Nissan has bought a 15% stake in Renault’s electric vehicle (EV) business Ampere.

Renault has held an alliance with Nissan alongside Mitsubishi, after the French automaker stepped in to prevent Nissan from bankruptcy in 1999.

Last month, Renault announced that it would be reducing its 43% stake in Nissan to just 15% – in an attempt to balance the partnership and become more equal.

Joint EV projects are on the books that Renault CEO Luca de Meo revealed could end up generating hundreds of millions of euros if things go well.

Nissan and Renault had an early advantage in the EV market, representing 46% of the entire market share in 2015; after the success of the Zoe and Leaf electric cars.

However, in recent years the companies’ early dominance has waned – with other automakers overtaking the firms and neither having an EV in the top 10 selling models.

There is hope that the rebalancing of power in the partnership will see progress quicken on certain projects that Nissan has been a leader on.

The initial new alliance deal is set to last for 15 years, with shared parts, electric technology plans and platforms making the building and designing process of EVs cheaper.

Former Chairman of both Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, was fond of having the companies merge into one firm before his arrest for alleged financial misconduct in November 2018.

The carmakers are hopeful this new deal will bring the companies closer together in development than they have been in the previous 24 years.