Carlos Ghosn has tasked one of his top lieutenants at Nissan Motor Co. to identify cost savings at Mitsubishi Motors Corp. as it acquires a stake in the rival automaker.

Chief Competitive Officer Hiroto Saikawa, 62, is leading a team to find areas where the companies can save costs and boost production efficiency, said Arnaud Deboeuf, an executive in charge of promoting synergies in the Renault-Nissan alliance. Adding Mitsubishi will help the French-Japanese partnership beat its annual target of €5.5 billion ($6.1 billion) in synergies by 2018, Deboeuf said via a video conference on Monday.

Nissan, which plans to spend about $2.2 billion for a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors, expects that common platforms and joint purchasing will yield savings equal to about 20 percent of its investment, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Peter said last month. The two companies have highlighted financial services, pickup trucks for Southeast Asia and hybrid and electric cars as among the areas where they can complement each other.