The thread is a bit big. Mitsubishi wants to relaunch it in Europe with two new models…. Which didn’t cost him much. The new Japanese Colt, announced on Tuesday, April 5, will have nothing more than a redesigned Renault Clio V at the front and will be produced alongside it at the diamond company’s Turkish site in Bursa. The Colt is manufactured as of the summer of 2023, and will be launched in the fall of the same year. While the three-diamond brand was scheduled to withdraw from Europe, it is not making a strategic change. “The new Colt will enable Mitsubishi Motors (MMC) to significantly increase its coverage of the European market,” the statement said. A hybrid version similar to the Clio E-Tech will also be launched.
Colt will follow another model, the Mitsubishi ASX mini SUV. This, which will appear in the spring of 2023, will be a replica – save for the front part – of the Renault Captur 2. It will be manufactured like its brother at Renault’s Spanish plant in Valladolid. The French are gaining additional production volumes and hence economies of scale. Renault built 205,700 Clios versus in Bursa last year and another 32,130 in Novo Mesto in Slovenia. Diamond also made 150,000 captors across the Pyrenees in 2021.
Utility swaps
On the MMC side, this sleight of hand certainly allows to complete its range. But we don’t see well its strategic interest in marketing clones of two well-known Renault models in Europe that buyers clearly identified as cars from Boulogne-Billancourt. Admittedly, this isn’t the first time. Since MMC has marketed Express trucks, derived from Renault Trafic, produced in Sandouville (Seine-Maritime). But the volumes (1,343 last year versus 82,900 Renault) don’t necessarily advocate in favor of these clones.
Renault also produces SUVs for its ally, Nissan. Again in very low volumes: last year’s 5200 Nissan NV250, from Renault Kangoo (84,000), was produced in Maubeuge (North); 6445 NV400, derived from Renault Master’s large truck (94900) at Batilly (Meurthe-et-Moselle); 7,700 NV300, Nissan’s version of the Trafic in Sanduville. Finally, Renault in Douai (North) will produce an electric future for Nissan, starting with the upcoming R5.
Renault Alaskan failure
MMC has been controlled by Nissan, which owns 34% of the capital, since the fall of 2016. Renault owns 43.4% of Nissan, which it controlled in March 1999. Shared platforms are a good thing, but full copies of vehicles often lead to Viscus. The Renault Alaskan pickup truck, launched with great fanfare in 2016, was scheduled to produce 80-100 thousand units per year. But weary. This version of the famous Nissan Navara, known on all continents, did not resume. Renault has no reputation in this sector. Alaska turned out to be a bitter failure and soon the French stopped marketing it. Copying is usually useless, the customer is not fooled and prefers the original.