Mitsubishi Triton Ralliart could get Aussie input

If the proposed Mitsubishi Triton ‘Raptor’ gets the green light, the Japanese brand’s Australian arm has indicated it would seek to take the development lead, if given the chance.

The current Mitsubishi Triton was released in mid-2015 and its replacement won’t arrive until a few years into the next decade, but the all-new ute looks increasingly likely to be crowned by a hard-core rival for the Ford Ranger Raptor.

That’s because the next Triton is expected to be twinned with the next Nissan Navara – a hot version of which is also under study, potentially wearing NISMO badges – as part of Nissan’s take-over of Mitsubishi.

As the world’s third largest ute market, Australia will remain crucial to both models, and their respective range-toppers.

Australia is the world’s second-largest global market for the Triton, which accounts for around 30 per cent of Mitsubishi’s local sales, but a muscled-up halo model – perhaps wearing Ralliart badges – would provide it with a ‘richer’ and more profitable model mix.

As we reported in March 2018, Mitsubishi’s global chief operating officer, Trevor Mann, confirmed the Japanese company is investigating a tough-truck hero model to cap the next-gen Triton ute range and the brand’s Aussie chief is hoping his team will get to play a part in its development.

Mitsubishi Australia CEO John Signoriello told motoring.com.au that he’d love to see a beefed-up high-performance Triton.

“Who wouldn’t love to see something like that?” he said.

When queried over whether the new Triton ‘Raptor’ pick-up would be developed in Japan or – like the Ranger Raptor – Australia, he responded: “I think there could be a combination of both.

“Ideally I think it should be developed in Japan if we went down that path. I’m not sure what they’re working on but we’d be more than happy to take the lead on something like that if given the opportunity,” he said.

“I love my utes and I love my cars,” said the Mitsubishi executive, who has worked for the company for nearly three decades in various roles, including in manufacturing.

The problem for Mitsubishi Motors Australia is that it doesn’t produce vehicles in this country any more. The days of the Mitsubishi Magna and 380 are long gone and so the chances of a desert-dueling Triton ute being designed and engineered Down Under are zero.

Aussie testing is guaranteed but the development of a vehicle such as the Ford Ranger Raptor requires a dedicated R&D centre with hundreds of employees, just as Ford has in this country.

Unless Mitsubishi sets up a brand new vehicle proving ground in South Australia it’s highly unlikely.

An updated 2019 Mitsubishi Triton ute will be revealed in Thailand in November and fast-tracked to Australia for sale by December, when it will bring visual and mechanical upgrades, along with more equipment. The Triton ute’s mid-life upgrade will also benefit from a significant local chassis development program.

We also know that a tough-looking, Australian-developed Mitsubishi Triton concept will be revealed as part of the upgraded ute’s launch later this year, in a bid to gauge market response to a hard-core version of the Triton.

However, we understand the cosmetically enhanced pick-up will be a show car only at this stage, although it could eventually lead to a tougher, locally developed (but mechanically unchanged) version of the current Triton, in the same vein as the Toyota HiLux Rugged X and Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme.

Indeed, Signoriello left the door open to the possibility of offering customers something more exciting than Mitsubishi’s range-topping $49,000 Triton Exceed later this year, possibly like the L200 Geoseek concept shown at the 2016 Geneva motor show.

“You talk about whether we can do something locally? I wouldn’t leave any stone unturned to work out what we can and can’t do. We will work through everything,” he smiled.