Nissan Motor Co. and its French partner Renault SA have been in talks to reduce Renault's stake in the Japanese carmaker to 15 percent from the current 43 percent, a source close to the matter said Wednesday.

Nissan holds a 15 percent stake in Renault. While their decades-old partnership has led to the creation of one of the world's largest auto groups, Nissan has been seeking to rearrange what it sees as an unequal and unbalanced structure.

Renault is in favor of reducing its stake in Nissan, providing Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the other partner in the three-way alliance, participate in a new electric vehicle company that the French automaker is seeking to establish, the source said.

The Franco-Japanese alliance is expected to announce its new capital structure and the details of the new EV company in mid-November, the source said.

The alliance of Renault and Nissan was founded in 1999 and long led by Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested for alleged financial misconduct in 2018 and ousted as its chairman.