Paris – Despite mutual misgivings, General Motors and the Renault-Nissan partnership agreed Wednesday to continue exploring the possible benefits of a three-way alliance until mid-October, but the two sides appeared to have made little progress in bridging their differences.
The companies jointly said they will continue the study after a meeting here between Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Renault and Nissan, and GM chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner.
The announcement averted a breakdown in the talks that would have embarrassed the senior management of the companies and potentially exposed them to shareholder lawsuits.
But the two sides seemed far apart in their assessments of the benefits of such a blockbuster alliance.
Ghosn reiterated that the companies would be remiss if they did not examine an opportunity to save billions of dollars.
But a GM spokesman said a deal would benefit Renault and Nissan more than it would GM. GM executives, in Paris for a motor show opening today, stressed that they were making progress turning the company around on their own.
“By the middle of October, you’ll have an answer, yes or no, should we proceed or should we stop,” Ghosn told reporters after the morning meeting with Wagoner, which lasted just over three hours.
GM’s apparent wariness was understandable, he said, given its unhappy experiences with previous partners. Less than two years ago, the U.S. automaker paid $2 billion to unwind its partnership with Italy’s Fiat SpA.
Ghosn acknowledged that the current process had begun on an awkward note too, with restive GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian announcing in late June that he was pressing GM’s management to consider joining the Renault- Nissan alliance.
Ghosn said the timing wasn’t ideal for Renault or Nissan, with the French carmaker in the early stages of a plan to lift productivity and profitability, and Nissan at a low point in its product cycle.
Wagoner did not comment publicly on the meeting. But GM vice chairman Bob Lutz said the Wagoner-Ghosn talks had a “good tone” and that he expected the two chiefs to meet again before the October deadline.
