“We plan to ask the Department for assistance as a group. We will be coursing our concern through Campi (Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc),” said MMPC president Yoshiaki Kato.
MMPC intends to bring in its MiEV series of electric vehicles and Hybrid Outlander that can run on petrol or electricity. The latter is manufactured in Japan.
These investments are on top of the PHP4.3 billion (US$91.5 million) that the company has committed to invest in its assembly plant in Laguna under the Philippine government’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) programme.
The company has also said it would maintain the production of its L-300 chassis cab in the Philippines in the face of strong demand for multifunctional vehicles that can serve both commercial and personal use.
However, it intends to phase out its non-Euro-4 compliant vehicles, which include Adventure and the aforementioned L-300 chassis, by the end of next year. Mitsubishi chairman and chief executive Osamu Masuko said it would resume production of the latter vehicle as soon as a Euro-4 engine designed for L-300 vehicles becomes available.
“We have to meet the gas emission regulation in making a new model and combine this with Euro-4 compliant engine. This will be the new generation L-300,” he said. “However, to continue with the production of the Adventure will be difficult, I believe.”
Mitsubishi currently focuses on the promotion of mid-sized hybrid Outlander. It recently recalibrated its production strategy by consolidating manufacturing in ASEAN as it closed operations in the Netherlands, Australia and the US. The Philippines is being groomed as a hub for small car production, while Thailand will be the centre for trucks, and Indonesia for multipurpose vehicles.
As the hub for small cars, Philippines would encompass the production for MMPC's Mirage hatchback and Mirage G4, after the company qualified for incentives under the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy program of the Philippine government.
MMPC expects production to reach over 35,000 units by 2017, which would be scaled up to 100,000 units.
