A year after promising to turn Mitsubishi Motors Corporation around, chief operating officer Rolf Eckrodt told journalists at the Geneva motor show that the project was “a success story”, writes just-auto.com deputy editor Graeme Roberts.
“Progress has been satisfactory” on cost reductions, changes to processes, staff cuts and company streamlining.
But, Eckrodt stressed, the turnaround had not been just about cost reduction.
“We also have a new organisation, new processes, new people and a new attitude,” he said.
Eckrodt, who avoided mention of the warranty claim cover-up scandals still rocking MMC in Japan, said the company would achieve break-even for fiscal 2001, the first financial year of the turnaround plan, which ends on March 31.
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By GlobalData“But that’s only the first step, only the first leg of the rally,” he added. “The final answer is new and exciting product and we have 18 new products on the way between 2002 and 2004.”
New design chief Olivier Boulay was already responsible for four of those, Eckrodt said, and Mitsubishi had already rolled out six new concept cars in six months plus the Pajero Evolution.
“These aren’t quick wins, these are long-term concepts cleared all the way through to production,” Eckrodt insisted.
While the SUP cabriolet, effectively a drop-top SUV with see-through resin-look doors, is the sort of wacky concept often rolled out for motor shows, the CZ2, described as a “stylish urban compact” looks far more likely to see production daylight (as a Mirage/Colt hatchback replacement)and lift Mitsubishi’s current image in Europe as a provider of dull looking, dull-driving, reliable transportation (Lancer Evo excepted).
Strongly oriented towards female buyers, if the mention of a “female design committee” and handbag-like door storage pockets are any guide, the CZ2 has a 1.3-litre variable valve timing petrol four coupled to a CVT transmission and, in show trim, a bench front seat.
Make about as many changes as Nissan did between concept and production March/Micra, and Mitsubishi would have a viable new family hatchback.
Says Eckrodt: “It nicely combines style and function, is casual, chic, innovative and features new [interior trim] material ideas.”
Equally encouraging is the CZ3, described as a “sporty, compact, urban rally machine”, that shares its platform with the CZ2.
With a turbocharged and intercooled 1.5-litre version of Mitsubishi’s Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engine line, the CZ3 Tarmac looks like it could back up its sporty appearance with something close to rally-bred performance and it shares aspects of its four-wheel drive system featuring ACD + AYC (Active Centre Differential + Active Yaw Control) with the Lancer Evolution.
The CZ3 has a continuously variable transmission with sports mode that emulates the Evolution WRC’s sequential shift and the whole package taken through to production could give MMC something to sell younger drivers who drool over the Evo yet can#;t afford either the car or its insurance.
Of the CZ3, Eckrodt said: “It’s sporty and dynamic and the interior is a rally machine with a cockpit like a race car. It’s a combination of our rally success and new spirit.”
Under his turnaround plan, Eckrodt has targeted sales of over 300,000 vehicles annually in Europe, two percent market share and break-even again for the 2002/3 fiscal year. Beyond that, he wants “sound mid-term financials” but attaches no numbers to his forecast.
European operations are being streamlined with the establishment of a new international head office team in Amsterdam, Holland, while the European marketing staff transfer from Germany where, as just-auto reported yesterday, MMC is taking over direct vehicle distribution from April 2.
The new German operation has been charged with doubling annual volume to 80,000 units in the medium term with “the right products and positioning”.
NedCar, the current joint production venture in Holland with Volvo will be more closely integrated into MMC Europe and, from 2004 when the Volvo partnership ends, will build a new compact car designed exclusively for Europe in an alliance with DaimlerChrysler.
A new European purchasing organisation is also being established.
Eckrodt has targeted a 15 percent reduction in European vehicle distribution costs and aims to deliver a locally-built car in just three weeks from dealer order while reducing the lead time on those shipped from Japan by 25 percent.
“We aim for Mitsubishi products in Europe to be consistent with their Japanese heritage, sporty and spirited and fit for European customers,” Eckrodt asserted.
“In the next few years, there will be 12 new European Mitsubishis including the production version of the ASX crossover [shown at Geneva in 2001] in early 2003 and a new compact exclusively designed for Europe in 2004.”
That car would have Mitsubishi-designed engines built in a new MMC/DC co-operative favcility in Germany, Eckrodt added.