Renault, Nissan to Join Manufacturing, R&D For $4 Bln Annual Savings.

Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA will combine their manufacturing and research functions in a move that will save the alliance more than 400 billion yen ($3.86 billion) a year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The initiative would mark one of the most drastic steps yet in pooling together the long-time partners' resources-something they initially struggled to achieve.

Under the planned structure, Nissan and Renault will be able to assemble cars, using shared parts, at the same factories, the Nikkei said.

Nissan and Renault will adopt the new structure first at their jointly held factory in India as early as in 2015, expanding to more than 10 countries by 2020, the Nikkei said.

The alliance, which together owns nearly 50 factories worldwide, plans to bring Russian affiliate Avtovaz into the fold, the paper said.

The New Indian Express