With Nissan now being Mitsubishi’s largest shareholder, the two automakers will start cooperating closely in product development.
The first step is building their next mid-size pickup trucks, namely the Navara and L200/Triton, on the same platform.
However, instead of building the two pickup trucks almost identical from the ground up, the manufacturers want each to have is own identity according to CarAdvice, quoting Nissan CEO and Chairman, Carlos Ghosn.
“[It’s] very possible that we are going to use the same platform, but we’re going to develop the cars differently because the customers are not the same“, Ghosn said. “But instead of two different platforms we can have them on the same platform but be completely different products. The cost of development and purchasing will be lower. A common platform, but different developments.“
What this means is that the two vehicles will look different, despite being underpinned by the same architecture. Details regarding the powertrain lineup are not clear at the moment, but since refreshed versions of the NP300 Navara and L200/Triton were launched in 2015, the next-generation pickup trucks isn’t expected to pop up until next decade.
Nissan has already shared the platform underpinning the Navara with Mercedes-Benz for their upcoming pickup. Moreover, the same platform will also be used on the production version of the Renault Alaskan concept, which is bound to enter the same segment in Europe by the end of this year.
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