“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows”——Shakespeare

The misery of the Europe auto industry, the falling of the Big three and other carmakers have forced the company to make alliance with their rivals. Daimler is increasingly become third member of the long running partnership between Renault of France and Nissan of Japan. The first cooperation between Daimler and Renault and Nissan start in 2010 and over the two years, the cooperation between the three carmakers becoming increasing intimated. As Mr. Zetche, Daimler’s boss stated, “Over time, we have built up so much trust we are working like hand and gloves.”

The alliances between carmakers are perhaps the most logical way to cut costs. Through cooperation company can combine their production, introducing new range of compact engines, and as well as sharing transmission on models. For example, GM is working with Ford to develop fuel saving gearboxes; Ford is working hybrid vehicles with Toyota; and Toyota cooperates with BMW for diesel engines. Thee all showed the trend of increasing cooperation between carmakers.

However, based on the recent events, partnership between the companies in automobile industry showed more failure than success. In 2005 GM paid Fiat 2billion to break up an unhappy alliances, and Volkswagen has went on a legal case with Suzuki due to their partnership.

Source: The Economist, Business Section, Oct. 6, “All for one, one for all”