Listen to the audio version of the article
“You again? But shouldn’t we see each other again?” A new chapter begins in the complicated relationship between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi within the remodeled alliance between the French group and the two Japanese manufacturers. The CEOs of the three companies, Luca de Meo (Renault), Makoto Uchida (Nissan Motor) and Takao Kato (Mitsubishi Motors Corporation), in a conference chaired by Jean-Dominique Senard, president of Renault, took stock of industrial relations and of joint projects between the companies (those in Latin America and India confirmed), which as is known act in synergy but have abandoned the idea of a merger in recent months, in a sort of consensual divorce trying to keep the common technological factors together also enabling in terms of Renault’s new structure which includes two organisations: Ampere, dedicated to electric vehicles, and Horse, focused on thermal and hybrid powertrains in which, among other things, the Chinese mega group Geely which controls Volvo, Polestar also participates , Lotus and brands like Zeekr. The partners confirmed their joint projects in Latin America and India.
Investments in Ampere
In particular, Nissan will invest up to 600 million euros in Ampere, and with it will develop a compact electric car intended for the European market. The software and connectivity technologies Ampere is developing will also be used by Nissan for products destined for Europe. Furthermore, Nissan will adopt Ampere technologies such as those that fall under the heading of Software Defined Vehicles in the new generation electric commercial vehicles.
Nissan will become “a strategic investor” in Ampere, said Makoto Uchida, CEO of the Japanese automaker, adding that the Yokohama carmaker could use the EV unit’s software and connectivity innovations in other markets outside Europe . “Developing electric vehicles around the world alone would be very challenging,” Uchida said. Luca de Meo specified that Ampere will reduce the costs of the Micra for Nissan by 50%.
Mitsubishi, on the other hand, will invest up to 200 million euros in Ampere (not a huge figure for the automotive value scale). The historic Japanese company will contract Ampere with the development and production of a new model, a C-segment electric SUV (medium size) and here the hope is that it is not a mere Badge engineering operation as is now happening with Colt, clone of Renault Clio, and Asx, clone of Captur, but of an SUV with all the Mitsubishi DNA declined in an electric key. On the Horse front, however, Nissan remains committed to becoming its customer and exploiting the industrial capacity of 12 factories, 6 of which are dedicated to gearboxes and engines, for half a million pieces a year. Mitsubishi should also make use of Horse.
Shared platforms
But let’s get to the main course of the Alliance’s redesigned menu: shared platforms. 60% of vehicles are created through the use of common architectures and an extension of this synergistic relationship is expected. For example, the long-awaited Juke electric compact SUV (third generation of a best seller that will be reborn with lithium ions) and the future generation of the Leaf (which was the best-selling electric in the world but Nissan let its historic leadership be snatched away by Tesla and the Chinese) will be based on the well-known CMF-EV platform. This is the same architecture that is used today for Renault Megane E-Tech, Scenic E-Tech and Nissan Ariya.