The car above on the left is a Mitsubishi eK, the one on the right is a Nissan Otti. Front ends, rear doors and many small things are different, but they’re actually the same car, built on a single assembly line, by the same Mitsubishi people. This partnership is more than 5 years old, and it isn’t the only one. Mitsubishi and Nissan share several models in Japan, small kei cars that don’t get exported anywhere so we don’t hear about them outside that country. This is precisely what’s about to change.

Team work around kei cars will increase, and Nissan will build a small light van/wagon that Mitsubishi would sell on the Japanese market, but what’s totally new is that Mitsubishi should provide a SUV to Nissan for markets in the Middle East. Next, the 2 manufacturers could build together a new one-ton pickup truck that would sell globally. Before that, Mitsubishi could build the Nissan Navara in its facility in Thailand.

Still, this is far from a global alliance, and there will not be any exchange of shares. Mitsubishi and Nissan will create a 50:50 joint venture only for product planning and engineering of mini cars for the Japanese domestic market. More important to me, since the 2 manufacturers are electric cars leaders, nothing has been announced about them. But we shall all understand that if working together makes business sense, they will do it…