2011–2020: Mergers, Alliances and Partnerships in the Car Industry

Gareth J. Hargreaves • August 15, 2026 20:17

The 2011–2020 decade was far from straightforward for the automotive industry. Over those ten years, the car world ran into some of the biggest tests in its history.

From climbing out of a global financial crisis, to tougher anti-pollution rules, to an emissions scandal, the decade seemed to culminate in the widespread announcement of mega-investments designed to cope with electrification and the digitalisation of the car.

To deal with all of this, many manufacturers and automotive groups chose to follow the maxim “strength in unity” to the letter. While hardly new in the sector, partnerships, alliances and even outright mergers between carmakers sped up again in the decade just gone, bringing the era of “proudly alone” brands close to an end.

Another major development was the strong arrival on the international stage of Chinese manufacturers and groups. Having started the decade as outsiders, they became central players-teaming up with (and financing) prestigious European brands, and using that route to gain access to a market that had been closing its doors to them.

The ones who own it all

Starting, fittingly, with the Middle Kingdom, one automotive group stood out over the last decade: Geely (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd). Now 34 years old, this giant became widely known for acting as Volvo’s lifeline in 2010, when the Swedish marque was leaving Ford’s orbit.

Since then, Volvo has been completely reinvented and has continued to grow, rebuilding prestige, sales and profit. Geely did not stop there. It launched two brands in Europe-Lynk & Co in 2016 and Polestar in 2017-also bought Lotus, which will be betting heavily (also) on electrification, and even secured a stake in Daimler (the parent company of Mercedes-Benz and Smart). It does not look like they will stop here…

Still within the sphere of Chinese influence over the fate of European automotive groups, Dongfeng ultimately played a decisive role in rescuing France’s Groupe PSA. The 2008 financial crisis left the French group in serious difficulty at the start of the decade, but Dongfeng-a group with which Groupe PSA already had a joint venture in China-together with the French state, managed to save the group successfully.

Putting Carlos Tavares in charge of the French group was, without doubt, another crucial move in making Groupe PSA one of the most dynamic automotive groups of recent years. The company not only returned to profit, but also achieved what can be described as a very robust financial position-strong enough to add another brand to the existing line-up (Opel) and to spin off another as a standalone marque (DS Automobiles).

Speaking of Opel, it became one of the protagonists in the post-crisis GM (General Motors) “storm”. After an initial attempt to sell it in the aftermath of the crisis-avoiding the same fate as historic names such as Saab or Pontiac-it was eventually sold (along with its “twin”, Vauxhall) to Groupe PSA in 2017. Since then, the German brand has managed to return to profitability-in 2018-something that had not happened since… 1999!

The former “owner of it all” (for a long time, the world’s biggest automotive group), GM, by contrast, kept shrinking its global footprint after the crisis. It disposed of several brands, pulled out of multiple markets, and shut down industrial operations in various countries.

It said an (almost) final goodbye to Europe-selling Opel and with Chevrolet leaving the “Old Continent” in 2016-focused on its most profitable territories such as North America, and consolidated its position in the “El Dorado” that is the Chinese market, largely via Buick.

The Renault–Nissan Alliance also became the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance from 2016, after Nissan acquired 34% of Mitsubishi’s share capital in 2016, making Nissan the majority shareholder.

Yet perhaps the decade’s biggest headline was the merger between Groupe PSA and FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), announced in 2019 and formally completed at the start of 2021, which created a new automotive giant: Stellantis.

FCA’s story is an unusual one. Following the purchase of the bankrupt Chrysler in 2009, the new entity was created in 2014 through the merger of Fiat Group and Chrysler. Even so, that still was not enough. Led by the late Sergio Marchionne, FCA was among the first to state publicly that the industry would only overcome future challenges through further consolidation.

For years, Marchionne searched for a partner to cut costs and increase synergies. That pursuit led FCA to “court” General Motors and Hyundai, and it almost tied the knot with Renault. For any group, the key attraction in joining FCA was a front-door entry into the North American market and access to the highly profitable Jeep and Ram brands. Who would have thought that, after all these twists, it would end up joining the French group?

As for the Volkswagen Group-one of the world’s largest automotive groups-it endured a turbulent decade, defined above all by Dieselgate and the resulting, massive push towards electrification. Even so, that did not prevent the German giant from expanding its brand portfolio in parallel. In 2012 it added Ducati, MAN and Porsche.

Friends: what would I do without you?

If the goal is to consolidate operations (cutting costs and boosting economies of scale), acquisitions and mergers are arguably the most direct route. But they are not the only option: partnerships focused on specific areas became even more frequent (and more important) in the last decade, largely to cope with rising development and production costs.

Few examples show the value of partnerships better than Daimler. For many years “proudly alone”, the German brand worked with other manufacturers more than ever between 2011 and 2020.

The best-known of these collaborations was with the Renault–Nissan Alliance. Daimler not only agreed to use the famous 1.5 dCi and 1.6 dCi (A-Class, CLA, C-Class), but also co-developed with the Alliance (before Mitsubishi joined) the 1.33 Turbo petrol engine.

And there was more: Daimler and Renault jointly developed the current generation of the Smart fortwo/forfour and the Renault Twingo, and Daimler made use of the French brand’s know-how in small vans to create the Mercedes-Benz Citan, a Germanised version of the Kangoo. The Renault–Nissan Alliance also used the A-Class MFA platform to launch the Infiniti Q30 and QX30 (unfortunately they were not successful and have since ended their careers).

Daimler’s closeness to Aston Martin is also worth noting-first through the supply of engines (V8) and electronic components, and more recently through the purchase of a stake in the British manufacturer.

On the technology front, Daimler likewise embraced the idea that “strength in unity” can also cut costs. For example, together with arch-rivals BMW and Audi, it acquired Nokia’s HERE app. Still with BMW, Daimler merged its Car2Go business with Share Now-both car-sharing companies-creating Drive Now. The two “enemies” are also working together on autonomous-driving technologies.

Staying with BMW, it chose to join forces with Toyota: together they developed not only two sports models-BMW Z4 and Toyota GR Supra-but also collaborate in other areas that will become clear later.

Remaining on the subject of sports cars, there were further examples born from two-manufacturer cooperation: Mazda MX-5/Fiat 124 Spider/Abarth 124 Spider and Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ.

Electrifying the car? You have to join forces

Much has been said about the rapid transformation underway in the automotive industry. A large part of that shift is the partial and full electrification of the car-an evolution that brings extraordinarily high costs. It is not only necessary to acquire new skills and develop new technologies; it also forces changes to existing industrial capacity and the creation of new infrastructure (battery factories, for instance).

These heavy investments only pay off with substantial economies of scale, and not every player has them. As a result, new partnerships have been formed-either to share development costs or to secure access to the technology.

Ford and Volkswagen, despite being two automotive giants, “held hands”… again. After jointly producing the Ford Galaxy/Volkswagen Sharan/SEAT Alhambra in Palmela, this time Volkswagen will provide Ford with its well-known MEB electric-car platform.

They are not alone. Honda-one of the few “proudly” independent manufacturers-set up a partnership with General Motors in 2020 to jointly develop electric models for the Japanese brand using the American giant’s Ultium batteries.

At the same time, Japan’s Mazda, Toyota and Denso “joined hands” and created a new company three years ago. The goal of this joint venture? To develop foundational structural technologies for electric vehicles. Also within Toyota, its increasingly intricate relationship with Subaru includes the development of electric vehicles.

Daimler, too, partnered with Geely to develop and manufacture the next generation of small Smart models in China-models that will remain exclusively electric.

Electrification is not limited to battery electric vehicles. Fuel-cell technology (hydrogen fuel cells) is further away, but appears to be gaining momentum, especially when linked to heavy goods vehicles. Volvo and Daimler have joined forces in that direction, for example, for their future lorries.

For passenger cars, this may not happen quite as quickly, but several partnerships already exist around hydrogen fuel-cell technology: again BMW and Toyota, and also between Hyundai Motor Group and Audi.

Finally, electrification would not be complete without hybrids. Once more, Toyota takes centre stage here, having created multiple partnerships to supply its technology and/or vehicles. One of these was with Suzuki, resulting in two models, the Swace and the Across. A “good old example” of badge engineering that allowed Suzuki to offer two hybrid models in Europe without the high development costs associated with the technology.

Mazda also makes use of Toyota’s hybrid technology, applying it to models such as the Mazda3, although sales are limited to certain markets such as Japan. Mazda and Toyota’s cooperation extends into other areas as well: from building a shared factory in the US to Mazda launching a version of the Yaris Hybrid in Europe.

Working together makes things easier

And if partnerships and joint ventures are increasingly common in the passenger-car world, in commercial vehicles (FCA–PSA, for example, or Volkswagen–Daimler) they are the norm-and the past decade was no different.

In this way, seeking to regain lost success in the light commercial segment, Toyota teamed up with Stellantis (then still PSA) to produce the Toyota ProAce and ProAce City. The former took the place of the Hiace, while the latter-based on the Citroën Berlingo, Peugeot Partner and Opel Combo-brought Toyota into a segment it had never previously entered.

Mercedes-Benz, for its part, made use of its partnerships with the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance and, beyond launching the Citan (based on the Kangoo), introduced its first pick-up, the X-Class. Built on the Nissan Navara and a “cousin” of the also-new Renault Alaskan, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class shows that “as a team” it is easier (and cheaper) to enter new segments.

Finally, Ford and Volkswagen will also cooperate in the commercial-vehicle space. The successor to the Ford Ranger will underpin the second generation of the… Volkswagen Amarok. Meanwhile, the successor to the Ford Transit Connect-the smallest Transit-will be derived directly from the new Volkswagen Caddy. The next generation of the Volkswagen Transporter will be developed by Ford; in other words, the Transporter will be a “sister” model to the Ford Transit.

Another pick-up partnership that ultimately had little commercial impact was the deal between Fiat and Mitsubishi, with the former selling the Fullback, a “clone” of the well-known L200.

Ferrari: proudly alone

Interestingly, in a decade defined by mergers and unions, one brand went in the opposite direction and is currently on its own-much like its founder: Ferrari.

After 45 years under Fiat’s “umbrella”, the first signs of separation appeared in 2014, when Sergio Marchionne saw an opportunity to increase the value of the historic Italian brand and also help finance the recovery of other group marques, notably Alfa Romeo. The process of separating Ferrari from FCA began in 2015, and on 3 January 2016 it was considered complete.

The operation proved to be a… success, and today Ferrari, by itself, has seen its valuation almost quintuple-worth almost as much as all of Stellantis, for example.

Growing pains

Not everything was “roses”. A number of these partnerships and unions also ran into problems-or simply stopped making sense.

Perhaps the most talked-about in recent years has been the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, whose relationship issues boiled over in the media in 2018 after the arrest of its leader, Carlos Ghosn. However, reports of the alliance’s “death” were clearly exaggerated. After a more turbulent period, the three brands agreed a new cooperation model, because only together will they be able to face this entire period of change.

Still involving the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, we have also recently seen a noticeable distancing from Daimler. Mercedes-Benz, for instance, stopped using Renault’s 1.5 dCi in 2020. At the same time, the new global partnership (joint venture 50-50) between Daimler AG and Geely to run and develop Smart worldwide brought an end to the collaboration with Renault that produced the current generation of the Smart Fortwo/Forfour and Renault Twingo.

The next decade

Now, standing at the “door” of a new decade, beyond mergers and partnerships like those we have seen, there is an even more pressing question on the automotive industry’s horizon: who will still be standing by the end of this new decade?

Carlos Tavares warned about the risks of the rapid and very expensive transformation the industry is going through. In his view, there is a possibility that not everyone will survive to the end of the next decade-especially as the market is still declining due to the pandemic crisis and the resulting economic downturn that has marked the start of this decade. Even acquisitions, mergers and partnerships may not be enough to consolidate the entire industry.