Ask most people which automaker they’d reckon to be the highest volume seller in the world, and the answer would most typically be Volkswagen, and in fact that’s how it was for the past 2 years, pipping Japanese giant Toyota by a few hairs.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance, though, has been a close runner-up but with the acquisition of its controlling stake in Mitsubishi in 2016, they’ve blown past the German marque - which includes Audi, Porsche, Skoda, and Seat - by around 800,000 cars in 2017.
The surge in numbers provided by Mitsubishi was a surprising one for the Alliance as the new strategy involves a deep revamp of its line-up, which has been known to trail behind more recently introduced competitors in many segments.
Despite this, Mitsubishi sold roughly 1.03 million cars worldwide last year, and combined with the respective 3.76 million and 5.82 million sold by Renault and Nissan, they’ve now overtaken the German juggernaut.
The three marques will continue to find engineering and operations optimisations, with the intention of increasing manufacturing output capacity while keeping costs low and product integrity high. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi projects that, by 2022, they would be able to produce up to 14 million vehicles annually with roughly $12 US Dollars saved in the process.
In terms of exciting cars coming from each brand, Renault in particular leads the field with the release of their newest hot hatch, the Megane RS, and the revival of French sports car maker Alpine and their A110.
Meanwhile, Mitsubishi embarks on a rethinking of their current line-up, focusing on crossovers and SUVs portended by the arrival of the Eclipse Cross. Nissan continues to focus on environmentally conscious and future-facing vehicles such as the Leaf, which incidentally was 2017’s best selling car - an title it expects to keep in 2018 too.
Lastly, Infiniti is venturing toward a major design update across their entire line-up, previewed by their Q Inspiration concept, as well as their new variable compression ratio turbocharged petrol engine (VC-Turbo) that offers significantly improved fuel economy.
For more on Renault, Nissan, or Mitsubishi, check out our Showroom.
