Nissan and Mitsubishi Fuso joint venture

The objective of the OEM supply agreement is to further strengthen the foundation of both companies' light-duty truck business by leveraging their collective knowledge and expertise. The reciprocal supply of vehicles will contribute to the overall reduction of development costs, lower manufacturing costs through economies of scale, and will increase efficiency and productivity for both companies.

In its most basic form, the basic OEM supply agreement will see Nissan supply the Atlas F24 1.5 ton light-duty truck to Mitsubishi Fuso, while Fuso's Canter 2.0 ton light-duty truck will be supplied to Nissan. A formal contract that will determine specifics of the OEM supply timing and volumes has yet to be concluded at time of publication.

"In order for Nissan to achieve the goals of our mid-term business plan, Nissan Power 88, we must expand our product portfolio and strengthen our light commercial vehicle business. This is also a central element of our long-term strategy," said Nissan Chief Operating Officer, Toshiyuki Shiga.

"We are aiming to become a global leader in manufacturing commercial vehicles by the end of fiscal 2016, which makes our partnership with Mitsubishi Fuso all the more important. Maximizing the synergies between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler enables the delivery of products that meet our customers' needs and leverages the strengths of both companies."

"The agreement today is a firm step forward under the strategic partnership between Daimler AG and Renault-Nissan and represents an important milestone for Fuso in achieving our 5-pillar growth strategy 'FUSO 2015,'" said Dr. Albert Kirchmann, MFTBC President & CEO.

"There is fundamentally a growing need of bringing operations closer to markets due to the ever more fierce competition globally. As such, a partnership with Nissan Motor is a logical step forward in terms of further concentrating development resources and increasing scale effects.

"Under FUSO 2015, Fuso aspires to significantly increase customer satisfaction through further focus on product satisfaction, trust-based sales and dependable service, on the foundation of its industry leading fuel-efficient products."