Carmakers Renault and Nissan announced moves yesterday to combine key operations under a new team of managers, the boldest step yet taken in their 15 year-old alliance.

Carlos Ghosn, who heads both car makers as chief executive, said it had taken this long for the corporate mindsets to evolve to allow a "peaceful and consensual" integration, but added that the car brands would remain separate and a full merger would be problematic.

“I am trying to create the minimum change for the maximum performance,” Mr Ghosn said.

The world’s fourth-biggest car grouping by sales has already been jointly purchasing some components and developing common vehicle architectures to cut costs, but it must boost economies of scale to compete with giants like Volkswagen. – ( Reuters )