Mitsubishi invest $44 million to expand production, lower costs of PHEV assembly

Release Date: January 2014
Battery Pack Size: 12 kWh
Electric Range: 37.4 miles (on Japan's test cycle)
MPGe: 157.6 MPGe (on Japan's test cycle)
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Mitsubishi is busy renovating their Okazaki, Japan factory in order to reduce production costs and increase production output of its vehicles.

The renovations aim to cut the cost of body assembly 30 percent, while boosting the capacity there to 230,000 vehicles annually – that’s a 10 percent increase. Of course, not all of those vehicles will be Outlander plug-in hybrids, but the changes are mainly due to Mitsubishi’s shift towards plug-in vehicles.

According to Automotive News, “the retooling began in January and will run through next May.  The changes will better accommodate Mitsubishi’s shift toward electrified vehicles by allowing battery installation along the main line.”

Total cost for the renovations will be around $44 million dollars (¥4.5 billion).

Mitsubishi plans to produce 50,000 Outlander plug-in hybrids for the fiscal year starting April 1, 2014 and ending March 31, 2015. Shortly after that, in 2015, is when the Outlander PHEV will make it to North America, and chances are Mitsubishi will need as much production as they can get!

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