Mitsubishi To Sell Renault Cars Under New Alliance

by TTAC Staff

January 6th, 2015 9:14 AM

mitsubishi to sell renault cars under new alliance

Renault will be returning to the United States, but not with Meganes or Kangoos sold under the diamond brand. Instead, the Renault-derived products will be variants of jointly-developed Renault Samsung cars sold under the Mitsubishi brand, as part of a new alliance between Renault-Nissan and Mitsubishi.

First up will be a D-segment sedan for the United States and Canada to be built in Korea at the Renault-Samsung plant, similar to the Latitude, shown above. A C-segment sedan will also be next, but sales and production locations have yet to be determined. Also under development is a global kei car that will include an EV variant.

The two new sedans will ostensibly serve as replacements for the Galant and the Lancer. The Galant has not had a replacement since it’s discontinuation in the United States, while the Lancer lags behind its competitors and is long overdue for a replacement.

#JointVenture #Nissan #Renault #RenaultSamsung

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Johnny ringo on Nov 05, 2013

This is going to be interesting....an alliance(pardon the pun)between a company that has a very hard time selling automobiles in the United States and a company known for mediocre products that pulled out of the American market 26 years ago. Hopefully Mitsubishi will make no absolutely no reference to the Renault heritage. All somebody has to do is google Renault Alliance and it's likely they won't want to get close to one of these vehicles. Just my opinion after a less than stellar experience with a Renault product.

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- Rudiger on Nov 05, 2013
  
  My guess is that Renault has been inspired by Fiat's return to the US. If Fix-It-Again-Tony can make a comeback, why can't the cheese-eating surrender-monkeys? Of course, the jury's still out as to whether Fiat's return to the US has really been a success or not.
  
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- NoGoYo on Nov 05, 2013
  
  @rudiger How can you call yourself a success for managing to sell ONE CAR? Well I guess now it would be three, but two are Dodge/RAM.
  
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George B on Nov 05, 2013

My first reaction is the US-South Korea free trade agreement that went into effect in 2012 helps make this possible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_agreement_between_the_United_States_of_America_and_the_Republic_of_Korea Wonder how they explained the potential competition from Mitsubishi to Nissan dealers?

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- Righteousball on Nov 06, 2013
  
  The whole reason they're selling Samsung-Renaults and not straight-up Nissans is (in theory) to avoid the potential competition you mentioned. 20 years ago a deal like this would've been done by providing a JDM variant of the same car being sold (e.g. Toyota Sprinter was chosen to become the Geo Prizm, so that Geo wasn't just getting a Corolla), but today the Japanese have greatly consolidated their products at home, so they go abroad. Nissan is trying to up the utilization rate of the Latitude, so to speak, to recoup more of the money spent making it different from the Altima/Teana. This serves Renault who needs a large sedan but has never convinced the non-Francophone world it's a viable option; it probably fulfills some sort of promise they may have made to deliver "original" models for Samsung that are not str8-up assemble jobs; and it's a larger sedan they can send to Russia and China and now the US.
  
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Big Al from Oz on Nov 06, 2013

I predicted Renault Nissan Alliance and Mitsubishi will join up. It seems to be getting closer to that point.

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- Athos Nobile on Nov 06, 2013
  
  And you did others too, but I forgot. Care to remind them?
  
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Bill mcgee on Nov 09, 2013

I wish they would sell the Mexican -market Renault Trafic ( at least I think that 's what the badging said ) that I saw on the freeway in Houston today . Very boxy cargo bay , " distinctive "styling with odd lump in the roof and large vent-windows similar to Euro version Fiat commercials . Looked like it was sized between a Ford Transit and an Econoline . Give me one with a stick.

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