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NEWS
Mitsubishi thumbs down to big car
Lancer small car to head passenger lineup, sales action in SUVs and LCVsA V6 sedan manufacturer as recently as 2008, Mitsubishi Motors Australia has made it clear it has no intention of selling a passenger car larger than the Lancer, even if a planned replacement for the ill-fated 380 (pictured) is offered to it.
Mitsubishi in Japan has confirmed it will develop a medium/large sedan primarily for the USA where it will replace the defunct Galant, the car upon which the 380 (pictured) was based.
But the decline of the medium and large car segments in Australia means MMAL will almost certainly stick to its core Lancer and Mirage passenger car offerings and try to develop its SUV and light commercial sales further as updates and new generations of the Outlander, ASX, Pajero, Challenger and Triton roll out over the next few years.
The Galant replacement will be based on the Renault-Nissan CMF architecture, as the next generation Lancer small car will be, but right-hand drive production has not been guaranteed.
And it wouldn't make a difference if it did, Mitsubishi Motors Australia CEO Mutsuhiro Oshikiri told motoring.com.au.
"Very difficult," he said. "The D-segment [medium/large car] is shrinking pretty hard and people respect more the spacious SUV."
Added MMAL marketing executive director Tony Principe: "All the people in that D-segment are indicating they are going to move out next time round."
Mitsubishi pulled the pin on manufacturing the 380 in Australia in 2008 and has since been followed through the exit door by Ford, which ends Falcon and Territory production no later than October 2016, and Holden and Toyota, which close their plants no later than the end of 2017.
Post closures Ford intends the medium-sized Mondeo to be its largest passenger car, while a front-wheel drive model sourced from General Motors will do similar duties for Holden. Toyota will sell imported versions of the mid-size Camry four and Aurion V6.
Holden will likely have the only traditional rear-wheel drive large sedan on offer if, as expected, the rear-wheel drive Chevrolet SS is built.
Principe said MMA judged it not even worth having a four-cylinder medium offering considering the way the traditional medium/large segments have crumpled.
"Even the Camry, if you took out government sales, corporate sales, high discount sales, how many [sales] do you really have left?"
Convincing Japan that a right-hand drive large car made sense for Australia would also be hard work, he suggested.
"We would have to do a business case, we would have to be able to go to Japan and commit to taking a certain number at a certain price. They would have to do the ADRs [Australian Design Rules compliance] and they would have to decide if they want to spend all that money developing a car for Australia. Is it worth it?"
Added MMAL sales director Greg Cook: "If you are asking do we need a Galant-sized car to get to our volume base the answer is no.
"The reality is if you look at the people who aren't local producers, the ability to sell D-segment cars has been pretty tough apart from Falcon, Camry, Commodore."
MMAL sold 71,528 vehicles in 2013, which was its record as an importer. It has been set the goal of 100,000 sales per annum by late this decade.
Mitsubishi has a stream of new models and updates coming this year including the just-launched plug-in hybrid Outlander PHEV and model year 14.5 update of the rest of the range, MY14.5 Lancer, the Mirage sedan, model year 2015 ASX and Pajero, another update for Outlander toward the end of 2014 and an all-new Triton around the end of the year.
All-new Challenger, ASX and Pajero generations follow in 2015-16, including plug-in hybrids versions of the latter two.
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Written byBruce Newton
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