Nissan Motor announced plans to assemble ‘kei’ [mini]cars in house for the first time from next year, as part of a broader reorganisation of its operations.
The company last week said it was expanding its collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors in areas such as new technology, products and production capacity. Nissan already sells kei cars, or mini cars with 660cc engines, under its own brand sourced from Mitsubishi and Suzuki.
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Nissan plans to cease sourcing kei cars from Suzuki next year and focus more on its partnership with Mitsubishi. In 2011, the two companies established the NMKV joint venture to jointly develop kei cars.
One jointly developed model is already in production at Mitsubishi and a second model will be added soon. Nissan plans to assemble a third jointly developed model in house to use surplus capacity freed up by the transfer of some SUV production to the US and maintain domestic output at 1m units.
