A few years back, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation announced that it would focus its energies on selling SUVs, crossovers, and electric vehicles. It looks like that plan is about to come to fruition as the Japanese carmaker recently unveiled a new corporate roadmap dubbed Drive for Growth.
The said roadmap aims to increase growth targets by 30% within the next three years. It likewise plans to boost annual global sales to 1.3 million vehicles and in turn, increase revenues to 2.5 trillion yen. While it may sound ambitious, Mitsubishi has a few strategies up its sleeve.
As Mitsubishi plans to invest heavily in Research and Development, it also seeks to implement measures to manage production costs. This means ensuring that wastage and other non-performing methods are eliminated. And its synergies with Renault-Nissan will be a huge help as it can benefit from this, especially in the area of the aforementioned R&D.
Another step the company plans to take is focus on key markets for increased revenue growth. It naturally intends to pour a large part of its energy on the most profitable region thus far—ASEAN. With the opening of the Indonesian assembly plant and the Xpander rolling out onto the region, sales targets have been increased from 206,000 to 310,000 annually. The same goes for the US and China, where it will improve its dealer network. In Japan, it plans to roll out a new small electric kei car to target more fuel conscious Japanese city-slickers.
Of course, the Mitsubishi Drive for Growth roadmap would not be complete without an aggressive product offensive. In this case, the company hopes to introduce no less than 11 new models by 2019. These would consist of five upgrades to existing key models and six all-new offerings. The plan is to have around 5 global best sellers accounting for 70% of sales. And yes, these would consist mainly of SUVs, as well as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and 4WD crossovers that would include the Xpander and Eclipse Cross.
Yes, the plan may seem daunting. But at the rate Mitsubishi has been reporting renwed growth and expansion lately, it looks like it is on its way to achieving its Drive for Growth.
