Mitsubishi plans 5 new cars for India by 2016

In India, Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors has always been known for the iconic cars like the Lancer, Pajero and the likes. For the past half a decade though, the company has been struggling in India to say the least. It has just one offering in its lineup, the Pajero Sport which clocks decent numbers but is still nowhere close to what the Fortuner does. Mitsubishi wants to dramatically turn around its fortunes in India and has a plan of action in store that could help it survive, and even thrive in the country.

Mitsubishi’s executive officer and corporate general manager for Asia and ASEAN, Mr Ken Horinouchi has revealed that the company will be launching 5 new models in India by 2016. This new line up of cars will include two SUVs. What this will do is, it will not only widen the company’s portfolio and footprint in India, but will also help the company gain the trust of dealers who are said to be unhappy with the fact that they have just a single car to sell. A single car portfolio greatly restricts sales volumes for the Mitsubishi dealers in India, prompting many to shut shop.

While the exact timelines of the launches haven’t been confirmed, what has been confirmed is that the Mirage hatchback will touch down on Indian shores and the same will be manufactured at Hindustan Motors’ Chennai manufacturing facility. It will come with a 1.2 litre-3 cylinder petrol motor that will have a power of 77 Bhp. The car will lock horns with the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Celerio and Hyundai Grand i10. Joining the hatchback will be its sedan sibling, the Attrage . The Attrage is not a sub-4 meter car. Rather, the Attrage competes with the Nissan Sunny and Hyundai Verna in the C-Segment space.

Mitsubishi has always been known for its true blue SUVs and rally bred sportscars. In India, the Japanese company plans to concentrate on the SUV segment in the future as well. It will soon launch the 2014 version of the Outlander crossover. The all-new Outlander has been on the cards for a while now but has been getting delayed due to high import duties and dealers demanding a diesel engined version of the crossover. The Pajero Sport SUV with an automatic transmission is also expected to be launched soon. Click here to read CarToq’s exclusive story on the Pajero Sport Automatic.

Via AutoCarIndia