Since September 2004, Renault is worth as much if not more than General Motors out of Stock Exchange. The old floret of the French public capitalism comes to exceed the leader of the world car industry (symbol of the US post-WW2 capitalism) on its own ground: the stock value. The high rate currently of the euro compared to the US dollar explains partly this situation: at the unit exchange rate (1 euro = 1 dollar), the stock exchange capitalization of GM would remain higher than that of Renault.

The fact remains that the current situation reveals the major transformations of the French carmaker, as well on the financial level as on the industrial level. The disengagement of the State made it possible to the Renault top managers to create value for the shareholder by developing a strategy of internationalization which seems particularly effective: the spectacular turn around of Nissan is probably the principal vector. A great part of the valorization of the Renault share results from the rise of the Nissan share - the French carmaker having a 44.4% stake in the Japanese’s capital. The industrial success of the 5000 € car produced by Dacia in Romania and which will be imported in the European Union confirms the development of specific competences regarding the management of Renault international co-operations.

In a context where multiple voices suggest a decline of the French – even European – industry, this incites to a more precise and rigorous examination of the successes and failures. The GERPISA analytical grid of productive model would certainly help to contest such global hypotheses which continue to think in term of general trends without analysing the diversity of industrial dynamics.