Mitsubishi has denied a report that said it will stop the development of car platforms for the Japanese market and sell only badge-engineered versions of Nissan models.
Earlier this week, Nikkei Asia claimed that Mitsubishi was making the move to lower development costs and reduce losses while it increases investments into electric vehicles. Mitsubishi denied this was the case in a brief statement posted online shortly after Nikkei’s story started to gain attention.
“In the morning edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei’s former name) dated September 14, it was reported that we shared all the chassis of domestic passenger cars with Nissan Motor and stopped development, but this is due to speculation by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and there is no such fact,” Mitsubishi stated.
The car manufacturer added that it is “considering launching a domestic vehicle that embodies the Mitsubishi character by adopting our development platform.” Excusing the somewhat dodgy translation, that seems to suggest Mitsubishi is working on a new model for the Japanese market with its own platform.
Interestingly, Mitsubishi also said that it is “promoting the standardization and efficiency of the platform within the framework of the alliance,” and is clearly open to platform sharing with the Nissan brand.
The Nikkei reports claimed that Mitsubishi wants to have just four platforms by March 2026, down from the eight platforms it currently has. Two of these four platforms would be for Southeast Asia while the other two would be co-developed with Nissan.
