Mitsubishi kills off the Pajero

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Mitsubishi will cease production of the long-running Pajero in 2021, a new report is claiming.

Nikkei has revealed that Mitsubishi has plans to eventually close the Pajero manufacturing plant after a huge slump in production output in recent years. The move follows Mitsubishi’s internal reorganisation to return to profitability.

Mitsubishi announced the current Pajero all the way back at the 2006 Paris Motor Show, making it one of the longest-surviving model generations. The more recent Triton ute-based Pajero Sport will continue in production, however, and has just been given a facelift for this year.

Mitsi’s long-standing off-roader is finally retiring after nearly fifteen years of the current generation.

The factory will close within the next three years, according to the report, while the Pajero will cease production by 2021. Japanese sales of the SUV had stopped in 2019 but the plant kept building for international export, including New Zealand.

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The Pajero Sport will continue though, as it is built in a different factory to the normal Pajero.

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The plant manufactured 63,000 vehicles in fiscal 2019, accounting for about 10 per cent of Mitsubishi Motors' overall domestic production. Those vehicles included the Delica and Outlander, as well as the Pajero. The two former vehicles are expected to be shifted to Okazaki Manufacturing, a Mitsubishi Motors subsidiary based in the Aichi Prefecture city of Okazaki, and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Toyota has decided to close one of its plants in the Shizuoka Prefecture city of Susono at the end of 2020, while Honda will shutter its Sayama plant in the Saitama Prefecture city of Sayama by fiscal 2021. This is a response to falling domestic demand for new vehicles.

Other cost-cutting plans from Mitsubishi include stopping all sales in Europe for the time being.

A spokesperson for Mitsubishi Motors NZ told Stuff that, other than the end of the Pajero, the drastic cost-cutting plans will have no impact on New Zealand and that the country remained an “important and high performing market for Mitsubishi Motors.”

“We’re still working through the details of [Pajero], but the production of Pajero will cease in the first half of 2021. Over recent years, the demand for Pajero-sized vehicles has decreased, with many of our owners naturally moving into Pajero Sport.”