The new Mitsubishi Outlander which was expected in early 2019 could be delayed while new overlord Nissan looks for synergies, according to a report.

AT A TIME when sales of SUVs are booming, the suggestion of a delay in the release of a new one must sound cold shivers down the spine of car executives. But if a report in US industry publication, Automotive News is correct then that’s exactly how Mitsubishi must be feeling with the rumour it’s been asked to delay the release of the new Outlander while Nissan and Mitsubishi look for ways to share SUV parts.

Automotive News quoted undisclosed parts suppliers who said they’d been told there would be a delay in the release of the medium SUV while Nissan and Mitsubishi worked out if there were ways of sharing parts to reduce costs on the roll-out of new SUVs. It’s believed that engineers are looking at ways to share parts between the Nissan Rogue (X-Trail) and Mitsubishi Outlander.

It was expected the new-generation Outlander would appear early in 2019, but according to Automotive News that’s now more likely to be late in 2019 or early 2020.

When Nissan outlined its plans for the takeover of Mitsubishi last year, CEO Carlos Ghosn said he planned to make savings of more than $500million in the next financial year via combined purchasing and product sharing. Recently, we reported on talk that Nissan might give over the production of a replacement for the Nissan Navara to Mitsubishi, which could see the next-generation Triton form the underpinnings of the Navara, Renault Alaskan and Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

In the US, Mitsubishi spokesperson Tetsuji Inoue told Automotive News, “Now we are reviewing our future product lineup in order to maximize the alliance synergy effect. We will announce this matter at an appropriate time”.

Locally, Practical Motoring sought a comment from Mitsubishi Australia and were told by local media boss, Karl Gehling that the news wasn’t “worth speculating on”.