Mitsubishi vehicle research

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. In 2011, Mitsubishi Motors was the sixth-largest Japanese automaker and the 19th-largest worldwide by production. Mitsubishi Motors took over as the 16th largest automaker worldwide by production in 2012.

History

Mitsubishi's automotive origins date back to 1917, when the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., introduced the Mitsubishi Model A, Japan's first series-production automobile. An entirely hand-built seven-seater sedan based on the FIAT Tipo 3, it proved expensive compared to its American and European mass-produced rivals, and was discontinued in 1921 after only 22 had been built. In 1934, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding was merged with the Mitsubishi Aircraft Co., a company established in 1920 to manufacture aircraft engines and other parts.

Ownership

In 2014, Tetsuro Aikawa was appointed as the president of the company, becoming the first in more than a decade to have spent an entire career at the company. The career of Aikawa had been mainly in product development, although he was involved in manufacturing and Japan domestic sales lately. Osamu Masuko, the previous president, joined the company from Mitsubishi Corp. in 2004.

Lineup

Mitsubishi's model history is unusually tied to alliances with other automakers: the company had a Chrysler partnership through the 1970s and 1980s that put badge-engineered Mitsubishis in American showrooms, and it has separately allied with Hyundai, Volvo, Proton, Volkswagen, Groupe PSA and Suzuki at various points, before joining the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 2016 to form the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, and adding Honda to a further tie-up starting in 2024. Mitsubishi ended vehicle production in North America and Western Europe, and the current U.S. lineup reflects that contraction: it has shrunk to the Outlander three-row SUV, the smaller Outlander Sport, and the Eclipse Cross crossover, all built on shared Nissan/Renault Alliance platforms rather than Mitsubishi-only architecture. The performance-oriented Lancer and Lancer Evolution, once the brand's rally-bred flagship sports sedans, were discontinued in North America without a direct successor. Mitsubishi also weathered a serious reputational crisis in the late 1990s and 2000s after disclosures that it had covered up known vehicle defects, an episode that contributed to the company's later dependence on outside alliance partners for engineering and investment rather than developing every platform independently.

Electric vehicles

Mitsubishi Motors started selling its i MiEV, the all-electric minicar with a lithium-ion battery pack tucked under its floor, to retail customers in the summer 2009, a year ahead of schedule. The automaker had initially planned to start leasing the minicar-based vehicle to businesses and municipalities in the summer 2009 and to wait until 2010 for the retail launch.

Motorsport

Mitsubishi Motors has over half a century of international motorsport experience, antedating even the incorporation of MMC. Beginning with street races in the early 1960s, the company found itself gravitating towards the challenge of off-road racing.

Source: Mitsubishi Motors (Wikipedia)