We’ve been hearing rumors about this cooperation for months and it looks like something is really happening. Mitsubishi’s Australian chief, John Signoriello, said: “You never know what the alliance could bring That’s the beauty of product and platform sharing within the alliance. Its always got to be based on a business case. Can we come up with a business case in the end to justify it? The Alliance will determine whether there are other platforms to be shared.” This clearly indicates that something is happening. Does this refers to Patrol and Pajero, it’s hard to tell for sure. Still, there are so many reasons to believe in that.
Some of the first things that come to mind are all those benefits of cooperation. The two companies are now part of the same alliance, which means they can share technologies with ease. In practice, this means significantly lowered costs of development and production. That the most important thing about this rumored deal. Simply, large body-on-frame SUVs are quite expensive and very complicated to develop. On the other side, they are not so payable these days, due to the overflow of crossovers. Still, major carmakers tend to have such vehicles in their lineup, as they are some kind of prestige.
What does this mean to Patrol and Pajero?
This alliance is important for both companies but it seems like Mitsubishi is going to benefit a little bit more. The current Pajero is outdated by any standards. It has been around since 2006, which is way too long. Therefore, it’s no wonder that China is currently the only market where you can get this SUV. A company that focuses on crossovers and hybrid/electric vehicles these days definitely doesn’t have resources to develop a next-generation Pajero, so this cooperation seems like the last chance to keep this iconic SUV alive.
On the other side, things aren’t that bad for Nissan. The Patrol is doing pretty well, despite it hasn’t been redesigned for a full decade. The recent update has brought some interesting styling novelties and the current generation seems capable enough to compete on the market for a couple of more years.
How would new models look like?
Of course, this is the most intriguing part of this cooperation. One of the first things that come to mind is that Nissan doesn’t plan to give from the F-Alpha platform, this underprints the whole BoF lineup at the moment. Simply, this architecture is still more than capable of delivering a great balance between driving experience and off-road capabilities. This could mean that the new Patrol and Pajero would use it again. In practice, this means evolutionary changes for Patrol, while Pajero is about to come with a completely new layout. It would be notably bigger and with completely new mechanics.
When it comes to the styling, both models would come with their own aesthetical approach, though it is hard to talk about details at the moment.
When to expect new Patrol and Pajero?
Even if this is true, the two models are still in the very early stage of development, so we have no doubt that the new Patrol and Pajero won’t come in the next couple of years.
