Mitsubishi and Renault-Nissan to expand partnership
There have a slew of alliances and partnerships being forged between various carmakers that we’ve been reporting on lately, and today is going to feature similar news. It appears that Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and the Renault-Nissan Alliance have announced plans to look into the idea of developing several projects involving shared products, technologies and manufacturing capacity.
This will be an expansion of the already existing NMKV joint venture between Mitsubishi and Nissan and it is hope to lead to the co-development of an all-new global city car, which will be available with petrol and electric powertrains. This new vehicle will be built on a jointly developed ‘kei car’ platform, this is a type used to underpin the smallest models in the Japanese market.
The companies plan to share EV technologies and product assets in their joint effort to streamline and fast track the development of electric vehicles.
Mitsubishi is also set to benefit from two new sedans based around Renault models.
The first vehicle will be a medium-large ‘D-segment’ model built at Renault-Samsung’s plant in South Korea for the US and Canada. Mitsubishi’s sedan is thought to be based on the successor to the Renault Latitude, which is going to merge with the European Laguna to then create a single model line from 2015.
The second car will be a small ‘C-segment’ sedan designed to compete in markets around the globe. The manufacturing location and a production timeline for this model is yet unknown.
The president of the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation – Osamu Masuko – and the CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance – Carlos Ghosn – both welcomed the expansion of their partnership, both of them insisting that it will create new opportunities for both their companies.
The existing NMKV joint venture established in June 2011 led to the development of the Mitsubishi eK wagon as well as the Nissan Dayz kei cars, which actually when into production and on sale in Japan this year.
