#Renault

I discovered the French sense of humor piloting the new Renault Megane 250 Cup through the Scottish Highlands. When I inadvertently induced a lift-off oversteer situation, I found myself staring at an oncoming tractor through a strategically placed EuroNCAP 5-star crash rating sticker on the windscreen. The team at Renaultsport might have made one of the finest hot hatches on the market today ( again!), yet its nice to know that the engineers at Renault in Paris crafted a safety cage among the best on the continent to protect you when your talent runs out, whether you impact a tractor, hedge, or stray Italian.

While some analysts (who might be sitting on large quantities of GM and Ford stock ) already dream of a sales rate between 15 and 16 million cars by year’s end in the U.S., CEOs of European carmakers are less gung ho.

The alleged Renault spy case is getting curiouser and curiouser. Renault is in full reverse. Renault CEO Patrick Pelata said information may have been leaked about the costs and economic model of the program, but all technical secrets are safe. “Not the smallest nugget of technical or strategic information on the innovation plan has filtered out of the enterprise.” So what, they are missing a spreadsheet?

We don’t know who gave which state secrets to whom at Renault. But now we know what everybody already suspected: “The Elysee has charged the DCRI (intelligence services) with an investigation. It is following a Chinese lead,” a French government source told Reuters.

If they find a smoking gun in China, then it’s war: Yesterday, France’s industry minister Eric Besson called the scandal “economic warfare.”

Reuters doesn’t know more, but found some highly suspicious activity:

While the US government was saving Chrysler with the Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, American Motors had to go to the French government for its bailout.

Global alliances between humongous corporate entities are always intimidating and mostly ill-performing. Oftentimes they just don’t work (née Daimler-Chrysler). Other times we just don’t see the point (Ford and various ex-PAG members or GM-Saab). The Renault-Nissan Alliance, who-would-have-believed-it is maybe, just maybe, the most successful of the lot. As TTAC itself has reported earlier, the French car known as the Nissan Tiida is now America’s best-selling compact car. In Brazil, Nissan has just sprinkled some of its Nippo-fairy-wand-dust on Renault’s latest gambit in the relatively small, but very profitable executive level segment in Brazil.

Now, let’s clarify a bit.

Full Disclosure: I hate “The Simpsons” and I hate Renault cars. So this article is going to have me seething.

In the car world, the BRIC countries have already got their institutional market leaders. That’s how quick these markets are moving. General Motors and Volkswagen have an iron grip on the Chinese market, Suzuki and Hyundai have India in their palms. Fiat is king in Brazil. But Russia is still anybody’s game. Well, Renault and Nissan want to change that.

A few months ago I reported how Renault was planning on pulling out of IBC Vehicles (a joint venture between Nissan, General Motors and Renault) so they could take production of their Renault Trafic van to their underutilized plant in Sandouville, France. This would have left IBC Vehicles in trouble as valuable volume would have left the plant in a precarious position. Well, it seems IBC Vehicles can now afford to say “Au Revoir” to Renault.

When Renault, Nissan and Daimler all tied up together many people thought this was just a symbolic gesture. The venture may help each other out in designs and joint ventures, but personally, I didn’t see anything of real substance happening from it. Well, it seems that Nissan and Daimler are taking this cross holding seriously. Very seriously.

Despite being in sensual Paris, no one is going to accuse me of shameless sexual exploitation by posting this ugly little R4, or the woman behind it. I was late on the draw, and just missed a gaggle of cute girls who just walked behind it thirty seconds earlier. Why do they all have to smoke, though? Back to the subject at hand: I know many Americans may barely know know of the R4’s existence, and would be quite happy to go their graves without being enlightened to its Gallic charms. But it does represents one of the most important milestone in the development of the modern car: this lowly little box created and defined the whole genre of the compact hatchback. And it has a few other significant honors in its resumé. So put your anti Frenchy-car bias aside for a few minutes, and I promise to make it quick. And I have a bit of sexiness for the end.

Take a look at the above picture and have a think about what’s wrong with it? Answer after the jump.

There used to be a time when Japan exported cars. Now, they export car factories. Nissan has been on the forefront of this movement for a while. Now comes their biggest export deal: Nissan plans to double its capacity in China by 2012, writes Reuters. That would bring their annual capacity in China to 1.2 million units.

Autocar reports that Renault workers in France are jumping on a bus and heading to the Paris Motor Show. Are the doing it because they fancy a day out? Maybe they want to see all the nice cars on display? Nope, they’re going there to protest. OK, so who do you think they are going to protest? Hyundai? Toyota? Ford? Nope. They’re protesting against Renault. So, a bunch of French Renault workers are going to the Paris Motor Show to protest against their own company? Why?

Volkswagen, Daimler, Audi, BMW: Despite tanking sales in Europe, they all report record numbers. Why? Exports and a weak Euro. It’s not just a German thing. Same across the Rhine: Agence France Press (via Google News) reports that Renault is very bullish on the back of strong sales in the first half of 2010. Renault is up an amazing 21.6 percent to 1.35 million vehicles. Growth of 21.6 percent is good in Renault’s eyes as they claimed that the global market grew 16 percent. Meaning: Renault gained global market share.