In a nutshell, platform sharing between automakers enables reduced production costs and sharing of research and development. The adverse effect of this is that any shortcomings are also shared between manufacturers. This has happened for the Mitsubishi Express van, sales of which have now been terminated in Australia.
The Renault based Mitsubishi Express has become the first car in Australia’s history to score a zero star score in local crash testing. The Alliance 2030 deal between Renault, Mitsubishi and Nissan is intended to bolster the three large automakers’ sales by reducing production costs with platform sharing over the next 8 years.
The Mitsubishi Express joined the Japanese manufacturers showroom floors in 2020 as a rebadged Renault Traffic and was the first shared model globally between the French and Japanese automaker under the new partnership. Both have worked in collaboration since 1999.
More about the failure of the Mitsubishi Express which has seen the model sell a meagre 3000 units over the course of its three year life cycle in the market. In an attempt to appeal to local fleet buyers, Mitsubishi rushed the Express to market in order to get input on the next-generation model. It is estimated that there is enough stock of the current model to remain in showroom floors until the end of the year after Mitsubishi stated that: “May will be the final production month for short wheelbase variants.”
This will undoubtedly strike a blow to the alliance between both manufacturers who are unfavourably caught up in this debacle, the existing model suffered serious structural damage that led to its zero start test score. This means that the next generation model will be the only solution to returning to the market with a more favourable outcome to the crash test and remedying the bruised reputation.
This can’t be an easy pill to swallow for either automaker but we can only imagine it has caused considerable strain in the Alliance relationship.
