Even if Nissan pared back capital ties, it wouldn’t necessarily mean an end to strategic cooperation between the companies on such projects as minicars for Japan and platform-sharing.
But Mitsubishi and Nissan immediately came out to squash speculation of a breakup.
Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta said his company is “absolutely not” in talks to divest.
Nissan issued a statement saying, “Contrary to the assertions in the articles, there are no plans to change the capital structure with Mitsubishi.” And Mitsubishi echoed with its own release, insisting, “There are no discussions to review our capital relationship, and we refrain from further comments. We will continue to collaborate within the Alliance.”
Speculation of a split comes just as Mitsubishi and Nissan appear to be moving closer.
In a sign of the new order, Mitsubishi Motors North America has moved its U.S. headquarters from Southern California to Franklin, Tenn., to be near Nissan’s regional headquarters.
Under the new leader-follower strategy created by the three-partner alliance, Mitsubishi has put its faith in its working relationship not only with Nissan, but also with Renault, which itself has a controlling 43 percent stake in Nissan.
In deference to Renault, Mitsubishi CEO Takao Kato is poised to pull out of Europe, with no plans to introduce new models there. And Mitsubishi will largely take a back seat to Nissan in China and Japan. Mitsubishi has abandoned any pretense to global conquest and will focus instead on the company’s Southeast Asia stronghold under a new “Small but Beautiful” strategy.
Speaking in late October, before the Bloomberg report, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida talked up the partnership with Mitsubishi, saying both companies were in deep discussions seeking further synergies beyond their cooperation in minicars, electrified vehicles and Southeast Asia.
But he drew a blank when it came to ideas for cooperating in North America.
“Right now, we are not discussing much. We say it this way — for a Mitsubishi plan, they need to build their own strategy in the U.S.,” Uchida said. “If they think they want support from Nissan, then of course, we can support. So each brand has to build their own strategy. That comes first.”
