The Japanese manufacturer seemed to have crossed the European market last summer, but Mitsubishi will finally stay there.

This will be largely thanks to the Alliance it forms with Renault and Nissan.

Future Mitsubishi models will benefit from synergies at Renault sites in France. 

The official announcement is expected this Wednesday: Mitsubishi will remain in the European market.

The Japanese manufacturer announced in July 2020, "to freeze the introduction of new models on the European market" to concentrate its investments in Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America.

But to guarantee the best possible health of the Alliance, it was above all Renault who wanted Mitsubishi to stay in Europe.

It would even be the new general manager of the diamond manufacturer, Luca de Meo, who would have pushed in this direction.

According to information from the

Financial Times

, he offered Renault factories and platforms.

Perhaps in particular the future 100% electric platform in Douai.

The pioneer of the plug-in hybrid to electric?

It is the European standards, more and more demanding in terms of CO2 emissions, which had led Mitsubishi to imagine a future without Europe.

The Japanese was one of the pioneers of plug-in hybrid motorization, however, by coupling an electric motor and a heat engine.

The “Outlander” SUV model was also a success in this segment, being the best-selling in Europe in 2019. The “Eclipse” SUV, smaller and which has just been restyled, appears only in plug-in hybrid version.

Exit the thermal versions.

The next step will inevitably be new electric models.

The hunt for profitability

Profitability rather than a race for volumes had become Mitsubishi's credo, a strategy consistent with that of Luca de Meo for Renault.

This is what the Alliance manufacturers will now be looking for, like the success of the PSA group, which has become Stellantis since its merger with Fiat-Chrysler.

Finally reassuring prospects for the Alliance, whose future had been widely questioned after the arrest of Carlos Ghosn in Japan in November 2018. As a reminder, Renault holds 43% of the capital of Nissan, which holds 34%. from Mitsubishi.