Mitsubishi is poised to ramp-up its electric-car plans with a new small SUV due in 2025 built on Renault underpinnings in one of French car maker’s factories.
The Japanese company was the first mainstream automaker to sell an electric car in Australia in 2010, a year before the first Tesla, but has not since pulled a new electric vehicle from Japan or China.
It has now been shown that a small electric SUV from Mitsubishi will be built on the same foundations and on the same French production line as the Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric and Scenic E-Tech Electric SUVs from later this decade.
However, it is unclear whether it will be a Mitsubishi-designed vehicle or a rebranded Renault edition to meet strict European emissions targets.
It would be the same strategy that has seen the Renault Captur SUV and Renault Clio City Hatchback renamed in Europe as Mitsubishi ASX and Colt over the past 18 months.
The new Renault-built Mitsubishi electric SUV appears to be a vehicle unveiled in a Mitsubishi investor presentation earlier this year, indexed under the title “Alliance – Renault” and scheduled to be in showrooms in 2025.
It is one of four Mitsubishi battery electric vehicles planned until 2028, in addition to hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicles and seven traditional gasoline or diesel vehicles.
Confirmation of the new Mitsubishi came – unusually – from Renault’s global chief, Luca de Meo, at a briefing on the company’s long-term plans for electric cars.
“I can verify that Mitsubishi will produce an EV C-SUV for the world on the AmpR Medium platform, of course in Douai, and of course fully electric,” Mitsubishi said.
C-SUV EV is the abbreviation in the automotive industry for a small electric SUV, such as Megane, Scenic, Mitsubishi ASX or BYD Atto 3, while AmpR Medium is the new designation for the CMF-EV electric car platform under Megane. and Scenic E-Tech electric SUVs.
Douai is the French city that is home to the factory that produces the Mégane and the Scenic E-Tech, and which will be expanded to build the Renault five electric town car.
While Mr de Meo’s comments suggest the new SUV will be sold globally, it may be limited to a few markets outside Europe – given many countries Mitsubishi operates in are developing regions with low electric-car uptake and less stringent safety standards.
It remains to be seen that it will be sold in Australia, especially if it is a rebranded edition of one of Renault’s two electric cars.
Since the 2010 i-MiEV, sold in Australia, Japan, Europe, the United States and other major markets, Mitsubishi’s electric car lineup has been limited to a handful of models in certain countries.
It sold the Airtrek, a rebadge of a Chinese automaker’s SUV, in China from 2022 – until it pulled out of the country earlier this year – while in Japan it markets the eK X EV, a small “kei” city car. under license. Australia.
The Mégane and Scenic E-Tech are available with batteries ranging from 40 kWh to 87 kWh, for up to 625 km of lab-tested WLTP range.
Mitsubishi joined the two-decade-old technical alliance between Renault and Nissan in 2017.
Journalist