Three of the most popular car brands in the world have announced a new partnership, which could see billions invested in Europe to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles.
Bosses from Renault Group, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors met to outline the future of the "strategic partnership" and electric car output.
The Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance convened at the Ampere Douai facility in northern France, which already manufactures a number of popular electric vehicles.
Ampere has been selected by Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors as the trusted partner to develop and manufacture future EV models in Europe.
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The Alliance said it would accelerate plans to manufacture electric cars in France
|GETTY/RENAULT
Mitsubishi is planning to unveil the new Eclipse Cross today (Wednesday, September 17), which will be the brand's first electric SUV for Europe.
It will also be the first car Mitsubishi has produced in France, marking a huge vote of confidence for the European manufacturing sector.
The Japanese brand previously confirmed that a long-range variant would launch in the last quarter of 2025, followed by a mid-range variant next year.
This will be the third SUV launched by Mitsubishi this year, after the flagship plug-in hybrid Outlander and the new Grandis, which is available with an internal combustion engine or as a mild hybrid.
The bosses of Renault Group, Nissan and Mitsubishi tour the Ampere Douai plant
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The Alliance said the new Nissan Micra and the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross will be made on Ampere's AmpR Small and AmpR Medium platforms, respectively.
Both models are being prepared at the Douai plant, which is around 24km southeast of Lens, with commercial launches expected later this year.
The meeting involved Ivan Espinosa, CEO of Nissan, and Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, as well as the inaugural Alliance Board for François Provost as newly appointed CEO of Renault Group, alongside Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard.
Ampere's Douai plant currently manufactures six electric models from four different brands, which the Alliance said highlighted its "flexibility".
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This includes the Renault Megane E-Tech (2022), Renault Scenic E-Tech Electric (2024), the Renault R5 E-Tech Electric (2024), the Alpine A290 (2024), the Nissan Micra EV (2025) and the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (2025).
The Douai plant has received €550million (£477.5million) to build a flexible standard line equipped with three different modular platforms to accommodate the new vehicles.
It also created a new workshop for assembling batteries, with May 2023 seeing production at the Douai factory becoming 100 per cent electric.
The Alliance stated that it was focused on joint projects and regional opportunities in "driving the transformation toward sustainable mobility".
While registrations of new Nissan vehicles have fallen compared to the same time last year, it still retains an impressive 4.64 per cent share of the market.
So far this year, the Japanese brand has sold 57,662 new vehicles in the UK, while it registered 65,777 last year, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Renault, on the other hand, has seen sales increase by almost 12 per cent year-on-year, selling more than 39,000 new cars between January and August.
This brings the market share of Renault from 2.83 per cent last August to a new high of 3.09 per cent.