BEIJING/PARIS : Renault SA and China's Geely Automobile Holdings are working to finalize a deal to bring Saudi Arabian state oil producer Aramco in as an investor and partner to develop and supply gasoline engines and hybrid technologies, three people with knowledge of the talks said.
That investment by Aramco would leave Renault and Geely with 40 per cent each in the joint venture, which would combine a carve-out of the French automaker's existing combustion-engine production with Geely's gasoline and hybrid technology and related assets, the people told Reuters. The financial terms of the potential investment by Aramco in the joint-venture were not immediately known.
The people who described the outline of the deal being negotiated asked not to be named because it had not been announced. By carving out its internal-combustion-engine business, Renault plans to focus on electric cars, part of the French automaker's effort to revamp its alliance with Nissan Motor Co. As part of that, Renault is trying to convince Nissan to invest in its new electric vehicle unit.
One way to use those engines would be as a dedicated power generator to supply a charge to a hybrid car's battery system, rather than powering the vehicle directly when the battery charge was low, one of them said.