Mitsubishi Will Add Small Crossover to North America in 2017
Speaking to Automotive News, Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko said that the automaker would add a small crossover to its North American lineup, between Outlander Sport and Outlander, to compete in the growing small crossover segment.
Masuko said the car would take styling cues from the company’s Tokyo Motor Show eX Concept, but it’s unclear how much of the concept’s electric powertrain will live into production.
Next year, Mitsubishi will sell a plug-in hybrid variant of the Outlander in the U.S.
Selling a low-cost crossover in a best-selling segment could bolster Mitsubishi’s flagging position in the U.S. The company currently markets only five models in the U.S. — Outlander, Outlander Sport, Lancer, i-MiEV and Mirage — with a hole in the small crossover segment and no real worldwide product to fill it quickly.
Mitsubishi announced this year that it would close its Normal, Illinois plant that produced the Outlander Sport this month due to high costs of production and dwindling US sales. The company is on track to post a double-digit sales growth, year-over-year, but is searching for a mid-size sedan and small crossover to fill gaps in its U.S. lineup.
“The Outlander is growing in size, while the Outlander Sport is getting smaller, so it opens a space for the new SUV,” Masuko told Automotive News. “We need something to fit in between.”
There isn’t much in the Mitsubishi global pipeline to immediately plug the holes that exist in European and U.S. markets. The new crossover would likely be all new for the automaker, unless the automaker can quickly partner with another automaker. Earlier this year, negotiations between Mitsubishi and Nissan-Renault to sell a rebadged midsize sedan in the U.S. broke down.
Sales of small SUVs grew by more than 18 percent from 2013 to last year, according to GoodCarBadCar.
More by Aaron Cole
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My self-liberating discovery that concept cars are scarey monsters on purpose let's me greet excrescences like this with an indulgent chuckle.
Geez, wasn't TTAC the website that called its readers and forum posters the "Best & Brightest".....? Mitsubishi makes no-nonsense, practical, everyday cars just like Ford, GM and other mass manufacturers. Their line-up may be lacking, but the cars they do sell are usually liked by their customers. Plus, you can usually get their models at very fair prices. As for this concept, it doesn't look any more or any less outlandish than a perceived three dozen other SUV models out there. I'm not a Mitsu customer or employee, but cut the troll crap out when it comes to Mitsubishi. They are a perfectly respectable car company with engineers who know what they're doing.