AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/07 Report--

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors was forced to stop production. Mitsubishi Motors said on April 5 that due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the production line of Mitsubishi Motors' main Japanese plant Okazaki (Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture) would be suspended from April 11 to 15 for a total of five days.

Mitsubishi Motors Japan Okazaki Manufacturing Institute factory is located in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, established in 1977, mainly produces Mitsubishi Motors' main SUV model "Olande". As for the reason for the shutdown, Mitsubishi Motors said parts supply was disrupted by factors such as the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and closure management in Shanghai, where the plant is a supplier of some Mitsubishi auto parts. Mitsubishi Motors is expected to take temporary leave for employees due to a shortage of spare parts.

Mitsubishi Motors Japan Okazaki production plant will stop production is also the first time since July 2020, Mitsubishi Motors Japanese plant suspended production. Also because of the COVID-19 epidemic, Mitsubishi Motors had previously announced that the Mitsubishi Motor plant in Gifu County would stop production from June 2 to 30, 2020, and the Aichi Prefecture plant would stop production from June 2 to 15 and June 23 to 30, 2020.

According to public information, Mitsubishi Motors (Mitsubishi Motors) is a well-known multinational carmaker in Japan, founded in 1970, headquartered in Tokyo Port area. In 1970, Mitsubishi Motors became the youngest automobile manufacturer in Japan from the automatic vehicle manufacturing department of Mitsubishi heavy Industries, and became the fifth largest Japanese automaker in output in 2009. ranked 15th largest automaker in the world. In 2012, GAC GROUP, Mitsubishi Motor and Mitsubishi Corporation formed a joint venture, GAC-Mitsubishi Motor. The auto industry has learned from the official website of GAC-Mitsubishi that there are currently seven models on sale under GAC-Mitsubishi, including pure electric SUV Artuco; Oland, Xin Jinxuan, Yige three fuel vehicles and three original imported cars.

Among them, the Olander model is the main sales force of Mitsubishi Motor SUV. In January 2004, Outlander, a full-time all-round car imported and manufactured by Beijing Gyibug Automobile Co., Ltd. from Mitsubishi, Japan, was officially put into the Chinese market, but it was not until the establishment of GAC-Mitsubishi that the Olander model was really sold domestically. Data show that GAC-Mitsubishi sold 43035 vehicles, 63199 vehicles, 56317 vehicles and 55888 vehicles respectively from 2013 to 2016. On September 24, 2016, GAC-Mitsubishi Outlander was officially listed in China. The domestic Olander basically copied the imported version of the shape, and only upgraded the configuration. In spite of this, the listing of domestic Olander has brought greater sales growth for GAC-Mitsubishi. GAC-Mitsubishi sold 117388 vehicles in 2017, up 110.04% from the same period last year, while GAC-Mitsubishi sold 144018 vehicles in 2018, up 22.69% from the same period last year. However, due to the single model of GAC-Mitsubishi, the overall market performance of GAC-Mitsubishi is not ideal, and then GAC-Mitsubishi successively introduced Yige, Jinxuan and other products, but the increase in the number of models did not make the sales of GAC-Mitsubishi better. GAC-Mitsubishi accumulated sales of 133016 vehicles in 2019, down 7.64% from the same period last year; GAC-Mitsubishi accumulated sales of 75001 vehicles in 2020, down 43.62% from the same period last year; and GAC-Mitsubishi accumulated sales of 66006 vehicles in 2021, down 11.99% from the same period last year. GAC-Mitsubishi sales data for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021 have declined to varying degrees.

GAC GROUP said in an interview with the media that the biggest problem Mitsubishi is currently facing is a single product, and the upgrading of its models will be accelerated in 2022. At the same time, GAC will strengthen its joint venture cooperation and communication with Mitsubishi to promote the development of GAC-Mitsubishi in two to three years. On March 23 this year, Guangzhou Auto-Mitsubishi's first pure electric SUV Atuco officially launched, positioning the compact SUV, a total of two models with a price range of 19.98-229800 yuan. At the same time, the Outlander will release a replacement model in September.

The latest data show that in the past year, the Outlander is an important source of sales of GAC-Mitsubishi models, with cumulative sales of 57787 vehicles; Jinxuan ASX cumulative sales of 6252 vehicles; Yige cumulative sales of 4242 vehicles; Artuco cumulative sales of 79 vehicles. From January to February this year, Outlander sold a cumulative total of 8398 vehicles.

Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki plant in Japan as the main factory for the production of "Outlander" models, it is not known whether the suspension of production at the plant will have an impact on the sales of "Outlander".

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