Mitsubishi Motors Australia has reiterated that its Express light commercial van is on track for arrival in Australian and New Zealand showrooms next year.
Last sold here in 2013, the Mitsubishi Express will return by as early as 2020 as a Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance product – the Express a ‘badge-engineered’ version of the next-generation Renault traffic (pictured).
Speaking to carsales.com.au at the launch of the revised Triton this week, Mitsubishi Motors Australia head of product planning, James Tol, said the three-diamond brand is looking forward to returning the Express to market.
“We did well with Express previously, and we want to get back into that space,” Tol said.
“The advantage for us is that obviously we have a very good commercial offering in Triton, and it’s a really good synergy to offer both Triton and a van.
“We’ve got fleet clients that need both [a light commercial utility and a light commercial van], and we want to be able to service both,” he continued.
“We’ve got a very capable and strong fleet network, and a very capable and strong dealer network, and they’ll be able to do very well with that additional product in the line-up.”
Tol wouldn’t confirm exact timing for arrival of the Express in local showrooms, but said his team was already studying specification, equipment and pricing.
Locally, the Express will compete against the dominant Toyota HiAce, Hyundai iLoad and alliance partner, Renault Trafic, as well as the Ford Transit Custom and Volkswagen Transporter.
“We can’t speculate on time, but we are well into the process of making that happen,” suggested Tol.
“It’s an alliance van, so it’s not an ‘all-new’ van, but it will be badged as a Mitsubishi. There’ll be some minor differences in appearance, but basically it’s an alliance van.”
Produced at Renault’s Sandouville plant the Express will be one of a number of commercial vans produced for global consumption.
Smaller offerings based on the Renault Kangoo are expected to wear both Nissan and Mercedes-Benz badges in certain markets, while the Renault Trafic will be sold as a Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Fiat and even Dodge vans, depending where in the world it is sold.
The tie-up also lends support to Mitsubishi offering a larger commercial van in the future.
Renault’s Master van has the potential to undergo the same ‘badge engineering’ approach as the Trafic and Express, giving Mitsubishi a chance to explore markets in which it’s not previously had a foothold.
“We’ll start with the alliance van we know, and once that’s under our belt we’ll take a look at opportunities that will come after that,” outlined Tol.
“We haven’t gone into the ‘big van’ space before, and that may be something we look at into the future. We are always looking to see what opportunities might be available down the track.”
As part of its current business plan dubbed Alliance 2022, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi says it will double annual synergies to €10 billion by accelerating collaboration on common platforms and common production facilities.
The Sandouville plant is a key industrial of the equation and produces 70 per cent of the light commercial vans exported by the Alliance. In 2017, more than 104,000 examples of the Trafic and its badge-engineered brethren were sold in over 150 markets worldwide.