Renault confirms production of two new Mitsubishis from 2023

Renault will reportedly produce two so-called “sister models” for alliance partner Mitsubishi from 2023 as part of the brand’s “leader-follower” strategy announced last year.

According to Automotive News Europe, Boulogne-Billancourt has declined to identify the models in-line to receive the Mitsubishi three-diamonds badge, merely saying they will be “based on the same platforms but with differentiations, reflecting the Mitsubishi brand’s DNA” and derived from “best sellers on the European market which already meet regulatory requirements”.

As is stands, the models in question could be spun-off from the Renault Clio and Captur, though nothing has yet been confirmed. Sales will only take place in select left-hand-drive European markets with no chance of right-hand-drive production. Currently, Mitsubishi only offers one Renault derived model, the Express van based on the Trafic, marketed only in Australasia.

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The unexpected development, according to the online publication, reverses Mitsubishi’s turnaround strategy announced last year, in which the Japanese manufacturer confirmed it would be withdrawing from the Old Continent in focusing more on the ASEAN regions, as well as Africa, South America and Oceania where it has a greater market share.

A secondary reason for the reversal stems from better utilisation of Renault’s production facilities in France where the new models will reportedly be build alongside their siblings, which in turn could impact on the reported 4 600 job cuts the brand had planned for its home market.

Coming back? Mitsubishi Colt that ended production in 2013 could potentially return using the same platform as the Renault Clio.

Mitsubishi CEO Takao Kato has meanwhile told the publication that the Renault models would bring new customers to the Mitsubishi brand, but reiterated that plans to develop models specifically for Europe wouldn’t be happening.

“Mitsubishi Motors has been implementing structural reforms in Europe and our decision remains to freeze new car development for the European market, announced in July 2020 in our mid-term business plans,” Kato said.

Shortly after being integrated into the alliance also involving Nissan almost five years ago, Britain’s Auto Express reported that Mitsubishi had been looking into reviving the Colt that ended production in 2013, using the same CMF-B platform as the Clio and Nissan Micra.

A year later in 2018, Japan’s response.jp claimed that the Mirage, facelifted in 2019 and earmarked for a local market return along with the delayed Xpander, would be heading the SUV route and possibly become the Mirage Cross similar to the Eclipse Cross. Like the Colt, though, nothing has happened since then.

In spite of the models’ roll-out two years from now, don’t be surprised if details pertaining to the exact models are revealed before then.

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