." He described reports that Nissan was war-gaming scenarios for a future outside the alliance as "fake news". However, he repeatedly declined to comment on Carlos Ghosn. "I only think about the future," he said.

Senard told reporters that the operating board of the alliance would meet this month. He said they would discuss future industrial plans which could muster "substantial" savings, but refused to give more detail.

Both Nissan and Renault are enduring periods of instability at the top. A new chief executive started at the Japanese firm in December, and inherits a company reeling from plummeting sales. Renault is still searching for a new boss after firing Ghosn-ally Thierry Bollore in October.

(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper