Mitsubishi Motors of America is reported to be debating the future of their Normal, IL production plant. The plant once shared with Chrysler is virtually a ghost town, making just under 20,000 cars last year due to lack of sales. Considering the plant once churned out over 200,000 cars a year not long ago, Mitsubishi is at a cross-roads.
While much of the Mitsubishi brand luster has been lost in the past decade, many might remember that their entry into our market was strong on small compact trucks and SUV’s. We are hearing that one of their ponderances for the Illinois plant is bringing their Triton compact truck production stateside for sales in the North American market.
In Asia Pacific markets, the newest version of the Mitsubishi Triton has a new 2.5 liter HPD (High Performance Diesel) inline four-cylinder turbo diesel engine that churns out a healthy 175hp at 4000rpm and 295 ft. pounds of torque at 2000rpm for the manual version
Mitsubishi like so many automakers would likely balk at the idea of offering a diesel option in the U.S. but we would suggest that it might be the one thing that makes this product stand out in our market. With Mahindra coming to market later this year with their diesel powered pickup, Mitsubishi would offer a very credible competitor.
In fact we believe that a diesel powered Mitsubishi Triton pickup line could very well be the one thing that powers Mitsubishi out of the ditch in the American market.
“We both like the truck,” says John Koenig, executive vice president-MMNA.. ““If we (produce) it here, we’ve got to build a volume of at least 50,000 or 60,000 units a year to make it profitable. And that’s our sticking point. Can we do that?”
Our answer? Yes you can if you push diesel power!
But lets not hold our breath. Automakers, seemingly the ones failing the most, continue to believe diesel doesn’t sell in America. Meanwhile Volkswagen is growing to be the largest automaker in the world, selling……………you guessed it…………diesel.
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