Renault and Nissan have, since 1999, been strategic partners to develop and share technology and expertise. This alliance is now set to link up with Mitsubishi with a view to venturing into further shared products and development of new technologies.
The move is not an uncommon one; nor does it suggest any possible takeover of any of the companies; it merely serves to act as a partnership whereby these manufacturers can share information and development of future products at a reduced cost thanks to shared resources. This is believed to extend to electric vehicles and related technologies.
One of the projects planned is a jointly-developed small car that will be offered with conventional combustion engines as well as an all-electric version. It will be built on a 'Kei car' platform. Other planned projects include two new saloon models from Mitsubishi that will be based on existing models in the Renault portfolio. These are expected to a larger sized saloon that will be destined for the North American market only, while a second, smaller saloon is also in the early stages of planning.
President and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, Carlos Ghosn, said: "Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors have jointly benefited from several collaborations in the past, most recently the successful joint-venture on Kei cars in Japan. I welcome the direction being taken towards this broader cooperation, creating new opportunities for Renault in addition to further leveraging the productive relationship between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors."
Also commenting on the partnership announcement, Osamu Masuko, President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, said: "As a result of the development of collaborative projects with Nissan Motor up to now, Mitsubishi Motors is pleased to work again with Nissan and now Renault towards achieving further collaborations. The new opportunities could be described as evidence that the on-going collaborative projects between Mitsubishi Motors and Nissan have brought positive results, and Mitsubishi Motors hopes that any new collaborative projects with the Renault-Nissan Alliance would bring us further merits."
Anything else?
Mitsubishi has previously shared product platforms with other manufacturers, a recent example being Citroen, which branded its own version of the electric iMiEV as the C-Zero. This new partnership with the Renault-Nissan alliance looks to be much closer and will extend beyond platform-sharing.