PRESS RELEASE
For immediate publication

December 9, 1999

In a new phase in the deployment of synergies between the two groups,

Renault returns to Mexico
via a major cooperative project with Nissan

The support of Nissan's industrial facilities and commercial resources will enable Renault, as part of its strategy of international development, to return to the Mexican market in the most cost-effective way possible. Giving full support to Renault, Nissan, in its turn, can enhance its sales and marketing by expanding its product line-up in Mexico and considerably improve its competitive situation through production cooperation, common purchasing and common use of back-office. New services will be offered by Renault Credit International (RCI), a Renault company specialized in financing sales, for both Renault and Nissan customers and dealer networks in Mexico. The two partners will invest US$400 million over a seven-year period in this project.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance, signed on March 27, 1999, is based on a strategy of profitable growth for both companies and mutual support. The Mexican project is an integral part of this common strategy.

Renault in Mexico:

In line with its strategy of profitable growth and international development, Renault launched a project in 1998 to establish operations in Mexico, a market with highly significant growth prospects and potential annual sales of one million vehicles by 2010 (compared to 643,000 vehicles registered in 1998).

Renault pulled out of the Mexican market in 1986, at a time when the company's difficulties in Europe, together with a crisis in the local market, prevented it from continuing its operations there. Renault now has a sound financial situation, a range of high quality innovative products, top-level competitiveness and a major strategic alliance with Nissan.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has enabled Renault to accelerate its project and bring costs down, thanks to the support of Nissan's industrial and commercial facilities in Mexico. Renault's return to the Mexican market will allow Nissan to optimize its local operations by increasing the workload at its plants and expanding its own range of products. This cooperative effort will therefore result in gains for both partners.

The aim of the project is to position Renault, with the support of Nissan's industrial excellence, as a benchmark in terms of innovation in customer service and to build the brand's future in Mexico with a range of innovative products and services of the highest quality.

To that end, Renault will create a subsidiary in Mexico which will distribute through its own dealer network, as of 2001, a range of Renault products, imported or assembled locally by Nissan Mexicana.

The first vehicle to go on sale will be the Scenic, a highly innovative compact monospace which created a new market segment in Europe and of which over 713,000 units have been sold since it was first launched. In the next two years, Renault will introduce new vehicles to Mexico, in particular the Scenic RX4, the first monospace-based sport utility, as well as the Clio and other products designed to cover each segment of the Mexican market. These products will also feature high levels of equipment, notably in terms of safety, an area in which Renault has become a leader in Europe.

Renault vehicles will be sold through a network offering high quality and innovative standards of service. Renault's objective initially is to set up dealerships in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, regions that, alone, account for 75% of the Mexican market. This network will be gradually developed to include some 50 dealers by the year 2003. These dealers will be chosen preferably from among Nissan's current dealers. Full use will be made of Nissan's back office operations for marketing Renault products. A new customer credit service will be proposed to both the Renault network and the Nissan network by Renault Cr*dit International (RCI), a Renault subsidiary specialized in financing automobile sales.

Renault is aiming to sell around 30,000 vehicles as of 2003 and 80,000 vehicles a year in the longer term. Moreover, by establishing operations in Mexico in partnership with Nissan, Renault will be able to strengthen its commercial presence in Central America and the Caribbean region.

Nissan in Mexico:

Through its subsidiary Nissan Mexicana (NISMEX), Nissan is solidly established in Mexico and has been operating there since 1961. It was the second largest car maker for the Mexican domestic market in 1998, with a market share of 22 %. In 1998, Nissan Mexicana produced 189,700 vehicles. The Nissan dealer network in Mexico comprises 160 dealers. Nissan has two assembly plants, located in Cuernavaca and Aguascalientes, a powertrain plant (engines and gearboxes) in Aguascalientes and an iron-casting plant in Lerma. The Cuernavaca plant produces the Sentra, the Tsuru, the Lucino, the Tsubame and the Pick-up, sold on the Mexican and Latin American markets. The Aguascalientes plant produces the new Sentra for the U.S and Canadian markets, as well as the Tsuru for the Mexican and exports markets.

Nissan sales support activities will be highly enhanced by the credit services to be provided to its own customers through the Nissan dealer network from the RCI subsidiary mentioned above.

The Nissan Mexicana plants will produce for Renault two flagship models from the Renault product range: the Clio and the Scenic, equipped with the 1.6-litre 16V engine for the Clio and the 2-litre 16V engine for the Scenic. Beginning in 2001, the Scenic will be assembled in Cuernavaca. Then, as of 2002, the Clio will be made in Aguascalientes, which contains stamping and mechanical shops. Later on, Nissan will assemble and sell a new vehicle resulting from the cooperation between both companies. Enriching its product line-up with this new vehicle, Nissan expects to increase its sales in Mexico and to strengthen its presence in the Central and South American markets.

Approximately 100,000 Renault vehicles or vehicles engineered in cooperation with Renault will be manufactured in the Nissan Mexicana plants in 2003 and, in all, production volumes planned in connection with the Alliance during the 2000-2010 period could, taking all models into account, total 1,200,000 vehicles - 400,000 for Renault and 800,000 for Nissan. This additional production resulting from the Alliance, coupled with increased production of the Sentra destined for the US and Canadian markets, will give the Nissan Mexicana plants a nearly full capacity utilization and, combined with cost benefits from common purchasing and common use of back-office, will contribute significantly to the profitability of Nissan's operations in Mexico.

The amount of capital investment envisaged by the two partners in connection with this cooperative venture is estimated at US$400 million for the 1999-2006 period.