Relationships do not always live up to the hopes of yesteryear. In 2018 Carlos Ghosn, then boss of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, predicted combined sales of 14m vehicles in 2022. In fact sales may not have hit half that number. Pandemic-era supply-chain snarl-ups are only partly to blame. Another reason was the failure of Mr Ghosn’s plan for a much closer bond between Nissan, the Japanese firm he had rescued from bankruptcy in 1999, and Renault (the smaller Mitsubishi has been less integral to the pact). Although the partners benefited from joint purchasing, a few shared factories and some common parts and designs, Nissan largely followed
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