Is Nissan-GM alliance the way to keep Toyota from reaching the top?

The talks scheduled between Renault-Nissan and General Motors might be more than just about sharing production and development costs. In the business world, a threat like the one posed by Toyota is the equivalent of declaring war, and Bloomberg thinks that Carlos Ghosn is playing GM as the ultimate RISK card. As Nissan races to catch up to its bigger Japanese brother, idle plants at GM look cheaper than attempting to match (even remotely) Toyota's huge rate of expansion at $1.3 billion a month this year on factories in countries in North America, Europe and Asia. 

But is it enough to keep the big dog down? Toyota plans to sell 10.3 million vehicles worldwide by 2010, while Renault-Nissan only sold just over 6 million this year combined. Only time and the outcome of talks between Carlos Ghosn and Rick Wagoner will tell.

[Source: Bloomberg]