Mitsubishi Pajero could be revived

A reprisal of the iconic Mitsubishi Pajero looks set to arrive within the next two years and it could be based on the new Y63 Nissan Patrol, in a new product sharing move by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

However, Mitsubishi says its all-new combustion-powered ‘3-row SUV’ – listed separately to the PPV (Pickup-based Passenger Vehicle, which is expected to be the new 2025 Pajero Sport, based on the new 2024 Triton ute in the Japanese car-maker’s latest five-year product plan – won’t simply be a rebadged Patrol.

According to Mitsubishi’s ‘Challenge 2025’ mid-term business plan, the new seven-seat SUV is scheduled for launch before the Pajero Sport in 2025, before which a new people-mover – likely to be the next-gen Delica – and a new Xpander hybrid SUV will also be launched.

While the new-generation Delica is on the cards for Australia, Mitsubishi officials told carsales the new seven-seat Xpander hybrid SUV won’t come to Australia, despite the fact it’s been an “absolute hit” in other markets.

“It’s interesting because every market we’ve gone into with the Xpander – in many markets we’ve gone into where there’s been nothing like it – it’s been an absolute hit,” said former Mitsubishi Australia boss John Signoriello, who is now Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s executive officer for Global Marketing and Sales.

“I’m not saying we’re considering it for Australia. Is there a market [for Xpander] there [in Australia]? I’m not sure.

“It’s front-wheel drive; in its [current] form, it probably won’t work. In a different capacity, it might work, but for that sort of volume there won’t be a business case. Not for 50 [sales] a month.”

Signoriello added that for it the Xpander to work in Australia, it would need to be able to tow and go off-road.

“If it can sit seven people you’ve got no luggage space, so you’ve got to be able to put at least a small trailer on there or something. It’s front-wheel drive… we probably want something that can go a little bit off-road, at least an all-wheel drive.

“So I think there needs to probably be a bit of work and I think from a priority perspective, we wouldn’t do that. I would rather we focus those resources to something else.”

Those resources could include working alongside Nissan to offer a version of its upcoming Y63 Patrol SUV, said Mitsubishi’s executive officer for product strategy, Koichi Namiki.

Rather than being a rebadged Patrol, Namiki-san stressed that a born-again Pajero would have to be engineered by Mitsubishi, perhaps in a similar co-development arrangement as the Outlander and X-TRAIL – and the next Triton and Navara, although in this case Mitsubishi is leading development.

“The Alliance of course gives us a lot of opportunity. One very good example is the Outlander [which is closely related to the Nissan X-TRAIL]. While we consider that a big success in terms of the vehicle quality, we would not necessarily apply that sharing philosophy to all models in our line-up,” he said.

“Of course, we could access alliance technologies, but the vehicle itself, Pajero, that’s our brand. So if we do that, of course we want to control everything and we might utilise some of the alliance systems and components and so on, but we would like to produce the vehicle,” confirmed Namiki.

If Mitsubishi is planning a Pajero successor by 2025, development would already be well underway, and it would be a significant about-face after production of the last Pajero ended in 2022 following 3.3 million sales globally (including more than 150,000 in Australia) over 39 years.

“In my mind, it’s a high possibility of course, but as a company we have to decide timings and priority very carefully, because as you know the world is changing very fast and electrification is very important,” said Namiki.

“So, we cannot do it [all] at once.”

Asked whether Mitsubishi would indeed produce a new-generation Pajero, Namiki-san said: “It’s not finished, sure.”

For everything you auto know about EVs, listen to carsales' Watts Under the Bonnet: the electric car podcast

Join the conversation at 

our Facebook page

Or email us at 

editor@carsales.com.au