Name and logo unveiled for Mitsubishi Fuso and Foxconn’s joint bus manufacturing company

Further details have emerged about the bus manufacturing joint venture being established by Mitsubishi Fuso and Taiwan’s Foxconn: among other things, the name and future logo of the new entity were recently made public. As is known, following earlier letters of intent, under the cooperation agreement officially announced on January 22, 2026, the two companies will jointly develop and manufacture buses in the future for Japanese operators as well as international export markets.

Mitsubishi Fuso, one of Japan’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers with a history spanning more than ninety years, has a rather complex ownership structure: the subsidiary, which once operated as an integral part of Mitsubishi Motors, was majority-owned by the Daimler Truck group (and its legal predecessors) for more than the past two decades, but since April this year, together with Hino, which serves as Toyota’s heavy commercial vehicle division, it has been part of a holding company called Archion, in which Daimler Truck and Toyota each hold a 25% stake. While electromobility is slowly but surely beginning to gain ground in Japan as well, electric buses are still missing from Mitsubishi Fuso’s line-up, so the company is now seeking to compete in its home market with the Isuzu-Hino duo (although the latter, as mentioned, is now considered a fellow group company), as well as South Korean and increasingly strong Chinese competition, chiefly associated with the BYD name, by involving Taiwan’s Foxconn, which already has such vehicles, and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., which stands behind it.

It has now been revealed that the new joint venture, owned 50-50 by the parties, will simply be called Fuso Bus (in its full official corporate form, Fuso Bus Co., Ltd.), without the Mitsubishi name or the globally familiar three-diamond emblem. According to official communications, however, the fairly complex new logo, now with blue rather than red as its base colour, expresses the “trust earned over Mitsubishi Fuso’s long history and a strong determination to shape the road to the future”. The large “F” on the left-hand side of the emblem naturally refers to the initial letter of the new brand name, while also evoking the leaves of the mythical Japanese fusō tree from which the original name derives, thereby expressing the passing on of traditions and roots. The lowercase “b” on the right, derived from the word bus, is intended by its designers to form an arrow pointing towards the future, symbolising a sustainable future as the primary goal of both the new company and the entire bus industry. The company has chosen the English phrase “One journey, infinite stories” as its slogan.

The joint company, established specifically for bus manufacturing, is planned to begin official operations in the second half of 2026, although its final establishment still depends on the consent of the parties concerned and the approval of the board of directors, shareholders and regulatory authorities. Much of its infrastructure will be provided by Mitsubishi Fuso facilities, meaning its administrative centre will be in Kawasaki, while bus production will take place at Mitsubishi Fuso’s Toyama plant. As things stand, the company’s board of directors will also consist mostly of Japanese executives, headed by president and CEO Katsuhito Takara, together with vice presidents Junichi Yamamoto and Takashi Baba; in addition to them, the official press release named five further senior executives.

Alongside zero-emission buses, the portfolio of the newly created Fuso Bus will also cover the development, production and sales of internal-combustion-engine models, as well as the provision of related after-sales services. It is therefore easy to imagine — although this has not yet been officially confirmed — that in the future, product lines that have been well known and established on the Japanese market for decades, such as the Rosa minibus, the urban-suburban Aero Star series and the intercity/coach Aero Ace/Aero Queen model family, will continue to be produced under the new brand name.

The cover image is an illustration; original image source: Foxconn