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Nissan to pull out of venture fund with Renault in cost-cutting drive, insiders say

TOKYO — Nissan is likely to pull out from a venture capital fund it runs with alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, as part of the Japanese automaker's drive to cut costs and conserve cash, two sources said. Nissan will formally take a decision on whether to leave the fund, Alliance Ventures, by the end of this month, the two Nissan insiders told Reuters, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public. The likely move comes after Nissan's junior partner, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, told an alliance meeting last week that it would no longer continue to inject money into the fund, one of the sources said. The decision to leave the Amsterdam-based fund was all but a done deal, the other source said, adding: "Of course we're out. The house is on fire." A Nissan spokeswoman said it was speculation and declined to comment. A Mitsubishi spokesman said no decision had been made. The move comes as Nissan — which has seen its earnings slump — is now facing a downturn in China, its biggest market, due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. China sales plunged 80% last month. It also highlights the extent of the automaker's cost-cutting under new CEO Makoto Uchida, who is under pressure for a quick turnaround. Alliance Ventures is aimed at finding "learning opportunities" for the alliance through investing in startups, and is supposed get up to $200 million (153.3 million pounds) a year from the three alliance partners, although it never achieves that full amount, the first source said. It was set up under former alliance head Carlos Ghosn, whose dramatic arrest in Japan culminated in an escape to his childhood home of Lebanon in December. Ghosn faces multiple charges in Japan, including of under-reporting earnings and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denies. According to its website, the fund was set up with a $200 million initial investment and aims for up to $1 billion by 2023. Portfolio companies include WeRide, a Chinese robo-taxi startup and Tekion Corp, a cloud-based retail platform for cars. "It wasn't established by Ghosn as a way to make money. It was for those learning opportunities we get from investing in smart startups," the first source said. "But given the tough financial situation we are facing, we are looking at investment return." Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by David Dolan/Louise Heavens/Susan Fenton.

Junkyard Gem: 1992 Plymouth Laser

Chrysler began selling rebadged Japan-built Mitsubishis beginning with the Dodge Colt in 1971, with plenty of Arrows, Champs, Challengers, Ram 50s, Conquests, Raiders, Stealths and Sapporos following those cars across the Pacific. Starting with the 1983 model year, Mitsubishi Motors began selling vehicles with its own badging in the United States, and that caused Chrysler and Mitsubishi to crash into the voluntary import quota that Japanese carmakers imposed on themselves in 1981 as a means of avoiding tougher restrictions threatened by the Reagan Administration. To get around the quota, the two partners created Diamond-Star Motors in Illinois, where Rivians are now built. The very first product to be assembled by DSM was a liftback sports coupe that debuted as a 1990 model under three different names: the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars, found in a Denver car graveyard recently. The Laser name had been used on Chrysler-badged Dodge Daytonas for the 1984 through 1986 model years, and the name seemed futuristic enough to revive on a Plymouth. The cheapest of those three DSM siblings in 1992 was the Eclipse, which started with a list price of $10,859 ($24,120 in 2024 dollars). The cheapest Laser had an MSRP of $11,206 ($24,891 after inflation), while the most affordable Talon cost $13,631 ($30,277 in today's money). The reason the Eclipse and Laser were so much cheaper than the Talon was that the base Talon came with the 2.0-liter Mitsubishi 4G63 engine and its 135 horsepower, while the entry-level Eclipse and Laser were equipped with the 1.8-liter 4G37 and its 92 horses. This Laser is a base model with few frills, so it has the 1.8 engine. It also has the five-speed manual transmission. A four-speed automatic was available, for $701 extra ($1,557 now).  Like the Talon and Eclipse, the Laser was available with turbocharging and all-wheel-drive. Those cars were genuinely quick by the standards of the time. This one probably was purchased as a fun-enough-to-drive commuter that was easy on the gasoline budget, and it put in just over 150,000 miles during its life. In 1992, federal law required that news cars be equipped with either driver's-side airbags or the universally loathed automatic shoulder belts. This car has the latter. Someone installed aftermarket multi-bolt-pattern wheels on this car, probably during the early phase of the Fast and Furious Era.

Mitsubishi and Nissan teaming up on electric kei car

Nissan and Mitsubishi have announced plans to build an electric kei car together. The yet-unnamed car would mark a major step towards electrification of Japan's popular supercompact segment. The car will be powered by a 20 kWh battery and will be engineered to cover daily driving duties in a Japanese driving cycle. The car can also double as a mobile power source or power a home in emergency situations. Nissan says the car will measure 134 inches long, 58 inches wide, and 65 inches tall, in order to comply with laws limiting kei car size. The companies state that the car will be developed by NMKV Co., Ltd., a joint-venture that stands for Nissan Mitsubishi Kei Vehicle. Each carmaker owns a 50 percent stake, and already jointly builds models such as the feline favorite Nissan Dayz, which Mitsubishi sells as the eK. In reality, that likely means Mitsubishi will be developing the car and Nissan will simply slap a badge on it. Nissan has not traditionally built kei cars, choosing instead to rebadge those made by Suzuki or Mitsubishi. In fact, Mitsubishi built the first electric kei car, the i-Miev, way back in 2009, and it was actually sold in the U.S. until 2017. The jellybean-shaped EV was a pioneer in the field, but its 62-mile range from a 16 kWh lithium-ion battery showed the limitations of the technology at the time. Mitsubishi moved about 32,000 of them before they pulled the plug, with a pre-tax-credit price ranging from $23,000 to $31,000. The new Nissan-Mitsubishi kei car will land at around 2 million yen, or $18,200. The price, while slightly more expensive than a gasoline counterpart, bucks predictions from analysts that said prices would skyrocket by 66 to 120 percent if kei cars were forced to electrify. A petrol-powered Nissan Dayz starts at around $15,200. Size-wise, the two share a similar footprint as they are governed by kei car size limits. The special class of cars get unique license plates and other registration cost benefits due to their compact dimensions. A BMW i3 would exceed those boundaries due to its 158-inch length and 70-inch width. However, the larger EV comes equipped with a substantially bigger 42.2 kWh battery good for 152 miles of range. Though no photos have been released, we predict it will look like the iMk concept (pictured above). The car will go on sale in spring 2022. Related Video This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.