Automotive Alliances Multiply

[MSI]

June 10, 2010: The Economist magazine reports on the alliance model for automobile companies: Renault-Nissan, Nissan-Dongfeng (Chinese) , Nissan-AvtoVaz (Russian carmaker), Daimler-Renault-Nissan, etc.
A successful alliance is like a marriage: They share engineering expertise, purchasing parts jointly, etc.
Further scale is needed for three reasons: First; sharing development costs for new powertrains, Second; joint investments in manufacturing capacity and dealer networks and third; big manufacturers must cover every segment so "niche players" can fill out segments.
See the article in the Economist "All together now: The Renault-Nissan alliance has become a template for the car industry.