1995 Mitsubishi 3000gt Sl Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi has 6 all-new models in the works, plus 5 redesigns

Mitsubishi has revealed its plans for the next three years, and they're all focused on expansion. The company wants to improve unit sales and revenue by 30 percent, which would have it selling 1.3 million cars worldwide. It also plans to improve profit margins from 0.3 percent to 6 percent. This will entail an investment of nearly $5.3 billion. To do this, the company will work on reducing development and manufacturing costs and concentrating on improving in existing markets. But the most interesting part for consumers and enthusiasts: its expanding product plans. Mitsubishi says it will have 11 new model launches over the three-year expansion period. Of these models, six of them are completely new, and the other five will be significant updates and redesigns of existing models. Two of the new vehicles have been shown already including the Eclipse Cross, a compact crossover we'll get in America, and the Xpander (shown below), a minivan-type thing that won't come to the States. The addition of redesigned and new models should be great news for Mitsubishi dealers, especially in America where the company only offers two flavors of aging Outlander, and the bargain-basement Mirage. Fans of Mitsubishi cars might not have much to be excited for, though, since the company says it will be focusing on SUVs and trucks. In fact, it expects that its five best-selling models and 70 percent of its sales will be SUVs, trucks, and plug-in hybrids. If we had to guess what the next four Mitsubishi models could be, we imagine that at least one of them will be some type of full-size crossover. Something sized similarly to the foreign-market Pajero SUV, but designed for pavement pounding. This would especially make sense given other companies entering that space such as VW with the Atlas, and Subaru with its Ascent. As for the three other slots, it's harder to guess. The future Outlander will grow, and the Outlander Sport will shrink, so Mitsubishi will have its midsize and subcompact bases covered, and with a hypothetical full-size crossover, it would have a full line. Those three other slots could be cars, or perhaps specialty crossovers, maybe even a sporty one based on the e-Evolution. But they could also be vehicles aimed at other regions in segments that don't really exist in the U.S. For instance, they could include new microcars for Japan's Kei class of vehicles, or possibly ultra-bare bones, low-cost compacts for Southeast Asia, India and China. Related Video:

Long-serving Mitsubishi president Masuko to step aside

Long-struggling Mitsubishi Motors is reportedly preparing for a changing of the guard at home. According to Reuters, Osamu Masuko will step aside in favor of Tesuro Aikawa, currently the company's managing director. Masuko won't be leaving the fold entirely, however - he will take the role of chairman, displacing Takashi Nishioka, who will resign. The shakeup has not been confirmed by Mitsubishi, but word is that the changes will take effect April 1.
Mitsu's US troubles are no secret, but the brand's struggles in its home market haven't been quite so publicized. The company was bailed out by other arms of the Mitsubishi empire, and it just raised $2 billion this month to buy back preferred shares that were issued during the bailout. Masuko served as president for nearly ten years, during which the brand's US efforts utterly stalled out, recalls cropped up in Japan and an alliance with Daimler (which was DaimlerChrysler at the time) disintegrated.
According to Reuters, establishing the kind of alliances that will allow the brand to grow, such as its tie-up with Renault-Nissan, are key to Mitsu's long-term success. The thought is that an alliance will allow the brand to come up with some innovative models that won't be compromised by its lack of production scale. It looks like Aikawa has his work cut out for him.

Mitsubishi slashes annual profit forecast on slowing car sales

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors on Wednesday cut its full-year profit outlook by 67% as it expects sluggish demand in North America and China will continue, while a strong yen and research and development costs will also hurt the automaker's bottom line. Japan's sixth-largest automaker now expects operating profit to come in at 30.0 billion yen in the year to March, down from a previous forecast for 90.0 billion yen. The new outlook would be Mitsubishi's lowest profit since the year ended March 2017. The downgrade comes after Mitsubishi, in which Nissan holds a controlling stake, reported a 78% plunge in operating profit during the July-September quarter to 6.3 billion yen, lower than a mean forecast for 16.26 billion yen from analysts polled by Refinitiv. It joins a growing number of Japanese automakers which are bracing for lower profitability. Earlier on Wednesday, Subaru lowered its annual profit forecast due to a stronger yen and a cut in domestic output due to a major typhoon last month. Mazda and Suzuki have also cut their respective outlooks within the past month due to slowing demand for their cars. Earnings/Financials Mitsubishi