Mazda Motor Corp. will begin supplying its Premacy minivan to Nissan Motor Co. in May for sale under the Nissan brand, the two automakers said Friday.
Nissan and Mazda currently supply commercial vehicles to each other under an original equipment manufacturing deal, but this is the first time the two automakers will go this route with a car.
Nissan has been procuring minivehicles from Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. This is the first time it will be supplied with a full-size car.
"Through this agreement, Nissan will enrich its minivan lineup in the Japanese market with the addition of a model based on Mazda's global minivan," which is sold as the Mazda5 outside Japan, the two firms said in a statement.
Mazda said it will supply a different version of the minivan to Nissan for sale in Japan. Nissan said it will start selling the minivan in May.
The seven-seater Premacy, equipped with a function that automatically stops the engine when the vehicle comes to a stop and restarts it immediately, gets 16.0 km per liter.
Mazda currently provides the Bong van and truck to Nissan, which sells them as the Nissan Vanette van and truck, while Nissan supplies the AD/AD Expert to Mazda, which sells it as the Mazda Familia van.
