There’s a new Mitsubishi Triton Bold Edition available at Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia showrooms from tomorrow onwards, and there’s only 300 units to go around.

The Triton Bold Edition is based on the Triton 2.5 A/T and adds full leather seats, a 2-DIN touch screen system with built-n GPS navigation and reverse camera, automatic climate control, 17 inch alloy wheels, anti-slip side steps, a sports bar, a chrome rear step bumper and a front bumper guard.

The Triton Bold Edition is priced at RM100,117.80 OTR without insurance and until the end of January, you’ll get a Festive Ang Pow if you book and register one.

The truck is available in either black or white and comes with a 2-year free maintenance package and 3-year warranty from Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia.
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Mitsubishi Motors has laid the foundation stone for its third and latest factory in Thailand, which will be built right next to its first and second factories. The new factory will begin mass production in March 2012, rolling out a new “global small car” with engines of 1.0 litre to 1.2 litres in size. The new Mitsubishi global small car is yet another “Thai Eco-car”, like the Nissan March and the recently unveiled Honda BRIO prototype.

The 16 billion baht factory will produce 150,000 of the Mitsubishi Eco-car annually and will employ approximately 3,000 employees. The factory is a built-up factory, which means it will handle pressing, welding, painting and assembly of the vehicle.

We only have the two sketches you see in this post for now, but the Eco-car will be unveiled in full at the Geneva Motor Show next year. Mitsubishi plans a starting price of about 400,000 Thai baht for the small car in Thailand.

“It’s my great pleasure that Mitsubishi Motors Thailand’s factory becomes a part of our Eco-car Project. This Mitsubishi factory will bring to Thailand many technologies for automobile production and lead to improve labor skills for auto industry as well as related industries,” said Thai minister Chaiwut Bannawat.

“It’s a great honor to have this memorable day for the construction of the third factory. From the beginning, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has strongly believed in Thailand’s potential as the production hub for global markets; now Mitsubishi Motors Thailand became the production base of our 1-ton pickup. We share the Thai government’s environmental concerns and we have made Thailand the global production hub for the “global small,” shared Mitsubishi Motors Corporation president Osamu Masuko.

It looks like Thailand has successfully expanded on its pick-up truck production hub status to one that is the center of production of a next generation of compact and fuel efficient vehicles (sedans and hatchbacks), through its Eco-car Project, which provides incentives to car companies that comply with Eco-car fuel efficiency rules. Even though our country is supposed to have the largest passenger car market around, Thailand seems to be proving a more attractive as a production hub for these compact hatchbacks.

Mitsubishi also announced that it is preparing for a future launch of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV in Thailand. They’ve started a joint study for fleet EV testing together with the government of Thailand, which includes researching the acceptability and marketability of EVs in Thailand, setting up user support systems, and expanding charging infrastructure, etc. Mitsubishi has similar agreements with the governments of Monaco, Iceland, Denmark and Singapore, among others.

Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia today unveiled the new Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback, and the hatchback’s arrival expands the the Lancer range in the country to two model and three variant types, the GT and EX sedans being the others.

The fully-imported, five-door C-segment offering, which Danny Tan reviewed in Japan, is available only in 2.4 litre form here, and the 4B12 four-cylinder pot – also worn by likes of the Outlander – puts out 168 hp at 6,000rpm and 226Nm of torque at 4,100rpm. The block is mated an Invecs-III CVT box with a six-speed manual mode.

The main draw with this 1,415 kg creature, besides its sporty outlook, is in its cargo space – while no van, the 60:40 one-touch folding rear seats get to about 10-degrees from completely flat, and in a seat-stored position you get a cargo space that’s 1,570mm deep and 1,395mm wide, which is pretty decent. In base form the boot is good for 345 litres of space.

Additionally, the floor is height-adjustable via a single one-handed operation to provide either a hidden storage compartment or provide an extra 90mm depth.

Standard equipment includes front sport seats, automatic air conditioning, a six-speaker two-DIN LCD touchscreen entertainment system, front fog lamps, a rear spoiler and steering column-mounted magnesium paddle shifters.

Automatic headlamps and rain-sensing wipers are also part of the kit, as is cruise control (with buttons on the steering spoke), sporty aluminium pedals and a front strut tower brace to help sharpen handling.

There’s plenty of leather to be had, what with Nappa covering all the seats, and the gear knob, parking brake lever and three-spoke steering wheel also get the hide bits. As for wheels, the Sportback sits on 18-inch 10-spoke alloys, wearing 215/45 series rubbers, and safety features include dual front SRS airbags, Active Stability Control (ASC) with Traction Control, ABS with EBD and brake assist.

The Lancer 2.4 Sportback is available in three colours, Lightning Blue, White Solid and Black Mica, and is priced at RM129,363.00, on-the-road excluding insurance, and it comes with a three-year/100,000 km warranty as well as Mitsubishi’s 2-Year Free Maintenance package.

If you however fancy a bit more sport in your Sportback, then the Lancer Sportback LE is definitely going to get you going. Lots of dress up bits in this special edition, of which only 30 units are available.

There’s a repainted front grille, gun metal-finish rims and carbon fibre design trim on the rear bumper, for starters. Ralliart accessories include stickers and emblem, front bumper foil, fog lamp ring and scuff plates, and the interior is enhanced with redesigned, race-inspired Nappa leather seats with red and orange stitching. All this for just a bit more over the standard Sportback, at RM130,831.00, also on-the-road excluding insurance.

Gallery of launch photos after the jump.
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The Pajero has been launched, the Lancer Sportback is next and this is the final piece of the jigsaw – the Mitsubishi ASX. The compact crossover will be launched by Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia (MMM) early next month, it has been announced.

We will get a 2.0-litre version imported CBU from Japan. The engine is question is the 4B11 unit with MIVEC, as per the Lancer. But the quoted figures of 150 PS and 197 Nm are slightly lower than the Lancer’s 155 PS/199 Nm. Perhaps it’s a different tuning more suited for SUV applications. The engine is paired to a CVT gearbox with six virtual ratios in a Sports Mode, and there are nice long steering shift paddles, like in the Lancer.

Here are some of the standard kit. Active Stability Control (ASC), Hill Start Assist, dual front airbags plus a driver’s knee airbag, leather seats, a 2-DIN touch screen audio system, reverse camera, automatic air con and cruise control are included. There is also a full colour LCD multi information system in the instrument panel, which is a nice upgrade to the orange jagged edge characters one gets in the Lancer.

Available in five colours, including the car’s signature Kawasemi Blue, the ASX is open for bookings as we type. The estimated price is RM140,000.