Mitsubishi Pajero
Bruce Newton8 Mar 2017
NEWS

Pajero could share with Nissan Patrol

Mitsubishi close to new product plan, platform sharing but new Lancer unlikely

Nissan-controlled Mitsubishi is only weeks away from finalising a new future product plan that looks likely to confirm a future Pajero heavy-duty off-roader co-developed with the Nissan Patrol, but signal the end of the road for the Lancer small passenger car.

The timing for the plan’s finalisation at the end of the 2016-17 Japanese financial year on March 31 was confirmed by Mitsubishi Motor Corporation’s (MMC) new chief operating officer, Trevor Mann, during a round table with Australian media at the Geneva motor show overnight.

“Before we start the new financial year, we will lock in our next long-range product plan in terms of the products we are doing. We have been going through that process for the last couple of months and we should conclude that within this month,” Mann said

The Englishman is a 31-year Nissan Motor Company veteran parachuted into his MMC role just four months ago in the wake of Renault-Nissan’s purchase of a 34 per cent stake in the company and take-over of management control.

In an era were SUV sales are climbing and passenger car sales shrinking, Mann was clearly more enthusiastic about the prospects for a new Pajero SUV sharing its architecture with the Nissan Patrol (and using petrol-electric powertrains) than he was about developing a successor for Lancer, which has been around since 2007 in its current fourth generation.

“The word is slowly changing and it is really going in one direction; it is going toward the SUV-type of vehicle, which is our strength,” he said.

“Gradually but slowly but surely, country-by-country, is going away from sedan-type vehicles into SUVs and I think that is where we have to consolidate our strength. A company our size can’t spread [its resources] too thin because we only have a finite results in what we can invest in new platforms and technology,” Mann stated.

Mann suggested a replacement for the current Pajero, which traces back to 2000, was a natural fit with Patrol and that a plug-in hybrid drivetrain (which is a Mitsubishi expertise) would be an obvious way for both to survive tightening emissions regulations.

130225 NIssan Patrol 11

The Y62 Patrol is currently based on an architecture which is shared with the Infiniti QX80, both of which are sold in Australia.

“Obviously, that [Pajero] is a brand icon and I think the head and heart discussion are consistent with that,” Mann said.

“How to make this work is something that we are working on because that segment is coming under increasing pressure in terms of CO2 compliance. It is a big, heavy vehicle. One of the things that we need to look at is what are the benefits that we could have in terms of sustaining that product if we were to work with Nissan. That is something we will be exploring.”

Mann suggested very efficient powertrains featuring electrification and light-weighting would be key to a future generation heavy-duty 4x4 such as Pajero and Patrol.

“One of the things you need with a vehicle like that is high torque and one of the things you get with an electric motor is high torque. The solution has to be technically along that direction.”

The global move away from passenger cars and the intense competition in the shrinking global small car segment discouraged Mitsubishis from replacing Lancer, Mann suggested.

“I am questioning internally what do we want and what do our customers want. …You just say ‘we should make another Lancer because we have always had a Lancer’ but I am saying ‘should we?’.”

“Some of the older cars and some of the stronger names might not continue, but I don’t think that is a problem,” Mann said.

“You have got to keep changing to move forward and you have got to keep with what customers want,” he added.

“You shouldn’t necessarily keep banging the same drum just because you had a car that everybody liked once. So did a lot of other manufacturers,” he said.

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