M4 Coupe

Make
BMW
Segment
Coupe

There have been quite a few reports concerning the automotive industry in 2016, but few have been as big as Nissan's takeover of Mitsubishi. On top of being a moderately rare occurrence in the automotive industry (the last time we can recall something similar happening was when Fiat bought out Chrysler in 2014), it was also noteworthy for being triggered by a rather messy scandal for Mitsubishi. Five months after the first moves were made, Mitsubishi has been fully inducted in the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

It's amazing to think Nissan technically only owns 34 percent of Mitsubishi (enough, as stated in Japanese corporate law, for Nissan to call all the shots at Mitsubishi), but that's what Nissan was able to buy with the 237 billion Yen it had lying around. And, as a result of this now official induction into the Renault-Nissan Alliance, Mitsubishi is in place to be a rather pivotal asset - with a prime part of that being extra sales volume. In fact, with a claimed capacity to build 10 million cars per year, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has just managed to usurp General Motors as the world's third-largest car making conglomerate, and only a few hundred thousand units away from overtaking Toyota and Volkswagen.

Of course, the Mitsubishi induction also now formally gives the Renault-Nissan Alliance another partner to share technologies and facilities with. And, of course, the rather good plug-in hybrid systems that Mitsubishi has been working on are also of note. Not only does Renault-Nissan no longer have to develop its own similar PHEV device from scratch, but we already know that Infiniti is showing at least some interest in "certain aspects" of Mitsubishi's plug-in setups. Long story short, we'll be very interested to see just how the incorporation of Mitsubishi into the Renault-Nissan Alliance will impact the future cars that are produced by this now-giant conglomerate.