Nissan Finally Swallows Up Mitsubishi

Carlos Ghosn (Credit: Nissan)

It was bound to happen: Mitsubishi has officially been gobbled up by Nissan. It’s now a part of the Renault-Nissan alliance, with Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn acting as chairman after appointing himself to the position.

Don’t laugh at this deal, because Nissan just became massive. Automotive News says it should save the company about half a billion dollars in costs. That extra cash comes through pooling manufacturing, purchasing, products and more.

In other words, thanks to economies of scale, Nissan should be able to pump out a whole lot more exciting vehicles like the Altima, Rogue and Maxima. And by exciting, I mean malaise. This is truly a joyous occasion.

What would be really great is if Nissan uses Mitsubishi for what it used to be good at: making awesome cars that weren’t expensive. We’re talking something like the old-school Eclipses, the 3000GT VR4 and yes the Evo. Oh please, Nissan, bring back the Evo! I won’t make fun of the Altima anymore if you do!

We know Nissan has big plans to use the Mitsubishi plug-in hybrid tech for a number of cars. It’s supposed to become the standard for all Renault-Nissan alliance vehicles, which is actually some good news.

Ghosn just made himself incredibly influential in the automotive industry. Not only is he now the chairman of Mitsubishi, he’s CEO and chairman of Nissan and Renault. Maybe he should go for the CEO slot at Mitsubishi? Meanwhile, Toyota is working to gobble up more Japanese automakers, setting up a smackdown of Godzilla proportions.