What break-up? Nissan keeps its 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors

The automotive industry was rocked by a report from Bloomberg that Nissan is ‘exploring’ to sell its 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors. However, Nissan quickly denied the break-up plans in a press release.

It has only been a few years since Mitsubishi was announced as the third partner in the trifecta alliance that includes Renault and Nissan.

Mitsubishi saw a slight boost thanks to this partnership but things weren’t really the same at Nissan in the midst of its ex-boss, Carlos Ghosn’s great escape.

In the press release, Nissan acknowledges Mitsubishi’s “Small but Beautiful” business transformation plan which sees the Three Diamonds brand focusing on the ASEAN, Chinese, and Japanese markets after pulling out of most of its Western markets.

Nissan is also going through its own business transformation plan called “Nissan NEXT”. The press release explains the need for an alliance for the success of each partner’s brand and growth strategy.

Of course, this means that Nissan remains committed to Mitsubishi as its partner. According to the “Small but Beautiful” transformation plan, one of the vehicles that would come out of this partnership is a brand-new electric Kei car that could finally replace the eccentric but aged Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

There are also numerous new models in the pipeline for both brands. While Nissan and Mitsubishi still face a rocky outlook but better things could be appearing on the horizon for the embattled brands in the 2020s.