Mitsubishi, you will remember, was taken over by Nissan late last year and details of its future strategy are starting to emerge.
Carlos Ghosn has stepped down as Nissan chief to take on the Mitsubishi presidency to faster integrate it into the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Ghosn has appointed one of his key allies, Trevor Mann as Mitsubishi CEO. Mann is a Briton who learned his trade running Nissan’s Washington plant.
What effect will Carlos Ghosn have on the future of Mitsubishi?
He is understood to be pushing strategy forward and demanding more rapid decision-making from Mitsubishi execs used to taking their time over decisions.
Mann is tasking distributors with writing plans that build the Mitsubishi brand and look at the wider aspects of its business and not just concentrate on ‘moving metal’.
A key strategic step is to re-allocate future Mitsubishi models to Renault-Nissan platforms, which means bringing some forward and pushing others back.
It looks like Mitsubishi’s future in the UK will centre around SUVs with either petrol or electric power, with hatchbacks and saloons not featuring very high on the priority list, at all.
Already in the pipeline are the Eclipse Cross, a C-segment SUV launched at Geneva and on sale in early 2018, followed by the B-segment eX, a battery-powered B-segment crossover, in 2019/2020.
Some markets are asking for small and medium hatchbacks and saloons, once the bread-and-butter for Mitsubishi, but it looks like the UK will concentrate on crossovers and SUVs.
Given the growth in those markets and the highly-competitive market for small and medium hatches, that looks a sensible choice.
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