Nissan - Mitsubishi alliance tightens

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation today announced that the two companies agreed to expand their current scope of cooperation (earlier post) towards new projects that will further strengthen mutual competitiveness, especially in the Japanese mini car and global commercial vehicle businesses.

Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors currently have several OEM agreements for vehicles in the Japanese market, including for mini cars and commercial vehicles. In addition to expanding the scope of the current OEM partnership, the two companies agreed to study new opportunities which would generate additional synergies. The cooperation agreement between Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors will be complementary to any agreements the two parties have already established with other partners.


Regarding the expansion of the OEM partnership, the following have been agreed:

• Nissan to provide a light van/wagon to Mitsubishi Motors for the Japanese domestic market 
• Mitsubishi Motors to provide an SUV to Nissan for markets in the Middle East

Discussions are ongoing for Nissan to provide Mitsubishi Motors with upper-end segment models for the Japanese domestic market.

Regarding new opportunities, two projects are currently under study:

• The manufacture of the current generation of Nissan Navara pickup truck at Mitsubishi Motors' plant in Thailand. Longer-term, the two companies are evaluating manufacturing and engineering collaboration of a new generation one-ton pickup truck. 
• Establishment of a 50:50 joint venture for product planning and engineering of mini cars for the Japanese domestic market.