Le Figaro: Renault And Mitsubishi Talking Tie-up (Sorry, No Shibari Pictures)

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt
Carlos Ghosn and Osamu Masuko CEO of MitsubishiRenault chief Carlos Ghosn is reaching out, forging foreign alliances with a heavy emphasis on emerging markets. “Faced with the slump in the European markets,” writes the French Figaro, Renault is “edging closer to Mitsubishi.” Nothing is official, and if you ask on the record, you get firm denials, such as the “this is not true,” told to Reuters by a Mitsubishi Motors spokesman. Behind the scenes, there are traces of heavy petting. Let’s look into them.The Japanese bride, Mitusbishi, needs to get hitched to a bigger partner badly. In calendar 2012, the diamond brand made a little over 1 million units globally, about half of them at home in Japan, the other half abroad. Some 70 percent of the Japanese production were exported. At home in Japan, Mitsubishi sold a mere 140,000 units in 2012, nearly a tenth of them imported. Mitsubishi needs scale and has a lot of capacity.Mitsubishi has been cooperating with Renault’s alliance partner Nissan for a long time, and has recently intensified the cooperation. Nissan and Renault are so intermeshed that for all intents and purposes, there already is some kind of an alliance between Renault and Mitsubishi, the loose, working level kind, the kind Carlos Ghosn prefers over the blunt takeover so popular among Renault’s Germanic neighbors. In a recent talk to French students, Ghosn said that “cross-cultural relations are one of our core competencies.”Mitsubishi is looking back at a series of failed marriages and romances, one of them with Renault’s French peer PSA, only months after they were thought to have tied the knot.Renault and Nissan want to expand aggressively into the emerging markets. Mitsubishi shares that goal. Development of platforms and technologies is expensive, and you need to spread that investment over many units. Over A LOT OF UNITS if they are low cost, targeted at cash poor markets. Then, those many units need to be made.“We would be nuts if we invest a lot of money into new plants if there’s so much idle capacity sitting around,” muses a friend who works at a French car company that starts with an “R.” The friend thinks that no immediate announcements will come in respect to the story, but he recommends to keep monitoring the French-Japonaise romance.Meanwhile, a Renault spokeswoman told Reuters on the record: “We had discussions with Mitsubishi in the past on limited cooperation as we have done with other automakers, but they didn’t result in an agreement. We have nothing new at this stage.”(Due to a recent outbreak of prudery among some readers and writers of these annals, we refrain from illustrating this story with the customary tie-up pictures , although there are good ones. We will save them for a more festive occasion.)
Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Compaq Deskpro Compaq Deskpro on May 31, 2013

    Thank you Bertel. I'm not a prude, but I work in a highschool and I'm currently babysitting the IT department while everyone else is out on a mission. I don't need all these kids who have cameras that connect straight to Facebook snapping a picture of me innocently reading a car blog, where it makes its way to parents then teachers then brass, and then I am canned. If you could implement an NSFW spoiler tag, that would be fantastic.

  • Philadlj Philadlj on May 31, 2013

    This probably means no follow-up for the PSA clones of the Mitsu ASX - the Citroën C4 Aircross and Peugeot 4008. I'm sure Renault won't want one of their partners making crossovers for the competition.

  • TCowner We've had a 64.5 Mustang in the family for the past 40 years. It is all original, Rangoon Red coupe with 289 (one of the first instead of the 260), Rally Pac, 4-speed, factory air, every option. Always gets smiles and thumbs ups.
  • ToolGuy This might be a good option for my spouse when it becomes available -- thought about reserving one but the $500 deposit is a little too serious. Oh sorry, that was the Volvo EX30, not the Mustang. Is Volvo part of Ford? Is the Mustang an EV? I'm so confused.
  • Mikey My late wife loved Mustangs ..We alway rented one while travelling . GM blood vetoed me purchasing one . 3 years after retirement bought an 08 rag top, followed by a 15 EB Hard top, In 18 i bought a low low mileage 05 GT rag with a stick.. The car had not been properly stored. That led to rodent issues !! Electrical nightmare. Lots of bucks !! The stick wasn't kind to my aging knees.. The 05 went to a long term dedicated Mustang guy. He loves it .. Today my garage tenant is a sweet 19 Camaro RS rag 6yl Auto. I just might take it out of hibernation this weekend. The Mustang will always hold a place in my heart.. Kudos to Ford for keeping it alive . I refuse to refer to the fake one by that storied name .
  • Ajla On the Mach-E, I still don't like it but my understanding is that it helps allow Ford to continue offering a V8 in the Mustang and F-150. Considering Dodge and Ram jumped off a cliff into 6-cylinder land there's probably some credibility to that story.
  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
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