Regarding the reason for Nissan's decision to withdraw, a person familiar with the matter revealed that it was related to Mitsubishi Motors' remarks at the alliance meeting. At that time, the relevant person in charge of Mitsubishi Motors said at the meeting that it would not continue to inject capital into the fund in the future. This remark triggered Nissan's new thinking on the operation of venture capital, so it had the plan to withdraw from the fund.
Few people outside know why AllianceVenture was founded. In fact, its establishment has a lot to do with the upgrading of the previous alliance structure. From 2065438 to 2008, the synergy of the alliance became more and more prominent, and carlos ghosn, then CEO of the alliance, intended to set up this fund company. The purpose is to reduce the technical pressure brought by industry changes to enterprises after the alliance faces the rise of autonomous driving and intelligent networking technology.
Now Nissan advocates withdrawing from the alliance fund, which means that the Ghosn era is officially over. On the other hand, it also shows that Nissan began to try to find the future development direction independently after the changes in the external market and internal structure in the past two years.
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The establishment of venture capital fund and the transformation layout of alliance
It is understood that Nissan's decision to withdraw from the fund is not temporary. Shortly after the Ghosn incident, Nissan once questioned this cooperation. Asvany Gupta, then the chief operating officer of Nissan Motor Company, once said: In terms of management, you will see that this alliance will develop in the direction of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi taking responsibility independently, so the investment income of this fund will not be sustainable.
The investment income mentioned by Aswani Gupta is the original intention of the Alliance to establish this fund.
20 18 1.9, a venture capital fund company initiated by Ghosn-? Alliance? Venture capital company was established with an initial capital injection of $200 million. At the beginning of its establishment, it is planned to invest 654.38 billion US dollars to support open innovation before 2023, and will invest as much as 200 million US dollars in future transportation fields such as car electrification, automatic driving system, car networking, artificial intelligence, etc., and participate in start-ups and carry out open innovation cooperation with technology entrepreneurs.
An alliance? In the first year of Ventures' establishment, the three car companies under the alliance will provide about $200 million in financial support to several venture capital companies in Silicon Valley, Paris, Beijing and Yokohama, Japan at a ratio of 4:4:2 respectively. The fund soon entered a stable operation state.
For the establishment of alliance fund, Ghosn once said: its uniqueness lies in that potential partners can go global with the help of Renault-Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance; Alliances can also benefit from direct investment. Some industry experts also have high hopes for this investment institution, because it can guarantee good financial returns for the alliance; It can also bring new technology and new business to the alliance. Venture capital fund will make strategic investment in all stages of enterprise entrepreneurship, incubate new automobile enterprises and establish new cooperative partnerships.
To be sure, under the background of Renault-Nissan alliance's transformation from traditional fuel power to pure electric and hybrid power, the alliance is a key breakthrough for enterprises to find new opportunities in the industry and an effective test for development.
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Why should car companies set up venture capital companies?
At the beginning, due to the stable source of funds, the operation of the alliance was very impressive. Former alliance? Fran? ois, head of venture capital? Dosa (Francois? Dossa) once publicly stated at the 6th EcoMotion Eco-energy Transportation Conference held in Tel Aviv, "Our funds are very abundant, and the company plans to make a new investment every month."
It is understood that Alliance has successively invested in Ionic, an American company that develops solid cobalt-free battery materials. Materials, Kalray, a French company that develops autonomous driving microprocessors, Shift, a used car platform in Silicon Valley, and Maniv, an Israeli automotive technology fund supported by Jaguar Land Rover and Valeo? Mobility. In China, Alliance also led the early development of China automatic taxi startup WeRide and cloud-based car retail platform TekionCorp.
Carlos ghosn release alliance? 2022 "planning
That is to say, at the same time, the global mainstream auto companies have followed the example of venture capital institutions and laid out their own venture capital companies. GM, BMW, Ford and Toyota have set up venture capital funds one after another, all of which express that they want to "compete" for investment in emerging high-tech enterprises in this way.
In the view of these traditional car companies, it is harmless to set up venture capital funds or exclusive investment departments, because its existence can largely solve their own uncertain factors, so as to meet future challenges and enhance their profitability.
It is in the process of car companies investing in start-ups that related companies will form a diversified development pattern through energy and technological changes. While mastering the future technology, enterprises can shorten the future R&D cycle and improve efficiency, thus forming close cooperation between technology and automobile manufacturing. By investing in start-up technology companies, you can ensure that they get technical support in areas they are not good at. Through the gradual accumulation of technology, it is more hopeful to form an independent research and development technology system.
After combing the main investment businesses of multinational car companies, car forecasters found that new mobile travel, car networking, autonomous driving, enterprise technology, electric vehicles, batteries and other energy sources are all links in their pursuit of investment.
Take General Motors as an example. Gm, a venture capital institution under the group? Venture Capital was established in 20 10, with an investment of 240 million US dollars, and has invested in more than ten companies. Among them, the range of companies on GM's investment list is very wide: taxi application software Raffles, driverless startup Cruise? Automation, battery company Envia? System and * * * enjoy the travel enterprise flinc, etc.
Such investment characteristics are similar in BMW. It is understood that I? Since the establishment of 20 1 1, venture capital has invested in 22 enterprises, among which there are many overlapping investment directions besides several rounds of investment by individual companies. Taking 3D printing technology as an example, in September 20 16 and February 20 17, BMW invested 8 1 10,000 USD and 45 million USD in Carbon and DesktopMetall respectively. BMW values the function of 3D printing technology to improve the production efficiency of parts and provide personalized customized services in the production process.
Toyota has also said that it will continue to do so after the initial investment and income. Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation, once said, "We hope our venture capital companies can make profits, but we hope to reinvest the profits in funds."
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Why did Nissan withdraw from venture capital?
Since the way of promoting venture capital and guiding technology development has been recognized by major enterprises and developed vigorously. Why did Nissan choose the alliance just after the Ghosn storm subsided? People in related industries said that on the one hand, as Nissan said, it may be due to the decline in sales, resulting in tight internal funds. On the other hand, it may also have a lot to do with Nissan's disapproval of developing technology reserves in the form of alliances from beginning to end.
Except before Nissan, it was transferred from the alliance. Since the merger, Nissan has been sneering at the "joint" R&D form led by the alliance. Although Nissan did not clearly explain the disadvantages of "joint research and development", many actions of Nissan have always been selfish on the issue of technology enjoyment.
It is understood that Nissan only chooses to jointly develop and enjoy the platform with Renault and Mitsubishi for the best-selling family cars. After having a certain scale and guaranteed profits, Nissan began to invest heavily in the research and development of niche performance cars and sports cars, but never disclosed or enjoyed this part of research and development technology to other brands in the alliance.
KyleTorrens, spokesman of Nissan Motor Company, also made it clear at the press conference that Nissan's next-generation sports car will not share platforms, engines or other major components with models produced by another automobile manufacturer. Because in Nissan's view, Renault and Mitsubishi's technology is not very helpful to accelerate Nissan's development.
This situation even appeared in the later alliance new energy vehicles. Nissan has rejected the proposal of joint research and development in the layout of electric vehicle business. However, the proposal was opposed by Renault, which regarded it as a "despicable" means to destroy the alliance form. However, Nissan believes that such a decision is due to the differences between itself and the alliance in the development of new energy vehicles.
Almost at the same time, Nissan started the research and development of bioethanol fuel cells and frozen solid polymer fuel cells, and these technologies were not disclosed. It can be seen that Nissan has a strong desire to master core technologies, and it is also very wary of the outside world, even Renault and Mitsubishi under the same alliance system.
Nowadays, when the venture capital company Alliance is still relying on the alliance as a carrier to absorb external technology and information, it also determines that its income and mastered technology are not "unique" for Nissan, which is probably the main factor for Nissan to withdraw.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.