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Renault wants to merge with Nissan, then go after Fiat Chrysler

The late Sergio Marchionne used to say consolidation would be the only way to compete against the biggest global carmakers. The company looks certain to fulfill that goal, but perhaps not in the way he intended. The Financial Times reports that Renault wants to begin merger talks with Nissan in the next 12 months. Assuming a merger gets completed, the plan is for the combined company to then pursue another merger, with Fiat Chrysler a prime target. Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi have been busy since cutting ties with ex-alliance boss Carlos Ghosn. They formed a new alliance board with Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard at the helm, Renault has shrunk the size of its board while Nissan added more outside directors, and the two agreed to a new governance structure to ease operational decision making. All three automakers have walked away from Ghosn-era goals to sell 14 million cars and find 10 billion euros in savings by 2022. New strategic plans for all three car companies are in the works. With stability in sight, it's said Senard wants to succeed where Ghosn failed — a full-fledged merger between Renault and Nissan with talks to begin "as soon as possible." Ghosn's pursuit of a merger last year in attempt to make the 20-year-old alliance "irreversible" is part of what led to his downfall, with Nissan executives including CEO Hiroto Saikawa against the push. The new effort is presented as larger scale being the only way for the alliance to take on companies like Volkswagen and Toyota. But the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi trio sold 10.76 million cars around the world last year, second to Volkswagen with 10.83 million sales, ahead of Toyota with 10.39 million. If Nissan hadn't suffered a 2.8 percent dip in sales, the alliance would have taken the top spot. If a little scale is good that means more is better, right? Pulling Fiat Chrysler into the alliance would add around 5 million annual sales, and would be another move in Ghosn's footsteps. The former honcho is said to have "held talks with FCA" about some kind of union within the past three years. The French government, which has a 15 percent stake in Renault and double voting rights, shut down the initiative. It's not clear if FCA will be an independent company by the time a potential Nissan-Renault merger closed, though.

Treasury says auto bailout tally drops to $20.3 billion

In December, the US Treasury announced that it was going to sell all of its shares in General Motors within 12 to 15 months. The first tranche of the 500-million total shares was purchased by GM, which took 200 million of them at $27.50 per share. That price represents an eight-percent premium over the market price at the time. The remaining 300 million shares will be sold "through various means in an orderly fashion."
Of the $418 billion disbursed through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a report in Automotive News indicates that "about 93 percent" has been paid back, and the latest figures put Treasury's loss from the program overall at $55.58 billion. That's a $4.1 billion improvement on the last figure, when the expected red ink added up to $59.68 billion. The auto industry's portion of that loss is estimated to be $20.3 billion, a 16-percent drop from the earlier estimate of $24.3 billion.
The Treasury now owns 19 percent of GM, but if all goes well, there will be no more cause for anyone to utter "Government Motors" by the end of Q1 next year. A loss of some kind is still expected, however. Although GM's stock price is close to $29 at the time of this writing, that's still $4 below its IPO price and well below the $72 share price necessary for the government to come out even on its GM investment. On second thought, maybe the ribbing will continue.

Recharge Wrap-up: Storm Pulse EV touring motorcycle, Elio COO launches YoYo car subscription service

The Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands has created the Storm Pulse electric touring motorcycle. Its 28.5-kWh modular battery pack provides 236 miles of riding on a single charge. The batteries can be charged on a standard household outlet, and can be swapped out in a matter of minutes. The Storm Eindhoven team is raising money to take the prototype bike on a world tour this summer, covering 40,000 kilometers (24,855 miles) in 80 days, not just to show off the Pulse, but also to demonstrate the feasibility of electric mobility. Check it out in the video above, and read more at Technologic Vehicles. Chile is generating so much solar power that it is giving it away for free. Thanks to its well-developed solar infrastructure – which includes 29 solar farms with 15 more in the works – feeding its central grid (as well as problems distributing it to other parts of the country), the surplus means energy prices have dropped to zero in certain locales for well over a hundred days of the year. Chile is now trying to improve its transmission networks, though lack of revenue could slow future investment in solar power. Read more at Green Car Reports. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is reportedly talking to Uber Technologies about a possible partnership regarding driverless cars. Anonymous sources close to the matter have said that a venture could be announced by the end of 2016. Uber is also in talks with other automakers, according to one source. Having access to Uber's massive fleet of vehicles around the world provides large opportunities for gathering data and improving systems. Sources say Fiat has also been in contact with Amazon about autonomous delivery vehicles. Read more at Automotive News Europe. Former Elio Motors COO Hari Iyer is launching the YoYo car subscription service as its CEO. YoYo will offer cars on-demand with a concierge service, using a pay-per-mile model. Iyer will maintain a relationship with Elio as a member of its Board of Directors, and as a strategic advisor to CEO Paul Elio. "I am proud of our team's accomplishments [at Elio] and the progress we've made to date and will look on with pride when I see an Elio on the road," says Iyer. He adds, "My work at YoYo is continuing our shared mission to usher in a new era of affordable access to cars." Read more in the press release below.