Mitsubishi to double Thai production capacity

Mitsubishi president Osamu Masuko said after unveiling the carmaker’s latest model at the Tokyo Motor Show yesterday that although the flood in Thailand had forced the company to suspend production at its assembly plant there for one month, operations resumed on November 14.
Mitsubishi lost about 23,000 units during the downtime but believes that it can step up production by 15,000 units. That will reduce the impact from the production delay to only 8,000 units or about 3.5 per cent of its total annual output of 240,000 units.
The company will proceed with its expansion plan in Thailand by investing $40 billion (Bt16.1 billion) since last year to produce 150,000 units a year of the global small car or eco-car called the Mirage. It will also produce 70,000 units of the next pickup truck. That will bring total production capacity to 460,000 units next year.
Mitsubishi still plans to launch the Mirage in Thailand in March, but there may be a lag of about one or two weeks due to the delay in production at the plant as a result of the floods. The company has tried to push the Thai government to support electric cars because they are environmentally friendly.
However, electric cars are still up to 50 per cent more expensive than gasoline models.
“If Thailand wants to promote electric cars, the country has to have a subsidy for buyers to support the producers,” he said.
For example, Japan’s government promotes electric cars by offering a cash rebate to buyers of about half the difference in price.
“This is only an example of how electric cars are promoted in Japan. In Thailand, that depends on the Thai government, but the philosophy is how to reduce electric car prices to lower than gasoline prices,” he added.