NMKV

NMKV Co., Ltd. is a joint venture company between Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors in the Japanese market to design, develop, and manufacture kei cars under Nissan and Mitsubishi brands. The company currently produces Mitsubishi eK, Nissan Dayz, Mitsubishi eK Space and Nissan Roox for the domestic market.[3][4] NMKV stands for Nissan Mitsubishi Kei Vehicle. Despite that, the abbreviation was never announced officially by the company.

NMKV Co., Ltd.

Native name	株式会社NMKV
Romanized name	NMKV Kabushiki-gaisha
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1 June 2011
Headquarters	Minato-ku, Tokyo
Area served	Japan
Key people	Junichi Endo (President and CEO) Isao Torii (Vice President and COO)
Products	Automobiles
Brands	Nissan Mitsubishi
Net income	¥1,435,000 (FY2019)[1]
Total assets	¥30.859 million (FY2019)
Owner	Nissan (50%) Mitsubishi Motors (50%)
Number of employees	65 (FY2017)[2]
Website	nmkv.com

Overview

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Co., Ltd. agreed to expand its business cooperation on 14 December 2010 from OEM supply to a joint venture.[5][6] As part of that project, a formal contract was made on 20 May 2011 for the establishment of the company, and NMKV was established on 1 June 2011.[7][8]

Nissan is in charge of parts procurement, planning and design, while Mitsubishi is in charge of manufacturing and development. The goal of the company is to increase the market share of Nissan and Mitsubishi in the kei car segment, which was about 15% at the time of company establishment to the target of 20%.

At the time of the establishment of NMKV, Nissan developed a successor of the Mitsubishi eK that was rebadged as Nissan Otti and planned to release it in the first half of 2013. The engine was newly developed. On 6 March 2013, the first jointly developed car, the third generation eK and the first generation Dayz was announced, and sales began in June of the same year.

The joint venture on the development of the third generation eK and Dayz has reduced costs by 30% compared to the predecessor model by procuring parts from outside Japan. In terms of vehicle design, one design proposal would include both Mitsubishi and Nissan front fascia designs. In addition, based on Mitsubishi's original engine 3B20 engine, Nissan's technology was utilized to improve the compression ratio to 12:1 with regular gasoline specification. While the body panels are common parts, the several panels and bumpers are made differently. For joint development, Mitsubishi provided engines, manufacturing plants and development facilities to reduce costs, and Nissan provided safety equipment technologies that Mitsubishi does not have. In addition, the cost of procurement has been reduced for the Nissan side compared to the conventional OEM agreement (rebadge), and the fact that NMKV joint venture also solved the problem that Mitsubishi Motors could not generate the development cost alone. In June 2013, Mitsubishi announced a policy to unify the future kei car development with NMKV.

When the third generation eK Dayz was announced, both companies announced that it would jointly develop a super height wagon kei car as the second model. On 25 March of the same year, Nissan announced that the name of the car would be Dayz Roox, alongside an announcement of the design sketch. On October 3, Mitsubishi also announced that it would name the car as the eK space. Both cars went on sale on 13 February 2014.

In April 2016, Mitsubishi Motors admitted that its employees had falsified fuel efficiency data for the eK Wagon, eK Space, Nissan Dayz and Nissan Dayz Roox. The scandal led to the acquisition of Mitsubishi Motors by Nissan the following month.[9]

As of June 2013, the development team had a total of 4 people. Each 2 people were from Nissan and Mitsubishi, and a total of 18 people in charge of development, 16 from Mitsubishi and 2 from Nissan. NMKV have not started the development of light commercial vehicles in the kei car segment, as both Nissan and Mitsubishi is still rebadging the Suzuki Carry and Suzuki Every.

Models

Release date	Nissan		Mitsubishi		Segment
	Image	Name	Image	Name
6 June 2013[10][11]		Dayz		eK Wagon (third generation)	Tall kei car wagon[12]
6 June 2013[10][11]		Dayz Highway Star		eK Custom	Tall kei car wagon
13 February 2014[13][14]		Dayz Roox		eK Space	Super height kei car wagon[15][16]
13 February 2014[13][14]		Dayz Roox Highway Star		eK Space Custom	Super height kei car wagon
28 March 2019		Dayz (second generation)		eK Wagon (fourth generation)	Tall kei car wagon
28 March 2019		Dayz Highway Star (second generation)		eK X	Tall kei car wagon Crossover kei car (eK X)
19 March 2020		Roox (second generation)		eK Space (second generation)	Super height kei car wagon
19 March 2020		Roox Highway Star (second generation)		eK X Space (fourth generation)	Super height kei car wagon Crossover kei car (eK X Space)

Locations

• Headquarter: Shinagawa Center Building 9F, Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo
• Okazaki Plant: Mitsubishi Motors Technical Center Okazaki Main Building 4F, 1st Nakashinri, Hashime-cho, Okazaki-shi, Aichi Headquarters- 3-23-17 Takanawa 
• Mizushima Office: Takasago-cho, 6-1 (Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Mizushima Plant), Mizushima, Kurashiki, Okayama[17][18]

References

1. "Annual report 2018" (PDF). Nissan. 13 May 2018. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
2. "会社概要 | NMKV". nmkv.com.
3. 日産が初の軽自動車生産 来年度にも年10万台 - 産経ニュース 2013年11月9日
4. 日産「軽」生産へ　国内100万台維持、三菱自にも供給 - 日本経済新聞 2013年11月9日
5. 日産自動車と三菱自動車、協力関係の拡大で合意 －OEMの拡大、海外での生産協力と日本での軽自動車事業の検討－ Archived 2010-12-17 at the Wayback Machine - 日産自動車株式会社 三菱自動車工業株式会社（日産側） 2010年12月14日
6. 日産自動車と三菱自動車、協力関係の拡大で合意 －OEM の拡大、海外での生産協力と日本での軽自動車事業の検討－ - 日産自動車株式会社 三菱自動車工業株式会社（三菱側） 2010年12月14日
7. 軽自動車事業に関わる合弁会社の事業概要について-新会社の名称は「株式会社NMKV」 Archived 2011-06-25 at the Wayback Machine - 株式会社NMKV（日産側） 2011年6月20日
8. 軽自動車事業に関わる合弁会社の事業概要について-新会社の名称は「株式会社NMKV」 - 株式会社NMKV（三菱側） 2011年6月20日
9. "Nissan to place MMC under its umbrella", The Japan News, May 12, 2016
10. 新型軽自動車 日産「デイズ」を発表 - 日産自動車 2013年6月6日
11. 新型軽自動車『eKワゴン』『eKカスタム』を発売 - 三菱自動車工業 2013年6月6日
12. 日産「デイズ」と三菱「eK」、燃費トップの29.2km/Lで軽市場に強烈参戦 - 日経トレンディ 2013年6月7日
13. 新型軽自動車『eKスペース』を発売 - 三菱自動車工業 2014年2月13日
14. 新型軽自動車 「日産デイズ ルークス」を発表 -- あわせて、「ライダー」、および、「運転席マイティグリップ」装着車を発表 -- - 日産自動車 2014年2月13日
15. 「日産デイズ ルークス」のエクステリアデザインを公開 ―好調な「日産デイズ」シリーズ第2弾のスーパーハイトワゴン― - 日産自動車 2013年10月3日
16. 新型軽自動車の車名を『eKスペース』に決定 -来年初頭発売予定のスーパーハイトワゴン- - 三菱自動車工業 2013年10月3日
17. NMKV:日産・三菱合弁、水島事務所開く / 岡山 - 毎日新聞 2013年7月2日
18. 株式会社NMKV、生産現場との連携強化を目的に水島オフィスを開設 - NMKV 2013年7月1日