Mitsubishi milestone

Mitsubishi has announced a significant export milestone with the 1,000,000th 1-tonne pickup shipped overseas – cumulated result since the first generation model.

On a global basis, former (Cyclone, Strada) and current (Triton) L200s have been playing a major role, positioning Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co., Ltd (MMTh) more than ever as MMC´s strategic hub in South East Asia, making it today the first automobile exporter from Thailand.

Mitsubishi Motors has made concerted efforts over recent years to strengthen the business base and boost the competitiveness of its operations in Thailand. Indeed, this country constitutes both a major ASEAN bloc market for the Company in its global strategy and a production & export hub for supplying 1-tonne pickups to Europe, Australia, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

As a reminder, back in 1988 Mitsubishi Motors became the first Japanese manufacturer to start export shipments of vehicles produced locally in Thailand (Mitsubishi Champ compact to Canada). Pickup exports followed a year later (to Portugal / KD). Then in 1995, MMC decided to centralize all its 1-tonne pickup world production activities in this country, from its production base of Leam Chabang Industrial Estate, effective a year later.

Today, MMTh ships cars to over 140 countries and regions worldwide with an L200 export contribution of 133,109 units in 2006 and 140,000 units for 2007 (target).

Europe is MMTh’s largest export market for L200 with already 60,687 units (excluding Russia) sold since launch early 2006, the United Kingdom (17,037 units), Italy (7,092 units), Germany (6,647 units), Spain (5,027 units) and France (3,648 units) forming the European Top Five.