Mitsubishi is currently feeling the full financial burden of Trump’s tariffs on vehicle imports into the US, but that could soon change thanks to reported joint venture discussions.
As reported by Nikkei Asia, Mitsubishi President and CEO Takao Kato said that the company is considering setting up joint venture production agreements with Nissan and Honda to produce vehicles in the US.
“It's absolutely difficult to continue [the North American business] on our own,” said Kato to Nikkei Asia.
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“We aim to make concrete progress until our next medium-term plan is announced.”
This will likely be announced early in the northern hemisphere spring, which is between March and June. For reference, the Japanese fiscal year starts on April 1 so this makes sense.
Mitsubishi currently doesn’t have any US vehicle production facilities, with all its vehicles being imported from Japan. It currently offers the Outlander, Outlander PHEV, Eclipse Cross, Outlander Sport (previous-generation ASX) and Mirage.
From April to September this year Mitsubishi’s North American division ended up making a loss as costs have risen and tariffs for vehicle imports are being slapped on every single car it sells. It’s also reportedly hard to set up an American factory at Mitsubishi’s scale due to high labour and material costs.
Nissan currently operates the Canton production facility in Mississippi and the Smyrna plant in Tennessee. Its sales are slumping, and as a global company it needs to be more profitable.
Honda on the other hand has a total of five production facilities in the US and all run at a high capacity, meaning there’s little to no room for expansion.
In 2024 Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda had a 15 per cent combined market share in the US, overtaking Toyota and Lexus.
This means if Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda can jointly produce even just a small number of vehicles, it could theoretically be financially beneficial for each company.
Mitsubishi is also discussing the potential of collaborating with both Honda and Nissan outside the US, according to Kato.
At this stage it’s unclear how this will manifest, though beyond the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, the Japanese carmaker has already established a joint venture with Taiwan’s Foxtron to rebadge an EV for the Australian market.
On a local front, Mitsubishi now only sells a select number of vehicles following a number getting axed earlier this year due to not meeting Australian Design Rules (ADRs) for autonomous emergency braking (AEB) performance.
Its biggest sellers in Australia are currently the Japanese-produced Outlander and the Thai-produced Triton ute.
All of this renewed joint venture discussions followed Mitsubishi joining talks with Nissan and Honda regarding setting up a three-way partnership in August 2024.
Following the collapse of Nissan and Honda’s merger earlier this year, the three companies have now returned to exploring collaboration opportunities.
As it currently stands Nissan is Mitsubishi’s biggest stakeholder. This has drawn attention as Nissan itself is currently struggling to turn its business around and generate profit.
Nissan President and CEO Ivan Espinosa has said it’s not considering selling its stake in Mitsubishi.
