Mitsubishi Motors is to cease development of commercial vehicles including minitrucks.
The automaker built around 67,000 commercial models last year and sold 31,000 commercial minivehicles under its own brand, including trucks and vans. It supplied a further 30,000 to Nissan on an OEM basis.
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Mitsubishi said it plans to source vehicles under an OEM arrangement from Suzuki, Japan’s second-ranked manufacturer of minivehicles. Suzuki will also supply Nissan with commercial minivehicles.
Mitsubishi said it will begin to scale down commercial vehicle output because overall volume is small and profit margins are thin. Production of commercial minivehicles at the company’s plant in Okayama Prefecture is seen declining about 20% this fiscal year.
As part of its global strategy, Mitsubishi has ended production in Europe and Australia, shifting its focus to emerging markets, mainly in Asia, including Thailand, where assembly of models like the Mirage and pickup trucks has been transferred from Japan.
