Nissan, Mitsubishi deepen ties; to strengthen mini car business

Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation said on Tuesday that the two companies agreed to expand their current scope of cooperation towards new projects that will further strengthen mutual competitiveness, especially in the Japanese mini car and global commercial vehicle businesses.

The companies said they agreed to expand their current scope of cooperation towards new projects that will further strengthen mutual competitiveness, especially in the Japanese mini car and global commercial vehicle businesses.

In the agreement announced Tuesday, the two Japanese automakers will also make more cars for each other under what is known as an original equipment manufacturer or OEM partnership. Under such a deal, one automaker supplies vehicles to another automaker to sell under its own brand, enabling companies to lower production costs through economies of scale.

Under the OEM partnerships, Nissan will provide a light van/wagon to Mitsubishi Motors for the Japanese domestic market and in turn Mitsubishi Motors will provide an SUV to Nissan for markets in the Middle East.

This agreement is important for Nissan as it supports our expansion in emerging markets, meets immediate capacity needs overseas, and enables us to grow our mini car business in Japan. Our relationship with Mitsubishi demonstrates the ability of the Renault-Nissan Alliance - with its network of global partnerships - to constantly evolve and create new win-win relationships with other companies in function of specific needs and shared objectives, Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said.

The partners also said that the projects under study are the manufacture of the current generation of Nissan Navara pickup truck at Mitsubishi Motors' plant in Thailand and evaluation of manufacturing and engineering collaboration of a new generation one-ton pickup truck.

The partners will also consider setting up 50:50 joint ventures for product planning and engineering mini cars for the Japanese domestic market.