Ok. This is where we need a handy laminated chart to figure out what's going on.
First, what Renault owned was not the automotive part of Volvo. The Chinese own that now; Ford did own it and recently sold it to the Chinese automaker Geely.
What Renault sold what their ownership in the still-Swedish-owned Volvo Truck.
Straighforward enough, you might say. Not really, because that's just the beginning of Renault's complex ownership structure.
Renault also owns 44% of Nissan. At the same time, Nissan owns 15% of Renault.
Let's bring in the Germans. I quote here directly from Renault:
"On April 17, 2010 the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler AG announced a broad strategic cooperation that will enable both groups to already realize benefits quickly from a range of concrete projects as well as sharing of best practices. The two groups also announced an equity exchange that will give the Renault-Nissan Alliance a 3.1% stake in Daimler and Daimler a 3.1% in Renault and a 3.1% stake in Nissan."
Next. I'd never heard of AvtoVAZ before, but seems that they are the top Russian auto manufacturer. Renault owns 20% of AvtoVAZ.
Last but not least -- Fiat owns 35% of Chrysler.
I did find this, a chart of auto company/brand ownership, but it's from 2008, so the interest is primarily historical. It does give a nice feel for the complexity of it, though; the only problem is that it doesn't seem to pick up the 378 different auto companies in developing countries that are owned in part by one or the other of the EU-US-China-Japan-Korea cartel.
Checking with our in-house auto industry expert, Dr. Jeff Schultz -- his take is that the player to watch is Renault/Nissan, followed by Ford. He sees these two compnaies as having the best management of any of the major auto firms.
