Chino, Japan, Oct. 13 – It’s not going to be an industry shaking story like Carlos Ghosn sneaking out of Japan while on bail. It will hit Japanese newspaper front pages and may play big in Thai and Asian publications for a day or two. That’ll be it.
Mitsubishi Motors is dying a gradual death, and the Mitsubishi group won’t come to its rescue nor its alliance partner Nissan Motor, which is also struggling to survive.
So who would buy Mitsubishi, the smallest of Japanese passenger car makers? Industry insiders say there is no other but Toyota Motor, which already has Daimatsu and Hino under its wings and equity stakes in Subaru and share technical alliance with Suzuki. U.S. makers have no interest plus they are also struggling. Europeans aren’t interested either for similar reasons plus having seen what happened to Daimler when it held controlling share.
Mitsubishi’s destiny would be known when its stock price drops well below 200 yen in Tokyo. It was barely above the threshold October 13.
###