Fiat-Chrysler Blames France for its Abandoned Talks with Renault.
QUEST: The numbers tell the story. Fiat-Chrysler virtually unchanged. Shares in Renault sinking fast after Fiat-Chrysler cancelled the merger offer that they put together just a couple of weeks earlier. And in doing so, they're blaming the politics of France. Remember, France owns 15 percent of Renault and they wanted to delay the vote. The problem was there were numerous road blocks on the way to try and get this done. It all seems so easy, but there were two particular road blocks, and they are both on the French side. First, the French are worried about job cuts that could come as a result of the merger. Powerful French unions came out against the deal. Scared that from the GEs from deals just a few years ago. Now last week, GE cut another thousand French jobs. And then there are international relationships the French government had to consider. Remember, Renault is already a part of a powerful alliance with Nissan of Japan. And that partnership has been fragile ever since the arrest and downfall of its creator Carlos Ghosn. Now, the issue was Nissan wasn't happy about Fiat. Renault and everybody wanted more time to think about it. Fiat-Chrysler said, hang on, we're off. The car coach is Lauren Fix and she's in Buffalo, New York. Are you surprised that this fell apart so quickly? That the French government wasn't able to put it together or at least get the time necessary.</s>LAUREN FIX, CAR COACH: I think initially, we were all shocked that John Elkann was going to make this decision to create some type of merger. We knew that there had been other people that had shown interest in working or partnering with Fiat-Chrysler, but to join the Renault, Mitsubishi, Nissan merger was kind of an interesting choice, I would say. But when the French government is involved in the area of 15 percent and they have a seat at the table, you know they want more and they certainly don't want to lose jobs. But then here, Fiat-Chrysler, we don't want to be closing plants either. That could be very bad for the</s>U.S. QUEST: Right, but the speed with which Elkann and Fiat-Chrysler decided to pull up sticks and go. I mean, you know, they basically -- there was only a couple of rounds of negotiations, and then when they didn't get their way, they sort of said, well, we'll see you. And in fact, the statement put out was very tepid and tart in terms of criticizing the French --</s>FIX: Yes, there were certainly subtext in that statement, and then John Elkann who is the owner of the Fiat-Chrysler Corporation, most of the stock, sent a letter to the employees saying that they have tried their best to make a merger and a partnership, but it seems like it's not going to work. And when things aren't going to work, we just close the door. So basically, they've already closed the door because you have to remember, this is to go for a vote with other companies --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>FIX: And Nissan abstained from voting because they're still dealing with the Carlos Ghosn situation, and that -- we still don't know the real facts behind it. We just keep hearing a lot of leaks of information --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>FIX: But I have a sinking feeling that it was just a coup.</s>QUEST: So what happens to Renault? Does it need Fiat-Chrysler? More to the point, does Fiat-Chrysler come back, say for Peugeot or somebody else or does everybody just go home and lick their wounds?</s>FIX: I think they might go home and lick their wounds, but I think Renault needs Fiat more than Fiat needs Renault. And it was an interesting partnership choice to begin with. Together, they would have created the third largest car corporation in the world. And that's huge, but unfortunately Fiat-Chrysler doesn't sell a lot of vehicles in Europe -- these Chrysler products, but Renault doesn't sell here in the U.S. So, they were hoping to do some sort of partnership. I don't think it was a good merger. I think you're going to find an outsider possibly looking to invest in the Fiat-Chrysler, maybe somebody --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>FIX: From the Middle East possibly, we'll just leave it --</s>QUEST: Oh --</s>FIX: At that. But I do know some information that there's been a lot of discussion --</s>QUEST: Please, you're teasing us, you're teasing us --</s>FIX: I know --</s>QUEST: Shamelessly, and that's a subject for another day. Lauren, good to see you, thank you very much --</s>FIX: Yes --</s>QUEST: On that particular story.</s>FIX: Thank you, Richard --</s>QUEST: Let's stay with automobiles, Tesla is launching a long-range version of its sedan. Now, this particular car can travel 600 kilometers or 370 miles, and it does so on a single charge. As CNN's Peter Valdes was one of the first journalist to get behind the wheel. He drove the car 900 miles from New York to Atlanta, it's a straight run down there, charging it only three times. We now of course, Peter and the Tesla joins us now. Were you on your own enjoying this trip or did you have -- did you have company for this trip?</s>PETER VALDES-DAPENA, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR AUTO WRITER: I had a bit of company. I had a still photographer David Williams with me to sort of product with the trip as we were going along. But I did do all the driving, and to answer your earlier question, I controlled the music the entire time.</s>QUEST: All right, so two things, first of all, did you ever get collywobbles and thinking, hang on, we could run out of power here, I'm a bit worried even though I know this charging stations, I'm concerned.</s>VALDES-DAPENA: Actually, it's really interesting because the last time I tried a long distance drive like this back in 2013, I did get very worried, getting from Washington D.C. to Connecticut, I was quite concerned, I was on the phone with Tesla engineers trying to figure out what to do. Finally made it to a charger with 40 miles of range left. This time, an on board computer was telling me -- onboard navigation was telling me where to go to get to the charger, when I was going to get there. I did make it with only 17 miles remaining. But psychologically, I was much less concerned. I wasn't worried because I could watch that process happening in the car as I was going. It was obviously, the numbers weren't changing very much. It was clear that I was going to make it which I think is maybe a more important thing than just the range itself, it's the psychological comfort now that these computer systems give you of knowing how far you can stretch it.</s>QUEST: But what if you get a road block? What if a road block suddenly is in your way, and there's an accident, God forbid and suddenly, you can't get past and you're stuck for the foreseeable. Now, what happens -- of course, that could happen with a car with a petrol engine, a combustion engine, but there's usually a garage closer by and you can always borrow some petrol from somebody in a tank -- in a gas tank.</s>VALDES-DAPENA: Yes, you can always have Triple A come out and give you a gallon of gasoline if you really get stuck, yes. That could still be a problem. You do have less flexibility. There are a lot of Tesla charger stations -- charging stations, but they're probably going to be less frequent than a gas station. So yes, if something crazy or unpredictable happens, that's an issue. Another issue is --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>VALDES-DAPENA: On a road trip, if you want to be a little more flexible and say, hey, you know, I want to take a little side trip for a while. You can do that in a gasoline car, with an electric car, even one like this, you still might not have that kind of flexibility.</s>QUEST: What was it, Heavy Metal, Madonna, disco hits of the 1980s? What were you playing?</s>VALDES-DAPENA: Oh, no, I was playing like electro-dance music. Electronic dance music.</s>QUEST: I would pay good money to see Peter Valdes-Dapena --</s>VALDES-DAPENA: Very nice to drive too --</s>QUEST: Listening to electric dance music driving that. Good to see you, Peter, thank you very much indeed. Right, well, the U.S. President engaged in a high level diplomacy, his sons were on a pub crawl in Ireland. The business owners who got the surprise of their careers when the Trumps arrived. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live from New York.