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According to foreign media reports, the troubled Renault-Nissan alliance would have ushered in a new start this spring, but the plight of the alliance was exacerbated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. With sales falling sharply and most factories closed, Renault and Nissan executives said it was not known when business would return to normal, but to reduce the risk of the outbreak, plans to end products and businesses that have little hope of making a profit. That means Nissan will close its plant in Spain, while Renault may withdraw the Renault brand from the Chinese market, according to people familiar with the matter.

Affected by the epidemic, sales of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance have fallen sharply, and many of its overseas factories are closed. In the alliance's view, it doesn't make much sense to produce more cars, because car sales are also falling in countries that are allowed to operate. Previously, Renault has closed its factories in South Korea and China indefinitely, and the current plants in South Korea and China have resumed production.

It is understood that Renault has established joint ventures with Dongfeng Motor, brilliance China and Jiangling Motor in China, with four joint ventures: Dongfeng Renault, Jiangling Renault, Huachen Renault and easy Jet. Although Renault has a large number of joint ventures in China, Renault's sales in the Chinese market are low, selling 179571 vehicles in 2019, down 17.1% from 2018. According to data from the Federation of passengers, French cars have a market share of 0.3% in China, while Renault, as a member of the legal system, has close to 0% of the domestic market.

In fact, the sales of Renault brand outside China is not poor, and its models are not weak, but Renault is unaccustomed to local conditions in China's largest auto market.

As one of the three major Japanese brands, Nissan has a large share of the Chinese market. Sales figures show that Nissan sold 5.18 million vehicles worldwide in 2019, of which 1.54 million were sold in China, accounting for nearly 30% of global sales.

Nissan's sales are not very bad, but its performance is very ugly. According to the financial report, Nissan achieved revenue of 7.5073 trillion yen in the first three quarters, down 12.5% from the same period last year; operating profit was 54.3 billion yen, down 82.7% from the same period last year; and net profit was 39.3 billion yen, down 87.6% from the same period last year. Nissan downgraded its full-year results, forecasting a full-year operating profit of 85 billion yen and a full-year net profit of 65 billion yen

To save Nissan's beleaguered car, Makoto Uchida, CEO of Nissan, promised to come up with a plan by May to help the company recover from falling profits and business restructuring.

The core of Mr. Uchida's work since he took office in December last year is to be able to lead Nissan out of trouble. Nissan shareholders hope that Nissan can turn the company's predicament around, and he also said that "if he cannot reverse the decline of Nissan, he is willing to accept the fate of being fired." . But in the case of novel coronavirus's pandemic, the task has suddenly become particularly difficult.

Affected by the epidemic, Nissan has closed a number of factories except China and Japan, and its production capacity is also declining. In addition, Nissan decided to temporarily lay off about 10,000 overseas employees, including factories in Britain, Spain and the United States, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency.

"I'm sure no car company will be able to make an accurate forecast today in 2020," said Mr Uchida. " Since Ghosn's arrest, Renault and Nissan's sales have fallen, profits have evaporated, and the management of the alliance has fallen into chaos. To this end, Renault and Nissan plan to announce plans for the next three years in mid-May, hoping to attract investors' attention over the next three years through detailed strategic planning for profits and sales.

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