Nissan started buying a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors in May 2016, following the fuel-efficiency scandal it had discovered (discussed in “Fuel economy scandal”), with the intention of becoming Mitsubishi’s largest and controlling shareholder and integrating Mitsubishi Motors into the Renault-Nissan Alliance (the “Alliance”). Nissan has stated their intention to work with Mitsubishi Motors to jointly develop upcoming automobiles using some of the same vehicle architectures. In October 2016, Carlos Ghosn, the chairman of Nissan, Renault, and the Alliance, also assumed leadership of Mitsubishi. This marked the completion of Nissan’s acquisition of the 34% controlling position in Mitsubishi. When Ghosn was fired after his arrest by the Japanese government in November 2018, Osamu Masuko, the CEO of Mitsubishi, took over as chairman of the company.
As the auto business requires massive investments in technology, Mitsubishi Motors intends to quit creating vehicle platforms for the Japanese market and start utilizing Nissan Motor, an ally, as the basis for its vehicles starting around 2026.
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Nissan’s ownership of the business
Nissan paid $2.2 billion on May 12 to acquire a 34% controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is the name of the resulting business.
Carlos Ghosn, the CEO, made a cunning move by purchasing the shares at a discounted rate after the scandal surfaced. But many industry professionals were baffled by the choice as to what Nissan would gain by buying the faltering business.
Osamu Masuko, chairman of Mitsubishi, said the alliance was required to adapt to the car industry’s swift developments, such as new technologies. By collaborating with Nissan and Renault, the business may share investments, save costs, and provide a superior product.
The car company’s future strategy is to be “little but beautiful,” which means that despite being one of the industry’s smallest players, it wants to be a successful one.
Nissan was building its electric car lineup, while Mitsubishi had a solid reputation for plug-in hybrids at the time of the alliance in 2016. Together, these insights led to the development of the Nissan Leaf, the world’s best-selling all-electric plug-in vehicle with highway capability.
However, after only two years of the relationship, Mitsubishi was once more embroiled in controversy. This time, in a crazy tale of money laundering and global intrigue, chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn was detained, jailed, escaped, and fled to his native Lebanon. Since then, experts have questioned the long-term viability of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.
In 2016, Nissan acquired a 34% share in Mitsubishi.
In 2016, Nissan acquired a 34% share in Mitsubishi. The deal was crafted and promoted by Osamu Masuko, CEO of Mitsubishi, and Ghosn, CEO of Nissan. Both have since left the company. After Ghosn was detained in Japan in 2018 for significant violations against Nissan, he became embroiled in a scenario that will likely be turned into a film. He broke out of jail last year and is currently skulking around in his native Lebanon. Heart problems caused Masuko’s death in August of last year.
Nissan is 43% owned by Renault. Nissan would dump Mitsubishi in order to make money. The issue here is that Nissan might have to sell off its investment in Mitsubishi at a significant loss. Nissan’s 34% ownership of Mitsubishi is reportedly worth $950 million, according to Bloomberg. That amounts to around 50% of the manufacturer’s cost.
The purchase of Mitsubishi Motors by Nissan is finished.
Carlos Ghosn will take over as Mitsubishi and Nissan CEO following Nissan’s completion of its PS1.5 billion acquisition of a majority share in Mitsubishi Motors.
Nissan paid 237 billion yen to acquire a 34% interest in Mitsubishi (around PS1.5 billion).
With Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, taking over as CEO of both Nissan and Mitsubishi, Nissan becomes the majority shareholder in the failing brand as a result of the transaction. Mitsubishi has joined the Renault-Nissan alliance, and Nissan estimates that when all three are integrated, they would rank among the top three auto manufacturing companies worldwide.
The acquisition of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation by Nissan Motor, both of Japan, has been approved by the European Commission in accordance with the EU Merger Regulation, the Commission announced earlier this month.
Toyota manufactures Mitsubishi, right?
Who is the owner of Mitsubishi? Mitsubishi joined the current Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance in October 2016. Nissan owns a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors and is its primary shareholder.
Is the Mitsubishi automobile reliable?
Mitsubishi used to be a very trustworthy company. After all, Japanese automakers like Mitsubishi are renowned for their dependability. In fact, the Mitsubishi Lancer won the 2012 honor for being the most dependable vehicle since 1997. They received this from Warranty Direct. Every automaker could get an extended warranty from Warranty Direct, and since the company’s Reliability Index was created in 1997, it has become a standard in the UK. But it’s obvious that something has changed. Mitsubishi has slipped down the list of automotive brands in recent years and is now among the least trustworthy ones. They were listed by Consumer Reports as one of the worst automakers in 2016. They scored just 51, placing them third from the bottom. Although Consumer Reports gave them an average reliability rating, they were not given a model recommendation. Ouch.
Mitsubishi ranked seventh from the bottom in the 2017 J.D Power Dependability Survey with 182 issues per 100 vehicles. This is a significant improvement over the industry average of 156 issues per 100 vehicles. When it comes to reliability, the Mitsubishi Outlander scores poorly on WarrantyDirect’s Reliability Index when we focus on specific automobiles. In addition, they assigned them a reliability index of 157 instead of the typical 118. Engine troubles made up 43.55% of the issues, and then the brake system, at 20.97% of all problems.
The performance of the Mitsubishi Shogun isn’t much better either. The Shogun, which is also given a bad rating, has a better Reliability Index of 140. The Shogun’s axle and suspension appear to be the primary source of faults, accounting for 34.29% of all issues whereas the engine only accounts for 22.86% of all problems. In spite of this, Mitsubishi received an overall average reliability index score of 117 from Reliability Index. But the Lancer might account for this.
The reliability index for the Lancer is 4. 4! Possibly the highest reliability index score we have ever seen is that one.
Mitsubishi apparently used to be the reliability kings, but in recent years, they have fallen quite a bit. Though why?
Why was Mitsubishi ceased operations?
Due to the collapse of a deal between Hindustan Motor Finance Corporation and a supplier of components in Jamshedpur, the automaker is facing an uncertain future in this market.
Given that the much-discussed transaction with a component manufacturer situated in Jamshepur is rumored to have failed, Mitsubishi Motors may soon leave India.
The transaction was originally made public in June of last year, and had Mitsubishi India and the component manufacturer been able to come to an understanding, it would have signaled the start of the Japanese automaker’s second era in the nation.
According to reports, the new investor was about to invest Rs. 500 crores into Mitsubishi’s Indian division, which would have enabled the establishment of an assembly line in Jamshedpur for the production of cars that would have competed with the Hyundai Creta and Toyota Fortuner.
The negotiations, however, have already broken down. However, it should be emphasized that Hindustan Motor Finance Corporation Limited (HMFCL) had flatly denied that any such alliance existed.
HMFCL is currently in financial trouble and will either need to find a new partner or close its doors completely. According to reports, the company only has 6 employees, and as of right present, all 11 of Mitsubishi’s showrooms are offline.
Some of the automaker’s former Indian dealers have complained that HMFCL hasn’t yet reimbursed their dealer deposits. Additionally, a few dealers might be thinking of filing a lawsuit.
In India, Mitsubishi sold the Pajero Sport as its final vehicle in January 2020. The brand sold approximately 30 vehicles between April 2019 and January 2020, and it sold 164 vehicles between April 2018 and January 2019. Mitsubishi has also been unable to import enough spare parts from Japan to India due to a lack of funding.
All of these indications suggest that the Mitsubishi India withdrawal will materialize in the future. If it does, the company would be added to the list of automakers that have failed to leave their stamp in the country, along with Fiat and Chevrolet, among others.
However, an HMFCL representative purportedly claimed that Mitsubishi Motors is creating a number of BS6-compliant cars, but that COVID-19 has caused a delay in development. The brand’s Indian dealerships are prepared to carry on with business, the spokesperson further disclosed.
Even if the company’s spokesman attempted to present a positive outlook for the company’s future in the Indian market, rumors will persist until the Japanese automaker makes an honest disclosure regarding the current situation with its Indian branch.
2022: Will Mitsubishi still be producing cars?
The brand-new 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander has received IIHS’ TOP SAFETY PICK+ rating, the organization’s highest safety rating for cars made after June 2021.
Nissan still makes use of Renault motors?
Renault presently receives three parts of the Nissan powertrain. Nissan receives four from Renault. They have created five engines or transmissions together. According to Kazumasa Katoh, senior vice president for powertrain engineering at Renault, it amounts to around 100,000 engines and 600,000 transmissions this year.
When did Nissan start to lose its dependability?
You would expect that Nissan’s image problems from 2003 to 2010 would have been fixed by the time CVT problems arose later. Not so. Owners of Nissan vehicles with CVTs from well into 2017 report CVT failure.
Why has Nissan’s quality decreased?
At a time when vehicle sales are at almost record highs, the United States, its second-most important market after China, saw sales decrease 11% in 2019. Analysts and business leaders blame Ghosn heavily for Nissan’s problems.
Nissans’ durability compared to Toyotas’
Dependability and Excellence Toyota is known for producing some of the most dependable vehicles on the market. The business was rated as the second most dependable brand overall by Consumer Reports for 2021. Nissan ranked in sixteenth place, substantially further down the list.
Mitsubishi is it closing down?
Nikkei reports that Mitsubishi, burdened by ongoing losses, is stopping the development of its passenger car platforms and is preparing to switch to a fully Nissan-based lineup in Japan starting in 2026. The action, which is only the most recent in a continuous trend of industry consolidation, is taken as the struggling automaker transfers its efforts to electric vehicles, according to the Japanese daily.
By March 2026, the corporation hopes to reduce the eight platforms it presently utilizes around the world to just four. For the region, its main market, Mitsubishi will continue to develop two of these architectures itself; the other two will be shared with Nissan (likely derived from the Common Modular Family of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance). This is significant for us Southeast Asians.
The names of the ASEAN-specific platforms were not made public in the study, but we can infer that they are the foundations of Mitsubishi’s important regional vehicles, the Triton pickup truck and the Xpander MPV. This is crucial because it indicates that the Triton will probably serve as the basis for the next-generation Nissan Navara, whereas the Xpander serves as the foundation for the current Nissan Livina.
According to Nikkei, Mitsubishi has experienced losses for the past two fiscal years. To stop the hemorrhage, the business terminated its least lucrative models, including its final two sedans (the Proudia and Dignity, based on the Infiniti Q70) in 2016 and the premium Pajero SUV in July of last year.
Most likely, internal development of the Mitsubishi Triton and Xpander will continue for ASEAN.
Although no more cuts are anticipated, it has also reduced its research and development expenditure for the fiscal year ending March 2022 by 30% to 99 billion yen (RM3.7 billion). According to Nikkei, Mitsubishi is the first Japanese business to totally stop developing proprietary platforms for its domestic market in favor of concentrating on interior and external styling and powertrains.
It has taken years for this discontinuation to become public, especially considering the alliance’s leader-follower approach to product development. According to the new organization, Renault will be in charge of development in Europe, Russia, North America, and Africa, while Nissan will lead in China, North America, and Japan. On the other side, Mitsubishi will produce goods for ASEAN and Oceania.
It’s still difficult to witness the company that was once known for producing the Lancer Evolution decline in prominence. While its complete lineup of kei automobiles is shared with its partner, the new Outlander is already based on the Nissan X-Trail. Only the discontinued Outlander, Eclipse Cross, and aging RVR (or ASX to you and I), Delica, and Mirage are still available for purchase in Japan.
But at least Mitsubishi will be able to revitalize its product selection more affordably thanks to the usage of Nissan platforms, and the increasing attention paid to ASEAN markets is excellent news for us. It also implies that it will continue to stand apart from Nissan because the business will continue to explore electrified powertrains, including its plug-in hybrid technology.