Unlike Renault-Nissan Chief Carlos Ghosn or Chrysler-Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne, Winterkorn is a classic car guy.
Daimler needed a party with a good joint-venture track record, and the obvious choice was Renault-Nissan.
It has been in talks with Renault-Nissan, for instance, and with China's Chery Automotive.
Ghosn wants the Renault-Nissan tie-up to tap synergies, not just add names to the annual report.
The statement from Ford, the Renault-Nissan alliance and Daimler stressed the geographic spread of the firms.
BBC: Nissan FCEV on display at a car show in Brussels in January
Although Renault-Nissan is an example of successful cross-border consolidation, it is a rare one.
Ghosn, in fact, explicitly says the Renault-Nissan alliance someday could be expanded to include a North American carmaker.
Renault-Nissan and Daimler have been forming an increasingly close partnership since 2010.
BBC: Nissan FCEV on display at a car show in Brussels in January
"This decision does not at all call into question the electric vehicle strategy of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, " the company said in a statement.
Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of the Renault-Nissan alliance, said he wants his companies to move just as quickly as any Silicon Valley start-up.
"We are not competing with each other, " he says, referring to how Renault-Nissan and Mercedes tend to attract very different people as customers.
Ford, Renault-Nissan and Daimler have agreed to jointly develop a fuel cell system to try to speed up the availability of zero-emission vehicles.
BBC: Nissan FCEV on display at a car show in Brussels in January
Firms such as Renault-Nissan and DaimlerChrysler are striving for fairly balanced global production, meaning volume production across at least two huge regional markets.
Although he refuses to reveal figures, Mr Ghosn says the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of battery capacity for Renault-Nissan cars has fallen by half in four years.
If Chrysler stages a miraculous recovery with its help, Mr Marchionne would have pulled off something similar to Carlos Ghosn's Renault-Nissan alliance at almost no cost other than diverted management time.
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At their Brussels press conference on Wednesday the heads of Daimler and Renault-Nissan both said they were not splitting the partnership's synergies, while Ghosn added that the deal was not driven by book keeping.
We are writing to advise you that Tracinda Corporation has asked the Board of Directors of General Motors Corporation to form a committee to immediately and fully explore, together with management, participating in the Renault-Nissan partnership-alliance.
Besides selling control of AvtoVAZ to Renault-Nissan, RT has already sold a controlling stake in two tyre factories to Pirelli of Italy, which will try to turn them into exporters of winter tyres to Canada and the Nordic countries.
In the automobile industry, probably the most globally inter-connected, the Nissan-Renault tie-up under Carlos Ghosn that seems to be working may be the exception that proves the rule.
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Neither letter specified the terms of the alliance, but it would likely involve cross-shareholdings, possibly similar to the current Nissan-Renault arrangement.
Compare this with Renault's growing cross-shareholding with Nissan of Japan, run by Renault's former chief operating officer, Carlos Ghosn.
Despite falling short of its goals, however, the Nissan- Renault alliance increased sales in 2012 by 83 percent.
Sales of the company's high-profit trucks and sport utility vehicles have slid faster than Ford expected, and Ford's rival, General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ), has entered into talks with Renault and Nissan Motor (nasdaq: NSANY - news - people ) to create an alliance to help all three companies compete in markets across the globe.
Then came the takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz and the all-but-acquisition of Nissan by Renault last year.
As we recently discussed with Mr. Ghosn, Tracinda believes that General Motors, Renault and Nissan should explore a three-company, partnership-based alliance.
Within the next few years, Renault will use its partner Nissan to re-enter the American market for the third time, and Peugeot, which has broken out of Europe with its big footholds in Brazil and China, will probably follow.
Japanese automaker Nissan and the formerly state-owned Renault of France have been working together since 1999.
The deal is being labelled a "marketing and technical agreement" with Infiniti, the premium brand of Japan's Nissan, which is part-owned by Renault.
Two years ago, Kerkorian tried to engineer an alliance between Nissan Motor and Renault, which already have cross-shareholdings and common management, and General Motors.
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