2002 Mitsubishi Montero Xls Sport Utility 4-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Nissan's purchase of Mitsubishi is officially official

After the company's announcement in May, the Nissan's purchase of a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi is now official. The deal cost Nissan $2.3 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, and brings Mitsubishi into the Nissan-Renault Alliance. The company explained that this new partnership will manifest itself in shared vehicle platforms and technology, joint purchasing, and shared manufacturing. Nissan also said that this purchase will make the company one of the three largest companies by volume in the world. Nissan also emphasized that Mitsubishi will very much be a partner in the current alliance with Renault. In addition, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Nissan and Renault, has been nominated to be the new chairman of the Mitsubishi board. With Ghosn at the head of the board, current Mitsubishi president and CEO, Osamu Masuko, will remain in his positions but Nissan's current chief competitive officer will join Masuko as co-chief executive officer at Mitsubishi. With these companies now working together, we'll probably start seeing more commonality between Nissan and Mitsubishi products here in the States. It would also be a great opportunity to get some of Mitsubishi's cooler products here. Perhaps Mitsubishi and Nissan will take our hint about the Delica. This article has been revised to clarify that Nissan Motors purchased the stake in Mitsubishi, not the Nissan-Renault Alliance, and to add the value of the purchase. Related Video: News Source: Nissan, Wall Street JournalImage Credit: Issei Kato / Reuters Mitsubishi Nissan Renault renault-nissan alliance

Mitsubishi i-MiEV rallies in WAVE 2014 as support vehicle

Hey, we found somebody willing to drive a new Mitsubishi i-MiEV over 1,000 miles. The little-bitty four-seat electric vehicle will be used on the other side of the Pond as a support vehicle in the World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE) road rally through the Swiss Alps this spring. Brian Orr from EV Matters Ltd. made the purchase, as he'll be providing the support vehicle for Green MotorSport Ltd.'s hand-built utility concept vehicle that's being built with an eye on deploying it in developing countries, the Auto Channel says. Another i-MiEV will be an official, 900 kilogram-plus entrant in the rally, which begins May 31 in Sindelfingen, Germany and finishes a week later in Rigi, Switzerland, with 20 towns or so in between. As many as 70 teams will be joining the party which, in 2013, set a world record for electric-vehicle parades by sending 305 of them very quietly through Zurich. Despite a tiny price tag, i-MiEV sales in the US (where it's simply known as the i) have come to a near halt as Mitsubishi gets ready to shift its plug-in focus to PHEVs. While US i sales jumped 75 percent last year to 1,029 units, the Japanese automaker has moved just four units (!) domestically during the first two months of 2014.

Japan could consolidate to three automakers by 2020

Sergio Marchionne might see his dream of big mergers in the auto industry become a reality, and an analyst thinks Japan is a likely place for consolidation to happen. Takaki Nakanishi from Jefferies Group LLC tells Bloomberg the country's car market could combine to just three or fewer major players by 2020, from seven today. "To have one or two carmakers in a country is not only natural, but also helpful to their competitiveness," Nakanishi told Bloomberg. "Japan has just too many and the resources have been too spread out. It's a natural trend to consolidate and reduce some of the wasted resources." Nakanishi's argument echoes Marchionne's reasons to push for a merger between FCA and General Motors. Automakers spend billions on research and development, but their competitors also invest money to create the same solutions. Consolidating could conceivably put that R&D money into new avenues. "In today's global marketplace, it is increasingly difficult for automakers to compete in lower volume segments like sports cars, hydrogen fuel cells, or electrified vehicles on their own," Ed Kim, vice president of Industry Analysis at AutoPacific, told Autoblog. Even without mergers, these are the areas where Japanese automakers already have partners for development. Kim cited examples like Toyota and Subaru's work on the BRZ and FR-S and its collaboration with BMW on a forthcoming sports car. Honda and GM have also reportedly deepened their cooperation on green car tech. After Toyota's recent buyout of previous partner Daihatsu, Nakanishi agrees with rumors that the automotive giant could next pursue Suzuki. He sees them like a courting couple. "For Suzuki, it's like they're just starting to exchange diaries and have yet to hold hands. When Toyota's starts to hold 5 percent of Suzuki's shares, this will be like finally touching fingertips," Nakanishi told Bloomberg. "I absolutely do believe that we are not finished seeing consolidation in Japan," Kim told Autoblog. Rising development costs to meet tougher emissions regulations make it hard for minor players in the market to remain competitive. "The smaller automakers like Suzuki, Mazda, and Mitsubishi are challenged to make it on their own in the global marketplace. Consolidation for them may be inevitable." Related Video: