| Welcome to the Hyperdrive daily briefing on what's reshaping the auto world. Read the story featured in today's newsletter on the web here, and sign up if you're not already subscribed. Renault and Nissan's decades-long alliance has variously been likened to an unhappy marriage, a Gordian knot, and a lock in need of a key. What it hasn't been described as — even by the automakers' own chief executive officers — is at all effective for the last half decade. In an interview with Bloomberg Television's Tom MacKenzie on Monday, Renault's Luca de Meo and Nissan's Makoto Uchida spoke both candidly about discord that's dragged on their partnership, and hopefully about its future now that they've agreed to equalize shareholdings and work together on joint projects, including multiple electric vehicles.  Renault CEO Luca de Meo and Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida during their Bloomberg Television interview Monday in London. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg Here are excerpts from the conversation that have been edited and condensed for length and clarity: Bloomberg: We heard in the press conferences that this is a new start for the alliance, but the ties have been weakened as a result of the shareholding changes. Explain how this reboots the alliance. De Meo: A lot of discussion has been going on for years about the governance. We took on the problem of the basic operations and the potential business that lies in the cooperation, from the bottom up. This new deal is based on business opportunities and simple, clear rules. As a consequence — not as an objective — of the discussions was the idea of going back to a normal governance scheme between the two companies and having cross-shareholding participation. We had a very baroque way of handling governance issues, with Nissan having 15% of Renault without any voting rights, and we on the other side having 43% of Nissan. Now, it's going to be 15%-15%. That's the destination. We will be eye-and-eye, and it will be just a simple, normal governance scheme.  Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard during an alliance news conference Monday in London. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg Bloomberg: Some investors and analysts say this could be a renewal of vows, and some say it could be the first step toward a divorce. What is your response to that? Uchida: If you look at our business circumstances today, the world's markets are fragmenting, and we need to demonstrate our value proposition in each market. Luca has his own "Renaulution" as a Renault strategy, and we as Nissan also have our own strategy, and how we can maximize those together was the initial discussion. We should not be sticking to the past way for our future growth. That's not how the automotive industry is working now. These circumstances made us move in this way, to cooperate more to be much better and stronger. Bloomberg: To those who say Renault and the French state have given away too much in this deal, how do you reply to that? De Meo: We got the support of the French state, which is one of our major shareholders, because they understood that we had to move on. The previous governance that was decided in a way had an impact on the operation. I'm the CEO, so I look at the business and the business opportunity. We have been fighting to propose something where everybody — any stakeholder — could see that the future would be better than the last three, four or five years, based on the projects we have agreed to. Now of course, we have to execute them one after the other, but they are not rocket science. What we have announced today in terms of business projects and opportunities is much bigger than what we have ever done at least in the last 10 years, from a pure business and value-creation point of view. That's the most important thing. Bloomberg: An important part of the shareholder structure change is Renault putting the 28% stake in Nissan into a trust. Will Nissan buy those shares back, and if so, under what time frame? Uchida: We're going to make an equal partnership in order for us to grow together, that's the first priority. Our partner has their economic rights through this trustee, and my job is to get Nissan's share price to the right level in order for my partner to be satisfied. The entire thing is being discussed in that manner. Bloomberg: What about your investment in Ampere, the electric vehicle unit of Renault. How much does Nissan want to invest? Uchida: First, I maybe would maybe like to see how Luca is going to make Ampere more attractive for me. De Meo: I will, I will. Uchida: He will, and I'm going to be a strategic partner, as we are today. So when he wants to do a new business, let's say in Europe, we can get a lot of opportunities through this new pillar of Renault. There's a lot of opportunity that we can build, so we're saying up to a 15% stake initially, and of course he will demonstrate a lot to me to make it more attractive.  A Renault 5 electric vehicle at the IAA Munich Motor Show in September 2021. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Bloomberg: It's been a year since Renault announced it was going to be restructuring its business. There will be those who look back at the process and say it took too long to execute. Does this allow you to execute more quickly? De Meo: We executed one of the most brutal and effective restructuring projects in the automotive industry in the last couple of decades. In parallel, we developed probably the most attractive lineup of projects that will come from now to 2025 for all the brands. I don't think we've been sleeping at all or been slow. There is a very strong dynamic with Renault. My focus is the execution of the strategy of Renault, and I look at the alliance as an opportunity. Now, I can clearly see, because we have very concrete projects. I don't think we've been so slow, because this thing has been locked for four or five years, and in a matter of six or eight months, we actually found the key.  Ford's Mustang Mach-E. Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg Ford is getting back to basics and needs to do more with less, Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said during an interview with Bloomberg TV's David Westin. Read more here about how the carmaker is cutting senior managers' performance bonuses.  BMW emblems on the production floor at the automaker's facility in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, in 2021. Photographer: Mauricio Palos/Bloomberg BMW will invest €800 million ($872 million) in its San Luis Potosí, Mexico, plant to manufacture electric vehicles. The German automaker also is hoping to piggy-back on hydrogen fueling stations for commercial vehicles to help solve the protracted issue of getting infrastructure in place for cars powered by the alternative fuel. "It's much easier to set up hydrogen stations for larger truck fleets as logistics operators already show interest in this," Jürgen Guldner, who leads BMW's hydrogen technology program, said in an interview. Like getting this newsletter? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. | 
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