It’s no secret that Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi have been sharing parts, platforms, and whole cars with each other. As part of the Alliance, all three are expected to work together to streamline costs and help each other in research and development. It’s a purely business decision, one that’s driven by pure sense.
But just because these three brands are essentially one group, it doesn’t necessarily mean all parts, development, and engineering are all shared. Besides, Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi all have USPs that are targeted to different markets and customers.
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One model that won’t be shared across the Alliance is the recently launched Nissan Patrol. While Nissan did admit having talks with Mitsubishi to utilize the Patrol’s chassis, the prior eventually decided against it. Before you ask, it’s not for selfish reasons, either.
Nissan’s Senior vice-resident and chief planning officer for the AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe, and Oceania) region, Francois Bailly spoke to Australian motoring media regarding that matter. The executive said platform sharing for a flagship model, especially ones that bear iconic nameplates, won’t work. “It’s not a B-segment, C-segment [vehicle], this is our flagship, this is what Nissan is,” Bailly told Australian press.
Ivan Espinosa, Nissan’s vice president of product strategy, also concluded that the Patrol and Pajero have different philosophies. Espinosa’s reasoning does bear weight. For starters, the Patrol and Pajero are in completely different size categories. The Nissan is a proper full-size SUV, while the Pajero is more of a mid-size model, both with a different set of competitors. There’s also a notably big difference in price between the two.
Mitsubishi shares the same sentiments with Nissan. The company made it clear that if it were to revive the Pajero, it would rather go at it alone than rely heavily on Nissan. Koichi Namiki, senior executive officer for product strategy of Mitsubishi Motors, said that the Pajero story is ‘not finished’ and remains ‘the heart of our brand’.
While not official, the company’s desire to bring back the Pajero is loud and clear. More recently, Japanese automotive publication Best Car suggested that an all-new Pajero will appear sometime in 2027. It is also said that it will utilize an enlarged and strengthened version of the current Outlander and offer a plug-in hybrid system as one of the powertrain options.
