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Nissan is exploring the sale of its 34% stake in Mitsubishi

TOKYO — Nissan is looking to sell some or all of its 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing unidentified sources, a move that would reshape a three-way alliance that includes France's Renault. Nissan shares rose 5% on the news. Mitsubishi Motors was up 3%. "There are no plans to change the capital structure with Mitsubishi," a Nissan company spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement. A Mitsubishi Motors spokesman said the same, adding the company would continue to collaborate within the alliance. Renault did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Nissan, struggling to recover from the pandemic-induced downturn, could sell its stake to a Mitsubishi group company such as Mitsubishi Corp, which already owns a fifth of Mitsubishi Motors, Bloomberg said. Such a deal would fundamentally alter a three-way partnership built by Carlos Ghosn, former chairman of the alliance, which plunged into confusion when he was arrested in 2018 on charges of financial misconduct. Ghosn had wanted a full merger of Renault and Nissan, which was shelved, according to Reuters sources, as the companies decided to fix the troubled alliance. The pandemic has, however, compounded problems and made a recovery hard. Nissan, which is 43% owned by Renault, last week cut its operating loss forecast for the year to March by 28%, helped by a rebound in demand, especially in China. Mitsubishi Motors, Japan's No.6 automaker, expects to post an operating loss of 140 billion yen for the business year. Both companies are cutting production levels and costs in a bid to return to profitability. Related Video:

Tesla, BMW and Nissan meeting in secret to discuss charging tech

It's interesting what's happening in the electric vehicle field. It used to be that BMW and Tesla were competitors. Then – and of course they're still competing, especially in the public mind – they were working together on ... something. Maybe. And now, the Financial Times reports that the two luxury automakers are meeting with Nissan. Again, maybe. The scuttlebutt is that the three companies are interested in working together on something to do with charging electric vehicles, potentially a global recharging standard. Currently, when it comes to fast charging, BMW uses the SAE Combo standard, Nissan uses CHAdeMO and Tesla uses its own Superchargers. The meeting was prompted by Tesla opening of all of its patents the other day, FT says. Speaking during the recent annual shareholder meeting, Musk said he was "more than happy to have other manufacturers" use Tesla's Superchargers but that, "there is no other electric car that can accept anything close to 135 kilowatts." Let's assume the technical hurdle can be overcome. With any potential patent/licensing problems out of the way, these discussions with BMW and Nissan might be revolving around this other angle that Musk mentioned: "They (other automakers) just have to contribute to the capital cost, so figure out what percentage of the time are their cars using the Supercharger network and then they can make a contribution proportionate to their customer usage of the Supercharger network." That certainly sounds like something that could take some time to figure out. News Source: Financial TimesImage Credit: Elbilforeningen / Flickr Green BMW Nissan Tesla Electric supercharger chademo sae combo

Nissan axing Pathfinder Hybrid from 2016 lineup

The Nissan lineup gets a little smaller for the 2016 model year, as the Pathfinder Hybrid is dropped from the range. With its debut in late 2013, the electrically assisted SUV is one of the company's more recent introductions. However, it never really caught on with the public. "The Pathfinder Hybrid is not available in the US for the 2016 model year. Our emphasis is on the 3.5-liter V6 Pathfinder that achieves a best-in-class 20-city and 27-highway fuel economy," Nissan North America product communications director Dan Bedore confirmed to Autoblog. "Nissan has no announcement on future hybrid gasoline-electric powertrain applications at this time." Nissan actually ended production of the Pathfinder Hybrid in January, and "the hybrid was never a big part of Pathfinder sales," Bedore said to Automotive News. For the price premium, the electrically assisted version that combined a supercharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder and a 20-horsepower electric motor was only rated three or four miles per gallon better in EPA combined ratings than with the V6. However, while the company doesn't outline individual sales of the two, powertrain variants, the SUV is performing well so far this year. Through June 2015, sales are up 4.9 percent with 41,938 units sold. The future for the Infiniti QX60 Hybrid, which is the Pathfinder's more luxurious sibling, doesn't look very bright either. "For the United States, while the QX60 Hybrid continues to be available at some retailers across the country, our production is currently focused on the QX60 3.5 model," Infiniti spokesperson Kyle Bazemore told Autoblog. However, the vehicle is still in production at the Smyrna, TN, factory for export to places like China and Mexico. According to Bazemore if demand happens to increase in the US, "we have the manufacturing ability to make them available." Overall, QX60 sales are also up 14 percent this year in the US.