The Alliance isn’t dead. After a shaky post-Gosn period, it’s slimmer, rebalanced, and focused on joint EV projects in the Ampere Douai facility while letting each company keep its independence.
The top meeting of Ivan Espinosa, CEO of Nissan, Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, with Renault’s new boss, François Provost, and Alliance Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard in Douai is a renewal of wedding vows, underscoring the commitment to delivering cutting-edge electric vehicles tailored to European customers.
Dedicated to electric vehicles
Renault Group announced in 2022 the creation of Ampere, a dedicated subsidiary for electric vehicles (EVs) and software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The idea, part of Renault’s ‘Renaulution’ plan, under then-CEO Luca de Meo, was to spin off EV operations into a separate company that could attract investors, scale faster, and lead in Europe.
On December 6, 2023, Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi announced that Nissan would invest up to €600 million and Mitsubishi up to €200 million in Ampere, and that the two companies would use Ampere to develop EVs for the European market.
Of the four top executives meeting in Douai today, only François Provost, as de Meo’s right hand, and Jean-Dominique Senart, as Renault’s then-chairman, were closely involved in the creation of Ampere (for EVs) and Horse (for hybrids and ICE) subsidiaries. So for the four of them, this meeting was a milestone.
Takao Kato became Mitsubishi CEO in 2019, succeeding Osamu Masuko for health reasons. Kato had been with Mitsubishi since 1984. He was chosen as a stabilizing insider, trusted to steer Mitsubishi through Alliance turbulence and to refocus on its strongest markets.
Under Kato’s leadership, Mitsubishi launched the “Small but Beautiful” plan to survive financial losses by focusing on core regions like Japan, ASEAN, Oceania, and freezing new model launches in Europe.
Ivan Espinosa succeeded Makoto Uchida as CEO of Nissan from April 1, 2025. Makoto Uchida served as CEO of Nissan for a little over 5 years since 2019, after the post-Ghosn turmoil. Under Uchida, Nissan was running into losses and discussions with Honda about a merger, which ultimately collapsed. That added pressure and raised questions about Nissan’s strategic direction.
The board and stakeholders were pushing for a “renewed leadership line-up,” and Espinosa was seen as someone who could sharpen product planning, stabilize strategy, and execute tough decisions.
Spinoza was Nissan’s previously Senior Vice President for Global Product Planning & Programs, known as the architect of the company’s product strategy, particularly in areas such as electrification and crossovers like the Ariya, Qashqai, and Juke.
Douai is a synthesis of the collaboration
The Douai factory is the synthesis of the collaboration. It has undergone a significant transformation to accommodate electric vehicles from three different brands. €550 million was invested to build a new flexible standard line equipped with two modular platforms, Ampr Small for the smaller segment A/B cars and Ampr Medium for medium segment C vehicles.
The new Nissan Micra city car and the next-generation Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross medium SUV are examples of these two platforms. The latter is launched in world premiere on September 17th and will be built at Douai next to the Micra and Renault’s own electric Megane E-Tech, Scenic E-Tech Electric, R5 E-Tech Electric, and the Alpine A290.
In August, after a break of almost four years, Nissan launched the new Micra, an iconic nameplate engineered to meet the preferences of its European customers and based on the Renault 5 E-Tech Electric as a likewise affordable city hatchback.
The Micra has historically been a successful model for Nissan. The Japanese company has sold more than six million Micras worldwide since the first generation of the small car was launched in 1983, across five model generations.
However, there has been a gap in the Nissan portfolio in the B-segment since 2022, when production of the fifth generation was discontinued without replacement. From the end of the year, the sixth Micra generation should close this gap again with a fully electric Micra that will list starting at €29,250 in Belgium.
Mitsubishi’s EU rollercoaster history
The Eclipse Cross EV is the family SUV for the C-segment, and Mitsubishi’s ‘image and comeback’ model in Europe. Mitsubishi’s story in Europe has been a bit of a rollercoaster.
Mitsubishi pulled back from Europe in 2020 due to losses, stayed afloat with the ASX and Colt as rebadged Renaults, and is now staging a real comeback in 2025 with the Eclipse Cross EV, its first European-built electric SUV alongside a new Grandis SUV in Mild and Full Hybrid variants.
The next-generation Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross will also be built in Douai, utilizing the AmpR Medium EV platform, which shares the same underlying architecture as the Renault Scénic E-Tech Electric and Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric.
It means it will most likely share battery packs, motor units, and Alliance software-defined vehicle systems in the domains of connectivity, driver-assist (ADAS), and over-the-air updates. In Belgium, Mitsubishi Motors is resuming sales of new cars through its Dutch subsidiary, starting in Q4 2025.
