Southeast Asia has long been Mitsubishi’s most profitable region, but high interest rates and an appreciating Thai baht have hurt local business. For comparison, in the US, on the contrary, the business of the Japanese automaker has been gaining momentum in recent months.
Perhaps the most important new model of Mitsubishi will be the electric car that it will receive from Nissan. Mitsubishi CEO Takao Kato said the project is still in development, so he could not provide more details about the new electric vehicle.
The second new joint product, as reported by Autonews, will be a new one-tone pickup truck developed in partnership with Nissan. It is known that it will be produced in Mexico.
Manufacturing in North America will allow it to avoid a 25% tariff on pickup trucks imported into the US and add a strong Ford Ranger competitor to Mitsubishi’s lineup. It is unclear whether the new model will be similar to the L200 pickup.
Previously, Nissan and Honda announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of sharing and purchasing important electric vehicle components. Kato says Mitsubishi has not been approached by Nissan or Honda about collaborating on the project, but said the brand is open to such a partnership.
“One thing is certain, it will be extremely difficult for an automaker of our size to survive on its own. I believe that seeking cooperation with partners is the best strategy”– he added.