Kei Car Co-Ops

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

How do you make money with small cars? You make it up with volume. The Japanese market for the very Japanese minivehicles, or kei cars, is shrinking. So what do manufacturers do? They circle the diminutive wagons and forge joint ventures.

Nissan and Mitsubishi agreed on a joint venture to make kei cars together for the Japanese market. The joint venture will start in June. The JV will have a capital befitting the size : 10 million yen, or $ 122,000

A while ago, Fuji Heavy’s Subaru has announced that Daihatsu will build its minivehicles. Subaru will use the liberated capacities to build hot numbers for car crazed customers, or carmania, as auto manicas are called in Japanese.

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