Mitsubishi: Pickup Truck 3 Years Off

Financial constraints have red-lighted any plans Mitsubishi Motors Corp. may have had to bring new products to the U.S. market in the near future, but it is not ruling out new additions down the road.

“One way or another, over the next three years, we will get a pickup in this market,” Steve Torok, executive vice president-international car operations-MMC and MMC board member, tells Ward's.

“We have a great new pickup program in Thailand being developed for the rest of the world. We're looking for a way to get it into the U.S.”

To do that today, Mitsubishi would have to import the trucks from Thailand, something it has resisted in the past due to higher levels of taxation on imported pickup trucks.

Officials refused to comment on the possibility of building the Thai pickups in the U.S. to expand capacity.

And although Mitsubishi put the kibosh on bringing the current version of the Colt to the U.S., the small car will make it here in future generations.

“It's too small, too underpowered and too narrow,” says Torok of the current Colt.

And the minivan segment hasn't been ruled out, but it won't be the current Grandis multipurpose vehicle sold in Japan as Torok says it isn't as competitive a vehicle as Endeavor.