Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has announced that Nissan has become its largest shareholder following the completion of the purchase of a 34% stake in MMC for 237 billion yen. It was also announced that the brand will join the 17-year strong Nissan-Renault Alliance as a full member, paving the way for future growth. The assimilation of MMC into the fold now makes the alliance the world’s third-largest automotive group.
Nissan chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn has been nominated to become Mitsubishi chairman. The move will put him in charge of three automakers at the same time (he is also currently the CEO of Renault). He will be joined by three other Nissan nominated directors, including Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan’s former executive vice president of research and development, who joined MMC earlier this year as head of development.
The other nominees are Hitoshi Kawaguchi, Nissan chief sustainability officer and head of global external affairs, and Hiroshi Karube, Nissan global controller and global asset manager.
Mitsubishi Motor’s president and CEO Osamu Masuko also requested that Nissan also provide a senior executive to join the company’s executive committee to bolster MMC’s management. Trevor Mann, currently chief performance officer of Nissan, will become the COO of MMC.
The three largest institutional shareholders in MMC (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation and The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) have welcomed Nissan’s investment, and have pledged their support for its board nominees.
In addition to these new postings, MMC will appoint a new role of director for global risk control to report directly to the CEO, who will oversee compliance and risk control. This director will regularly report to the board on moves to enhance governance at the company.
The announcement of the controlling stake purchase also saw the mention of Nissan and MMC cooperating on a wide-ranging synergy of programmes, with a five-year alliance in minicar development between the two companies heading the list. Elsewhere, the companies will explore joint purchasing in a bid to reduce costs as well as look into aspects of joint plant localisation, common vehicle platforms and technology sharing.
In April this year, Mitsubishi admitted to manipulating fuel economy tests on certain vehicles it sold, resulting in the resignation of president Tetsuro Aikawa. The crisis eventually lead to Nissan swooping in to purchase the said stake in the company.
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He look like Mr Bean father or brother.. Plum version… :)
P1 is Asia BMW.
Not related with p1. Why so butthurt?
wow…this is big….
slowly bt surely , they are taking on the VW kingdom and its multi brands….let the war begin!
Next, acquisition of Proton and Lotus.
1) Rebadge Mitsubishis back as Proton in Malaysia (Hilarious, I know); Or just positioned Proton between Datsun and Mitsubishi
2) Nissan to set up subsidiary in Malaysia
3) Kick Tan Chong, appoint them just as a contract aseembler and dealer like what Honda Malaysia did to Kah Motor
4) Put Lotus and Infiniti brand together, product development. Infiniti to focus on EV
Ghosn, consider this brand Positioning
Lotus – to rival Porsche, Mercedes AMG
Infiniti – to rival Mercedes, Lexus
Alpine – budget sports brand; rival Mazda MX-5, GT86
Renault – european flavour alternative to volkswagen
Nissan – stay at it is, target toyota customers
Mistubishi – more dynamic brand, focus on honda customers
Proton – use their car platform and eventually phase them out. do a seat of vw group; budget performance brand
Datsun – budget brand car, focus on segment A cars
Proton, your move now!
P1 better choose jujuki instead. We dun wan Renault’s unreliability, Nissan’s lousy design, or Mitsu’s scandal.
On second thought, too many brands!!!
Okay here’s an updated proposal
LOTUS CARS – Rival McLaren. Low volume performance car manufacturer, focusing on developing racing, lightweight technologies; eventually to work together with Renault’s recent acquisition formula one team. Lotus to also offer limited edition spin off versions of Infinitis and Renaults – remember Lotus Carlton? Also opportunity for Lotus to rival Porsche to go for sportscar volume; Single front engine rwd platform; New Elan roadster to rival Boxster, New Elite coupe which is essentially a hardtop Elan to rival Cayman and a 2+2 four door coupe (modern day Mazda RX-8) to rival GT86, Audi TT.
INFINITI – Rival Mercedes, Lexus and Acura, perhaps Korean’s Genesis Motors. Luxury car brand, focuses on comfort. High tech brand to focus on EV and Hybrid technology to take on Tesla. Focus solely on North America, Western Europe, Russia, China, middle-east, and key markets like Australia.
RENAULT – Maintain current position, focus solely in Western and Eastern European market. Cross sharing platforms with Nissan. But eventually move upmarket as French’s Volvo, focusing on French avant-garde, safety and comfort to take on German’s Audi, and not Volkswagen.
ALPINE BRAND – to be under Renault – brand still weak outside Western Europe; eventually will PHASE OUT THE BRAND by remaining as Renault’s in house sporting divisions, and call their 2017 sports car Renault Alpine instead of a standalone brand. Alpine to become like what John Cooper Works to the Mini brand. Building hot versions along with Renault Gordini. Also an opportunity to extract Lotus DNA.
NISSAN – maintain current strategy by staying where at it is, chasing Toyota by reaping strong sales growth in important market in North America, Europe, China. Opportunity to grow in emerging Southeast Asian markets. Work closely with Mitsubishi on both passenger and commercial vehicles. Nissan to be a bit more premium luxury than Mitsubishi.
MITSUBISHI – a more dynamic brand, to be more Subaru and Honda. Throw a Hyundai-Kia strategy on same platform but different target customers via differentiation. If Nissan is Hyundai focusing on modern elegance, Mitsubishi is Kia, more attitude, dynamic. Perfect fit for both companies.
PROTON – Important addition for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group. Proton has a capability to design and manufacture cars. Malaysia as an important technological manufacturing hub. Unfortunately Proton has limited success outside Malaysia. Short term strategy is to use their current car platform and eventually develop future models with Nissan and Mitsubishi in the long term. Perhaps to continue selling the Proton brand in home market, to avoid addition marketing branding, segmentation duplication costs. South East Asians still favor Japanese brand, so selling Proton is not advisable.
DATSUN – Offering low cost affordable offerings in key growth markets in South America, Africa, India, Indonesia, IndoChina etc. If Nissan is Toyota, Datsun is their Daihatsu – focus on segment A cars. Might collaborate with Proton designing the next Saga.
Proton Nissan contact me if you’re looking for a strategist
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Interesting take, and not a bad one. However Renault is not on the level of VW. VW’s quality (perhaps not reliability) is above Renault, even for the latest models IMHO. Peugeot is doing a better job of moving up market, even when some bits and pieces feel cheap/show creative use of materials. Having sat in the Mk 7 Golf, current (new) Leon and new Megane, I’d say the Golf sits above the others, and the Megane and Leon are about on par.
IMHO there’s a bunch of mainstream brands, like Renault, Peugeot, Ford, Seat/Skoda, Opel, slowly Hyundai and Kia are moving there too, … then above that, but not with a huge distance, VW, and then there’s another gap, and we’ll get Merc, Audi and BMW (plus Lexus, Infiniti, Volvo, …). VW is somewhere in between. Sometimes closer to the premium brands than regular ones, sometimes closer to regular brands, sometimes premium brands also produce meh cars that feel a bit cheap.
Interesting, but… no need to acquire either. Maybe Proton, but they shouldn’t just rebadge Mitsus. Makes no sense.
Lotus… they have Alpine. Alpine is going to do Lotus like cars, not cheap ones. Proper sports cars, lightweight and a bit hardcore. Not luxury cars.
Infiniti and Lotus have nothing in common. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum. One is a comfort oriented luxury brand, the other tries to remove as much luxury as possible to improve handling and performance. Makes no sense. At all. Especially joining product development.
Lotus doesn’t rival Porsche and AMG. Lotus makes pure track day tools without any practicality, and that’s how it should be. While Porsche makes a few of them, yes, it’s not their focus. Neither is it the focus of AMG.
You forget Dacia and Lada on the budget end, so having Proton as a budget brand does not make sense, unless you want to fill in the smallest of gaps. Seat? Renault already does that… if anything, the group needs something that can go against VW. Currently, both Nissan and Renault sit a bit below VW. I know Renault is working on improving perceived quality, but the new Megane just doesn’t feel as posh as, say, a Mk 7 Golf, when you sit inside.
next new evo will coming
What should call? Mitsubissan or Nissubishi?
So we will have GTR + Lancer = LANZILLA or GODZILAN
Both sounds like swear words, bro.
stop the saturation of the mitsubishi brand, revive the cool cars…mitsubishi stallion fairlady, nissan gt-r evo, mitsubishi lancer v-spec
This is more of a good news towards ETCM since they have a very very close relationship with Ghosn. Wouldn’t be surprise if ETCM spread another division under their wings…Mitsu Motor Tan Chong? :p
ASX alredi being assembled at TCMA… more to come?
Neo vvl + mivec + turbo
I guess Nissan chairman & CEO Carlos Ghosn has the Midas touch.
With Synergies & Technical know how from all side, the Alliance will bring the group forward. Maybe P1 will join the alliance to benefits from technical/administration & M’sian will finally benefits from it.
Next Galant Fortis/Lancer will be based on Latio/Almera?
Now Mitsubishi has the cash. Why not go back and join the World Rally Championship once more ? Such a big alliance should go head to head against Volkswagen in WRC. Then we will get the new Evo again.