It’s no secret that developing a new electric vehicle platform is expensive. We’re talking a bill in the billions, a timeline of years, and the potential rejigging of an entire supplier stack, seismic changes for a manufacturer used to building primarily combustion-powered cars. But what if you’re a little bit short on all of that? For example, if the time and development budget doesn’t make any sense. Well, you could do what Mitsubishi just did and pull a steamed hams, disguising something else as your own cooking.
It’s been a tumultuous decade for Mitsubishi Motors. In 2016, Nissan found that Mitsubishi might not have been entirely truthful when measuring fuel consumption on the latest generation of kei cars. It turns out that, as Reuters reported, “Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Tuesday it used fuel economy testing methods that did not comply with Japanese regulations for 25 years, much longer than previously known.” Oof.
From there, Nissan acquired a controlling stake in Mitsubishi, forming the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance. Eureka! Renault already sells electric cars in Europe, why not borrow a stick of French gum? You know, one that’s shaped like a Renault Scenic E-Tech. With a little bit of scribbling on the label, this roughly Honda HR-V-sized French electric crossover makes a decent Eclipse Cross for Europe. It’s certainly more handsome than the Eclipse Cross we get in North America.
Indeed, in profile, the Scenic E-Tech and the new Eclipse Cross are the same car. Same doors, same windows, same quarter panels, same cladding treatment. Pull one of the door handles, plunk yourself down in the cabin, and what do you know? You’re staring at the same dashboard, the same steering wheel, and the same screens, albeit with lightly reskinned graphics.
The big changes are the bumpers, the hood, the liftgate, the daytime running lights, the taillights, the wheels, and the badges. That’s about it, and guess what? That’ll do. From the front or the back, the new Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross looks just different enough from the Scenic E-Tech to not appear too hasty, without dramatically altering anything wildly expensive like structural stampings or headlights.
As easy as it is to write this off as laziness, it’s actually a smart move. If you need a specific EV for a specific market pronto, why not rebadge someone else’s acclaimed EV to buy time? It’s already won European Car of the Year so it’s probably not a duffer, and its specs are strong. We’re talking 215 horsepower, an 87 kWh battery pack, and a WLTP range of more than 370 miles.
What’s more, it’s not a bad thing for consumers either. If someone comes along and bangs up your door and insurance wants to put a second-hand one on, parts interchange with written-off examples of a more popular car is a beautiful thing. Plus, it’s not like we haven’t seen projects like this before. The original Toyota Aygo, Citroën C1, and Peugeot 107 were basically the same cars underneath, with the Citroën and Peugeot sharing the bulk of their panels. Even the current Mitsubishi Colt and ASX are lightly restyled Renault Clios and Capturs, and the new Eclipse Cross goes further than those two.
If you need cars now and can get them from somewhere else, you might as well do it. While Mitsubishi takes its time developing its own next-generation cars, a bevy of lightly reworked Renaults will be around to fill European showrooms, and in some cases, collect regulatory credits. Hey, sometimes store-bought is the more sensible option over entirely home-made.
Top graphic image: Mitsubishi
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They did the same thing with the current Colt, based on an ICE Renault Clio.
The result doesn’t look particularly bad. But French cars are not famous for being reliable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Colt#Renault_Clio-based_Colt_(2023)
The Eclipse was already Japanese and American. The second part of which is what’s now an Italian company.
Sure, make it French too.
Perhaps we give it some Korean flair as well?
What’s that? Make way for Germany?
Perhaps it’s time for a British marketing revamp while we’re at it?
At this point it’s thrice removed from the original Eclipse, can they just call it something else? Like Dingo, that’d be cool, I’d consider a Dingo.
The old Mitsubishi Dingo was a bit strange looking, but that could work here.
Call it the Mitsubishi Frisky Dingo.
What a funny take on this situation.
I recall reading an endless stream of negative posts by journalists and commenters all over the internet of how bad and lazy doing this when other companies try it.
When GM brought over the Holden Commodore to the US to become the Chevy SS, people were ragging on the car left and right. And it’s not like it was a bad car. The Aussies loved their Commodore. Those two cars were in completely different markets, so why were people all up-in-arms about this but this rebadge-job seems to get the kiss of approval? The SS was giving us the RWD, V8-powered reasonably-priced handsome sedan that could be had with a manual that we all claimed we wanted.
The bias in the automotive press sure is funny.
When was this? We all adored the SS but couldn’t afford it
Still can’t…
Things that never happened for $100, Alex.
What people complained constantly about with the SS was that GM sold it basically exclusively as a boutique top spec halo car, which hadn’t been the case when GM had sold the fundamentally similar, also-beloved Pontiac G8 half a decade earlier. Chevrolet dealers subsequently Knew What They Had™ because of GM’s approach to importing it and actively made it even more unattainable and expensive.
Who ragged on the SS? I recall it being universally praised. GM simply did what automotive companies love to do: justify killing a product (and manufacturing base) by over-pricing, under-marketing a vehicle and limiting supply, then claiming no one wants to buy sedans so why make them?
Boy would this be a welcome update from the current US Eclipse Cross, which is both hideous, and objectively terrible. I drove one for the first time recently (a relatives car) and well, it reminded me of uncompetitive vehicles from fifteen years ago. But it was a 2023. It was bad at everything. Oddly bulky, yet bunkerlike and cramped. The steering felt like it was connected to absolutely nothing. It was somehow tippier than most taller crossovers I’ve driven. The tech was laggy and the interior was bizarre but not in a fun way. Again it’s hideous. Oh, I suppose the driver’s seat was surprisingly comfortable.
Anyway, yeah, bring this sucker over.
Edit: I forgot. The CVT was definitely slipping when accelerating from a stop. Car had 24k miles on it. Here’s hoping they’re not awful about honoring their powertrain warranty.
It, uh, IS an uncompetitive vehicle from 15 years ago
Good point lol.
I’m just a working man who knows very little about business, so I don’t understand any of this. If I’m buying a vehicle built by Renault, I’d want to do it at a Renault dealership, where the techs know how to fix it, rather than at a Mitsubishi dealership. If I’m running Renault, why would I sell vehicles at a volume discount to another manufacturer, rather than reap all the retail profits myself?
There are exceptions, of course. If I want a Mitsubishi in 1985, I’d rather buy it at a Dodge dealer, which were more plentiful and the techs knew how to work on them. If I want a 1985 Corolla, I might visit the Chevy dealer and pick a Nova, which was much cheaper, but largely the same car. But in general, I’d rather buy a car from the company that manufactured it.
Well first off, if you are in the US market, we have no Renault dealers, so you are able to buy a vehicle that otherwise would not be available to you. When it comes to service, a tire is a tire, a window switch is a window switch whether you speak Japanese or French. Any new vehicle is going to have some level of training for technicians whether that comes from your parent company or another. There would be repair tools and instructions regardless.
If you are Renault, you as the parent company are only making maybe 10% on each vehicle you sell. You can up your production volume, which should drive down your costs if now you are selling thousands of your car to another automaker. Plus that automaker will be paying for some of the tooling and such. Your margins might come down slightly when you sell to Mitsu, but you are still making a profit and your profit on the other cars you sell might go up (due to the higher volume).
Also heads up: chances are REALLY good that a large percent of the things you own are absolutely not manufactured by the company on the box that it came in. Your iphone is made by Foxconn. Your clothes and many of your other electronics are white-label items made by a random factory and then Dewalt or Levis or Kenmore gets stamped their logo on it. Same happens with lots of foods at the grocery store. This is a VERY common practice.
All that. Many people don’t realize many name brand products are made under contract by third party manufacturers, and then, like you said, have a label slapped on them.
I trust a Renault-Mitsubishi far more than a Nissan-Mitsubishi.
Dubble the crapiness, dubble the headache…dubble the fun!
I’m guessing no US plans? Did I miss that part? Probably too expensive with tariffs.
The Renault-ized Mitsubishi lineup is currently four cars strong (ASX, Colt, Grandis, this Eclipse Cross) and limited to EU and Antipodean markets. I would assume that Mitsubishi are more than happy to keep selling us the old ASX (Outlander Sport) and Eclipse Cross since we don’t have the pesky emission standards (upcoming Euro 7) that these rebadged PHEV/EVs are intended to fulfill.
GS platform Mitsus are gonna have a 30 year run in the US.
I hope Stellantis still sends them a cake every year for quietly saving their ass when DCX/FCA needed more cars but not more Mercedes-Benz cars.
The current Eclipse Cross in its absolutely best year (6 years ago) sold such a small fraction of what any of the Japanese competitors had as equivalents (even Mazda’s!) that it constitutes a rounding error. I can’t imagine the juice is worth the squeeze when you’d already have to convince people that your midsize electric SUV is better than any of the other ones people in the US already don’t want to buy, even though Nissan has already (broadly) done the work to federalize it with the Ariya.
Hey, a Monsieurbishi!