Mitsubishi in Malaysia: CKD local assembly in 2013, i-MiEV commercial sales starting next month

At the launch of the new Mitsubishi Mirage earlier today, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia CEO Tetsuya Oda shed some light on the company’s future plans in Malaysia.

“With the addition of the Mirage, the Mitsubishi lineup in Malaysia grows to 11 models and we are well on track to achieve annual sales of more than 30,000 units by year 2015,” Oda said in his opening speech.

MMM’s target for the Mirage is 400 units per month, but 30k is an ambitious figure when one considers that the company’s target for this fiscal year ending March 2013 is 13,000 units.

How are they going to achieve it? Local assembly will help, and Mitsubishi’s CKD plan was also something Oda touched on. “For us to develop further, we are continously exploring to opt for local assembly and it is our mission to realise local assembling of cars by the end of 2013.” No local partner names were mentioned (although it’s certainly not Proton), so stay tuned for more updates as we flow into 2013.

Lastly, the head of MMM also announced that the company – the first to register an electric car in Malaysia back in October 2011 – will start commercial sales of the i-MiEV by the end of 2012. We’re already in November now, so expect an announcement next month. With no special EV tax break (it gets what hybrids get) the battery-powered minicar won’t come cheap – we’re expecting a sticker price of RM150k to RM160k.

Related posts:

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2. Honda Malaysia sales hit all-time high in July 2012
3. Mitsubishi instills EV and eco awareness among Malaysian kids, ride in i-MiEV star attraction
4. BREAKING: Mazda CX-5 local assembly to start in 2013
5. Mitsubishi Mirage production begins in Thailand – 15,000 orders taken for the compact hatch in the first month
6. Mitsubishi to produce ASX in Indonesia starting this year
7. Ford’s Malaysia sales up by 145% in 2011, led by Fiesta
8. Malaysia in discussions with automakers about making the country a hybrid and EV assembly/distribution point
9. BMW Group Malaysia achieves record sales in 2011, ActiveHybrid models to make local debut this year
10. Next Bike targets 300% sales growth for Ducati in Malaysia

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