Breaking: Mitsubishi Ending U.S. Production, According To Nikkei Report

by Mark Stevenson

Published: July 23rd, 2015

breaking mitsubishi ending u s production according to nikkei report

Mitsubishi’s plant in Normal, Ill. is set to shut its doors for good. That’s what Japan’s Nikkei news service is reporting today, though U.S. representatives for the company declined to comment.

The plant was opened by Diamond-Star Motors, a joint venture between Mitsubishi and Chrysler, in 1988 after two years of construction. It currently builds the Outlander Sport/RVR, but was tasked with manufacturing the Eclipse/Plymouth Laser/Eagle Talon, Mirage/Eagle Summit, Galant, and coupe versions of the Dodge Avenger, Stratus and Chrysler Sebring during its lifetime.

According to Automotive News, the closure is part of a “strategic shift to the growing Asian market.” Mitsubishi will look for a buyer for the plant, and there’s no shortage of potential companies looking for additional capacity.

After the break up of Diamond-Star Motors, Chrysler’s stake in the plant was purchased by Mitsubishi. At its peak, the Normal facility produced about 200,000 vehicles per year. Last year, the plant produced just short of 70,000 vehicles, still better than the less than 20,000 it produced in 2009.

#Deathwatch #Mitsubishi #Normal #OutlanderSport #PlantClosure #Rvr

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22 of 33 comments

Chris Tonn on Jul 23, 2015

Normal is less than three hours' drive from Subaru in Lafayette, Indiana. Hmm.

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- 3800FAN on Jul 23, 2015
  
  Plant won't be uaw anymore though.
  
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- Steve Biro on Jul 23, 2015
  
  Yup, Normal is less than three hours from Subaru's plant in Lafayette, Indiana. And Subie could use the extra capacity. But I wonder if Fuji Heavy's ultra-conservative management would actually decide to go for it.
  
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- L'avventura on Jul 25, 2015
  
  Very unlikely that Subaru will pick up that plant unless they want to get into a whole messy situation with the UAW. Furthermore, Illinois isn't a right to work state like Indiana, and very union friendly.
  
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Corey Lewis on Jul 23, 2015

Me, and people like 28 and Bball (a year or more ago): "Mitsubishi will be pulling out of the US market soon, and that'll be the end of their operations here." Everybody else: "Naw hell naw, that DSM plant in IL will keep them here, they'd never close it, too much trouble. All them Outlanders is popleer wiff people." Now what, you people!?

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- RideHeight on Jul 23, 2015
  
  You also heard a lot of "Mitsu's huge globally and can just troll the USDM, anything they sell here is icing on their cake". What's interesting is how VW might view this.
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 23, 2015
  
  8/4/2012: "Suzuki and Mitsubishi aren’t going to fail, but they’ll need to stop selling cars in the US. Whether that will happen by 2014, I don’t know. "Maserati won’t be going anywhere, but Lancia will be folded." http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/08/dead-brand-pool-2014-the-brutal-retreat/#comment-1923070
  
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- JohnTaurus on Jul 23, 2015
  
  Well, your predictions were only half right thus far. Mitsubishi isnt ending US sales, just closing their US plant. Im not saying theyre here to stay, only time will tell on that, but this isnt the end of them in the US...not yet, anyway.
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 23, 2015
  
  @JohnTaurus Without an alliance (and probably even with one), Mitsubishi doesn't have the economies of scale to compete here. It would need to conquer some other brands, and that seems highly unlikely.
  
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- Matador on Jul 23, 2015
  
  @JohnTaurus I agree with PCH. This may not technically be the end, but it's likely that they're winding down. I agree that Lancia doesn't have much of a future, though it looks like Lincoln may.
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 23, 2015
  
  @matador I may be proven wrong about Lincoln. Actually, I would be quite happy if I am.
  
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- Notferris on Jul 23, 2015
  
  @Pch101 I would argue that you may be proven wrong about Mitsubishi as well. The primary drag on their profitability in the U.S. has been the Normal plant. This year they are tracking to sell 100,000 units (about 7% of their global total). As long as Mitsubishi can sell cars here with a decent profit margin it does not make sense for them to close shop, especially if they can keep growing as they have been. 2012 - 57,790 2013 - 62,227 (up 7.6%) 2014 - 77,643 (up 24.7%) 2015 YTD - 49,544 (up 24.9% Jan through Jun) Mitsubishi's fleet sales have been under 10% of total sales since Galant production ended in 2012.
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 24, 2015
  
  @Pch101 The main drag on Mitsubishi's American operations is the complete lack of interest that Americans have in their cars. And that lack of interest is unlikely to change.
  
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Flybrian on Jul 24, 2015

Damn. Now what am I going to buy with my 540 FICO, $500 of Amscot money orders down, and my cousin's '94 Corsica that I may have to push/pull/drag in?

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- Corey Lewis on Jul 24, 2015
  
  Sooo much bitter, Brian! Lol.
  
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Danio3834 on Jul 24, 2015

" Last year, the plant produced just short of 70,000 vehicles, still better than the less than 20,000 it produced in 2009." Not surprising they're shutting it down with that kind of capacity utilization. They can't afford to run a plant like that and closing it shows their intentions about their future in the US market with mainstream volume models.

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- Bball40dtw on Jul 24, 2015
  
  And that's with a factory that has capacity to build 200K+ units a year. That is a horrible capacity utilization rate. Especially when a bunch of other companies are running many factories over 100% of capacity.
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 24, 2015
  
  So is this vacant plant going to be of interest to the industry? I would presume that most automakers would prefer to have some kind of customized greenfield construction, but perhaps this would be a good fit for FCA (although given Marchionne's concerns about capacity utilization, perhaps not.)
  
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- Bball40dtw on Jul 24, 2015
  
  @Pch101 I guess the big question is how much would someone get paid to move in?
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 24, 2015
  
  @bball40dtw I was half-thinking that Marchionne could offer to lease it for a dollar, if Mitsu would buy some batches of rebadged, slightly tweaked FCA vehicles. (Your next Galant could be a 200 with a different nose.) (No, I wasn't actually serious about that. Mostly.)
  
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- Bball40dtw on Jul 24, 2015
  
  @Pch101 I heard they were going to use it to build midsized trucks branded Mitsubishi and RAM. (turns off all new post notifications)
  
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- Pch101 on Jul 24, 2015
  
  @Pch101 I have also heard that the Plymouth Arrow is due for a triumphant comeback.
  
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