Talks for PSA to take up to a 50% stake in Mitsubishi are ongoing. If successful, Mitsubishi could share family hatchback and supermini platforms with Peugeot and Citroën. Due to losses, Mitsubishi requires a new partner to share the development of the next-generation Lancer family, which will be replaced around 2013 or 2014.

According to an Autocar report, a Mitsubishi source disclosed that the talks are centered on long-term strategic and profitability goals instead of short term goals such as filling gaps in the current range. While the current Lancer was jointly developed with Chrysler, it is unlikely that the deal will continue due to Fiat’s takeover of the US firm. Continued after the jump!

It remains unclear how the tasks for the fundamental engineering would be shared. The current Lancer family, which includes the Outlander and the new RVR soft-roader, was engineered in Japan.

Chrysler is only too happy to pass on responsibility to Japan however, it isn’t likely that PSA will deem that policy to be acceptable for saleable cars such as the replacements for the 308 and C4. Furthermore, Mitsubishi will require a partner to defray costs when it comes to replace the Colt supermini.

However, this target is not as urgent because the company is well into the development cycle of the new Colt, which will go on sale in 2011 or 2012 with a life cycle of around six years.

[via autocar]

Tags: car news, mitsubishi citroen platforms, mitsubishi peugeot platforms, mitusubishi

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 5:46 am and is filed under 2009, 4wheels News, Automakers, Citroen, Europe, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Year, Zone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.