by Gabrielle DeSantis

In a move that isn’t completely unexpected, Mitsubishi is stopping the development of new platforms for Japan. Instead, it will badge-engineer Nissan vehicles. This follows Mitsubishi pulling out of Europe completely. Does it seem like Mitsubishi is slowing ceding vehicle manufacturing? 

Mitsubishi is doing this to cut down on platforms it must develop

According to Nikkei Asia, the company will start selling Nissan vehicles in place of its own by 2026. This will supposedly only happen for its home market of Japan. The reason is that it wants to lower the number of models it has to create.

This is an expected move to help lower development costs while it slowly ramps up EV investment. The ability to divert funds will help it grow its EV catalog. And both Nissan and Mitsubishi are sister companies, so either way, the money goes into the same pot. 

It also follows an overall reorganization in 2020 by Groupe Renault. Besides Mitsubishi, it owns Renault, Nissan, Infiniti, Dacia, Alpine, Venucia, and Lada. With so much overlap, and with Nissan’s problems, Groupe Renault is trying to spread out development costs by eliminating overlapping. 

Mitsubishi parent Groupe Renault calls it “Small But Beautiful”

Called “Small But Beautiful” the plan is for those manufacturers with weak sales in certain countries to pull out. In a strong market, they will stay. That was the reasoning behind Mitsubishi announcing its plan to exit Europe. 

But that pull-out strategy has changed. Now, it will stick around, adding its own version of two new Renault vehicles in 2023. At this point, we don’t know if they will be badge-engineered or contain Mitsubishi-designed interiors, exteriors, and/or drivetrains. 

What we do know is that Mitsubishi currently has eight different platforms. It wants to pare them down to four. Two of those platforms will be for the Southeast Asia market, and two will be developed with Nissan’s involvement. Two models it previously killed are the Lancer and Pajero SUV. 

Sales have been heading down the past several years

Mitsubishi has seen a steady decline in sales in the US over the past several years. Selling around 120,000 vehicles in 2018 and 2019, those numbers slipped to 87,000 last year. This year it is seeing an increase with 53,378 vehicles so far. 

Less than 20 years ago the company sold 345,915 cars and SUVs. So its rapidly declining popularity here has placed the company on a death watch. By 2009 sales had skidded to only 53,988 cars sold. Mitsubishi’s SUVs have come to save the day. Whether they will be enough to sustain the manufacturer here we don’t know. 

RELATED: Why So Many People Are Buying 90s Mitsubishi SUVs

The post Mitsubishi Calls it Quits: Offers Badge-Engineered Nissans in Japan appeared first on MotorBiscuit.

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Getting pulled over by the police for a speeding ticket is certainly a pain that can happen to almost anyone. It’s easy to forget to check the speedometer and ensure you’re going within the speed limit. By then, a police officer’s already knocking on your car window. Going above the speed limit can also be a difficult habit to break for some, causing them to get more speeding tickets than others.

Indeed, this issue of bad driving habits can extend beyond a single person, as some states have the highest percentage of drivers with speeding tickets. Ohio is one of these states, and this article will explore recent speeding ticket data.

How the data was determined

Data suggests that Ohio has the highest percentage of drivers with speeding tickets in the U.S., according to Insurify. To calculate this percentage, it used car insurance applications submitted to its platform. These documents included details of the individuals’ respective driving histories and what state they lived in. In total, there were 2.9 million applications submitted across the nation.

The number of drivers who received speeding tickets was divided by the number of drivers in that state. This figure determined how the states were ranked. The data also recorded the percentage of drivers who received a failure to stop violation, although this had no bearing on the ranking.

This data has some limitations, as only Insurify users were included. However, the large sample size makes it a good estimate of the total number of speeding drivers in each state. Keep in mind that the actual figure may be more or less than Insurify’s findings.

Ohio claimed the #1 spot for speeding tickets

Insurify’s 2021 data showed that Ohio had 16.12% of drivers with a speeding ticket on record. This is 35% above the national average. In addition, the number of failures to stop violations also exceeds the national average by 27%. This puts the state in sixth place for failure to stop violations in the nation.

These crimes are not without punishment. According to Driving Laws, the first and second tickets are regarded as misdemeanors and come with a fine of $150. The fine increases by hundreds of dollars for anything after this and can lead to possible jail time. The maximum fine for speeding tickets after four and subsequent offenses is $500, and this can land speeders in jail for up to 60 days.

Other states with frequent speeding tickets

In order from highest to lowest percentage, the other states on the list include Virginia, Iowa, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Delaware. Surprisingly, the findings don’t seem to correspond to a specific region of the U.S. and include states from the north and the south. Each has similar percentages, with the difference between Ohio and Delaware, the highest and lowest, respectively, being only 3%. All of these percentages are above the national average, which is about 10.54%.

The data also indicated that the number of drivers with failure to stop violations didn’t necessarily correspond with the ranking order. Some states, such as Idaho, had 2.23% of drivers listed with this violation. Delaware, one place below them on the list at slot #10, had a higher number than this at 3.32%. This is also the case with Ohio and Virginia, which had 2.4 and 2.62%, respectively. For the most part, these percentages were 1-2% above the national average, which is 1.77%. The only exception to this is South Carolina, which had 1.11%.

RELATED: 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Pay Your Speeding Ticket Immediately

The post Ohio Drivers Get More Speeding Tickets Than Any Other State appeared first on MotorBiscuit.