Reports Of Mitsubishi's Demise ...

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Mitsubishi, pretty much given up for dead in the U.S. and Europe, thrives in an easily overlooked part of the world: South-East Asia. Mitsubishi has three assembly plants in Thailand, and will spend around $150 million to increase output.

January through August, Mitsubishi sold only 41,316 units in the U.S. and 48,166 units in Europe. At home in Japan, Mitsubishi sold 97,412 units in the first eight months. Meanwhile, pretty much under the RADAR screen, Mitsubishi’s cars are selling like hotcakes in the up and coming markets of South-East Asia.

Its three plants in Thailand will have a combined output of some 500,000 cars when the expansion is finished, the Bangkok Post writes.

Sales of the recently introduced Mirage are especially promising. In the Thai market alone, some 14,000 Mirages were sold from April-August. Orders for 36,000 units are on the books, and customers wait four months for delivery.

According to Nobuyuki Murahashi, president of Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand), 13,000 Mirage are built per month in Thailand- 4,000 for the domestic market and 9,000 for export, mainly to Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei.

Unveiled at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, the sixth generation Mirage is a low cost, high MPG car. Fitted with a 1 liter 3 cylinder engine, it achieves 27.2 km / L in the JC08 cycle and costs around 1 million yen ($12,700).

Thailand is Mitsubishi’s main production hub outside of Japan, and many cars are exported to Japan. 2011, Mitsubishi built 603,594 units worldwide.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
5 of 22 comments
  • Icemilkcoffee Icemilkcoffee on Oct 03, 2012

    That's too bad. I like the Outlander Sport. I like the old Montero and the old Montero Sport too. They were tough and capable off-roaders.

  • Cheezeweggie Cheezeweggie on Oct 03, 2012

    That's a shame. Outlander is awesome.

    • PenguinBoy PenguinBoy on Oct 03, 2012

      I've rented a fair number of SUVs over the past couple of years, and IMHO the Outlander was by far the worst. YMMV...

  • Niky Niky on Oct 04, 2012

    Mitsubishi is really doing well out here. The Mirage just launched and is priced below the Korean micro-cars, while being a size up on the Spark. (Counting the Spark as a Korean micro-car, because it is). The Lancer sells decently if not spectacularly, the Outlander Sport is a competitive product, and the Montero Sport / Triton compete very well against the Colorado / Trailblazer, the Hilux and the Ford Ranger. A lot of people pooh-pooh Mitsubishi here based on flagging US sales... but that means absolutely nothing to its SEA operations. Like Suzuki, Mitsubishi's fortunes elsewhere are good enough to keep it viable as a brand.

  • Roar1 Roar1 on Oct 04, 2012

    Mitsubishi just invested huge money in their plant in Normal Ill, they are not leaving the country, they are not leaving the country!! You will be seeing mutiple new products in the U.S. over the next 24 months. Building product in the U.S. for this market and for the world. Brings jobs to the U.S. and pricing power to the market.

Next