Will this Mitsubishi Eco Car make it to India in 2012?
Mitsubishi is doing a Nissan Micra/Honda Brio. The company's ambitious eco car plan in Thailand is shaping up and the first official sketches have been revealed. The compact hatchback, to be manufactured in Thailand, will be fitted with a 1.0-1.2-liter petrol engine.
Mitsubishi plans to manufacture 150,000 cars a year in the Thai plant which will generate 3,000 jobs. Mitsubishi intends to price the entry-level small car at 400,000 Thai Baht which roughly converts to 6 lakh rupees.
Thai minister Chaiwut Bannawat -
It’s my great pleasure that Mitsubishi Motors Thailand’s factory becomes a part of our Eco-car Project. This Mitsubishi factory will bring to Thailand many technologies for automobile production and lead to improve labor skills for auto industry as well as related industries
Mitsubishi hasn't had the best times in India. Its cars have lost market share over the years. It took Mitsubishi months to just sort out BS4 compliant engines on its existing portfolio. The Evo X has landed after years of waiting and anguish. There's no second thought in saying Mitsubishi is on the backfoot in India.
Everyone wants to enter India with a billion dollars and announce a small car project, Within the next one year, we'll see Toyota, Honda and perhaps Proton on the market. Kia and Peugeot-Citroen have also shown interest in setting up operations in India. Nissan, Ford and Volkswagen joined the bandwagon this year and not mentioning the tens of hundreds of variants, securing a decent share in the compact car pie is going to be tougher than ever before.
Mitsubishi has clearly struggled selling some of its internationally acclaimed models in less populated segments. They have made some hasty decisions in the past and if they don't think this one through, their comeback strategy will meet another setback.