Mitsubishi Motors (MMC) is considering entering the volume driven small car segment in India.
The company is launching its Mirage ‘global small’ car with a 1.2-litre petrol engine in Thailand later this month and is considering launching it in India.
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“We need to increase our presence in [India] and we know it could only be [achieved] by entering the small car market,” Asia & ASEAN region chief Masahiko Ueki told just-auto at a media event in New Delhi. “We may manufacture a small car in India at the Chennai plant” shared with Hindustan Motors, he added.
Asked if Mitsubishi will launch the small car with Hindustan or independently, Masahiko said: “We are considering all kinds of options but nothing has been finalised as yet. We will take some time. We are very much open to the idea of making the small car at Chennai.”
“We are also considering setting up [a factory] in either Malaysia, Indonesia or India. We will take 2-3 years [to decide] on the new plant,” Masahiko said.
He added that the new Outlander/Airtrek launched last week at the Geneva show would be launched first in Japan and Russia and come to India later.
Masahiko was speaking on the sidelines of Hindustan’s launch of the redesigned Pajero [Shogun] Sport imported initially fully assembled.
The CK Birla group company sells about 4,500 SUVs in India each year. The SUV segment grew 18% last year but Pajero sales rose 28%.
The automaker has spent US$10m on an assembly line for the model at Chennai and will build it from CKD kits with about 7% local content from September CK Birla executive A Sankara Narayanan said.
Chennai has capacity for 12,000 units a year but currently is operating at just 50%.
