Nissan plans $663 million investment in Renault's EV unit Ampere and says profit leapt in April-June

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Nissan and Renault have redefined their French-Japanese auto alliance to establish more equal cross-shareholdings

TOKYO — Nissan plans to invest 600 million euros ($663 million) in Ampere, Renault's electric vehicle and software entity in Europe. The two companies also plan to establish more equal cross-shareholdings in the French-Japanese auto alliance, they said Wednesday.

The change will end a disparity that had caused friction between the automakers.

Renault Group and Nissan will retain 15% cross-shareholdings in each other, and Renault will transfer 28.4% of its Nissan shares into a French trust, to keep voting rights of each side at 15% of the total, the companies said in a statement.

“The agreements that have been signed today allow us to step into the next chapter of the alliance,” said Jean-Dominique Senard, chairman of the alliance.

The change is subject to regulatory approval.

When the alliance was set up in 1999, Nissan was on the verge of bankruptcy. The deal initially announced earlier this year also calls for the companies to work together on marketing, vehicles and technology in Latin America, India and Europe.

Nissan also announced financial results, which showed that its net profit more than doubled to 105.5 billion yen ($753 million) in April-June. Sales in most markets were robust, offsetting weakness in China, it said.

Weakness in the Japanese yen also helped Nissan’s bottom line. A weak yen raises the value of Japanese companies' overseas earnings when they are converted into yen.

Quarterly sales grew 36% from a year earlier to 2.92 trillion yen ($20.8 billion). Nissan lowered its sales forecast for the year through March 2024 to 3.7 million vehicles, down from an earlier projection of 4 million