Nissan to purchase 34 percent of Mitsubishi Motors’ shares



Following the fuel economy cheating scandal that rocked Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan came to the rescue by acquiring 34 percent of Mitsubishi’s shares worth 237 billion yen (approx RM8.37 billion based on today’s conversion). This effectively means Nissan will become Mitsubishi’s largest stakeholder.

With this development, Nissan has provided a lifeline to the struggling Mitsubishi, apart from allowing Nissan to appear in Mitsubishi’s strongholds in Asian countries. Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said both companies now share and jointly develop technology, rationalise markets and grow both brands in many ways rather than competing with each other.2015-Nissan-Navara-NP300-Media-Drive-043

This deal also means that Mitsubishi will now be part of the Renault-Nissan alliance. The French manufacturer has a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan, while the latter holds a 15 percent stake (with no voting rights) in Renault. Other brands in this alliance include Datsun, Dacia and Samsung Motors.

With this, Mitsubishi could be benefiting from the extra support and funds to produce new models. In fact, the ageing Mitsubishi Lancer may finally have a successor. Also, there will likely be a jointly-developed pickup truck in the future, for cost efficiency reasons. Maybe the Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton could essentially be the same pickup with different badges. But more interestingly, will this acquisition spawn the legendary Evo once again?