SouEast-Mitsubishi joint venture gets another shot at life

Mitsubishi’s fortunes in China are about to change yet again, the joint venture appeared to have become stale over time with Mitsubishi becoming less interested in the partnership and more interested in working with Guangzhou Auto, now it appears that Mitsubishi are back on with SouEast.

The SouEast-Mitsubishi joint venture seemed to have been originally focused on producing the older generations of Lancer, Delica and Freeca vehicles, in early 2010 Mitsubishi launched the latest generation of Lancer into China in a bid to usurp the Ford Focus as one of the best selling compact sedans in China, the plan failed. Now SouEast and Mitsubishi are looking to put some of Mitsubishi’s SUV offerings into production in China, the first candidate is likely to be the ASX crossover with a 1.6L engine, but the recently unveiled Pajero Sport is in the pipeline, as well as Mitsubishi’s new Global Small car.

Should SouEast and Mitsubishi get these cars into the showroom within the next 18 months, they might just have a better shot at keeping the consolidation wolf away from the door for a few more years.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.