Dongfeng Renault Period
With the failure of the cooperation with Sanjiang Renault and the postponement of the restructuring, Renault began to negotiate cooperation with China Dongfeng Motor. During the negotiation process, the two sides found it difficult to reach an agreement on a series of issues, including the location of the factory and how to restructure Sanjiang Renault, which led to a long negotiation period.[3] In fact, as early as 2003, when Carlos Ghosn, then CEO of Renault–Nissan Alliance, signed a joint venture agreement with Dongfeng Motor for Dongfeng Nissan, he said that Renault models would be produced in mainland China in due course. At that time, the three companies established the Dongfeng-Renault-Nissan "Golden Triangle" tripartite cooperation mechanism. At the same time, Renault's sales in China also increased from less than 900 vehicles in 2008 to more than 24,200 vehicles in 2011.
On January 31, 2012, Renault COO Carlos Tavares said that Renault was "close to completing final negotiations with Dongfeng Motor Corporation".[8] In the same year, Dongfeng Motor and Aerospace Sanjiang signed an equity transfer agreement, and Dongfeng Motor acquired Aerospace Sanjiang's equity in Sanjiang Renault.[9] The cooperation project between Dongfeng Renault and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China was approved by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council in May 2013, and the change registration approval was obtained from the Administration for Industry and Commerce in June of the same year.[8] The National Development and Reform Commission also officially approved the project of Dongfeng Renault on December 2. The two parties signed the contract on December 16 and obtained the approval of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China on January 26, 2014. According to the contract, Renault and Dongfeng jointly invested 7.76 billion yuan to establish Dongfeng Renault, with each party holding 50% of the shares. Since then, all relevant work on the tripartite cooperation mechanism of Dongfeng-Renault-Nissan "Golden Triangle" has been completed.[9] Dongfeng Renault also backdoor acquired the production qualifications of Sanjiang Renault, but since Sanjiang Renault is only allowed to produce SUV and commercial vehicles, Dongfeng Renault's first model must be an SUV according to government requirements. If it wants to produce sedans, it needs to apply for approval separately later.[9] Dongfeng Renault obtained the qualification to produce sedans in mid-2017. Although Renault pushed hard to build a factory in Guangzhou, which has the largest passenger car production base under Dongfeng Nissan, and the Huadu District government also set up a leading group in 2007 to follow up on the project site selection, the Dongfeng Renault production base was finally settled in Wuhan, where Dongfeng's headquarters is located.[6][3] In addition, according to Dongfeng Renault's plan, Renault China's dealer network will be integrated.[9]
On March 18, 2016, Dongfeng Renault launched its first model, the Koleos, followed by the Koleos in the same year, the Koleos SUV and the all-electric Renault e-Trump in 2019.[10] Dongfeng Renault sold 72,000 vehicles in 2017, the highest in history; in 2019, sales were only 18,500 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 63%. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the cumulative sales in January–March 2020 were only 663 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 88.65%. In addition, from 2016 to 2019, Dongfeng Renault sponsored the Wuhan Marathon.[11]
On April 14, 2020, Dongfeng Group Co., Ltd. announced that it plans to reorganize Dongfeng Renault. Renault plans to transfer its 50% stake in Dongfeng Renault to Dongfeng Group Co., Ltd. and stop Renault brand-related business activities.[12] On August 28 of the same year, Dongfeng Renault Automobile Co., Ltd. was renamed Dongfeng Motor (Wuhan) Co., Ltd., which meant that Renault officially withdrew from the ranks of shareholders and the company became a subsidiary of Dongfeng Group Co., Ltd.[13] The original Dongfeng Renault factory was transformed into a Dongfeng intelligent manufacturing production base to produce Voyah brand models.[11][14]
