Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi have announced plans that would save the companies $14.6 billion and strengthen the combined group's position as the world's largest automaker.
Carlos Ghosn, chair and CEO of the alliance, made the announcement today. It's called Alliance 2022, and it's a six-year plan that has a target to "double annual synergies to €10 billion ($14.6 billion)," as well as increasing sales more than 60 percent from 2015 numbers.
How will the three automakers achieve this? By accelerating their collaboration on shared platforms, powertrains, and electric vehicles. Currently, the three brands produce 28 engines and share just 14. By 2022, the plan is to share 22 engines and build just 31. Nine million vehicles are planned to be built on just four common platforms, up from two million on two platforms in 2016. Mitsubishi will gain access to the Nissan Renault shared powertrains and Common Module Family shared platform by 2020.
The group targets total annual sales exceeding 14 million units, and to cement their spot as the largest car company in the world, a title they earned based on 2017 vehicle sales so far this year. For the first half of 2017, the alliance overtook the sales of the Volkswagen Group and Toyota. For the last full calendar year, the Volkswagen group was number one, having sold 10.31 million vehicles in 2016, and number two Toyota saw 10.175 million vehicle sales.
The alliance plans 12 new electric vehicles by 2022, built on a common platform and sharing components. Ghosn said that they plan a vehicle with a range exceeding 600 km on the European test cycle by 2022, along with a 30 percent decrease in battery cost. The alliance also expects to be able to deliver 230 km of range from a 15-minute charge, up from just 90 km in 2016. Mitsubishi's plug-in hybrid technology will become the shared hybrid tech for the alliance in the mid and full-size segments by 2022.
Forty new autonomous vehicles will be introduced, with levels of autonomy ranging from highway-only driver assist in 2018 to full autonomous capability by 2022. Part of that plan is "becoming an operator of robo-vehicle ride-hailing service."
