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.
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Not again, still wanna supply for P1 to rebadge????
everything is made in thailand.
kesian malaysian.
I guess what they say is true, we are a very inward looking nation. Our politicians only thinks on how to divide the economy cake/pie among race and religion and never thought of how to expand the cake/pie for all Malaysian.
Thailand will be the automotive nation, Singapore the financial nation, Indonesia the agriculture nation, Vietnam the factory…. Malaysia? We are jack of all trades master of none.
Malaysia has F1 you know? This is very good thing , Thai people always need to go Malaysia to see F1.
Yeah, that is until Thai builds a F1 track..
as expected, Tomyam land wins more auto makers than any other country in SE Asia…
thanks to NAP!
thanks Banyak Naik
thanks Boleh Naik
sad, very sad indeed.
pity malaysian, caused by so called dumb malaysian..
we have lost so many opportunities which will benefit country and the people but because unwise and so much self interest such of the crooks, people become a victim
pray again for better malaysia and the people.
3rd factory? How many will they employ? We have to thank our Car-tun for making this possible. Perhaps someone can publish a coffee table book on The Father of Thailand’s Automobile Industry? :-D
Our minister still dreaming that M’sia one day become auto hub for SEA. Auctually they dream many hubs for boleh land.
Got hubs but no wheels, what to turn? :-P
really doubt our national car policy… if we open our car market…although proton wont be able to do business anymore…but the small local factory supplying parts to these foreign car company will give a lot of economic progress to our country
if we open our car market… perodua wont be able to do business anymore.. Daihatsu do business with perodua becoz they got natinoal car previlage by gomen only..
perodua can make cars for anyone, stop talking nonsense peyno. pity u never changed. yea, i’m peyno mom.
the worker will not lost a job, they can work for anyone. you really been to japan? why you so shallow minded? ppl like you, are the reason so many females stuck at selling pisang goreng.
thank you perodua myvi, if not of you, maybe proton has not yet awaken and continue to produce the iswara rebadge with the mitsu 1980 + engine… but i think they are more reliable than the iafm campro…but of course their emission is bad
congrats, we’re left behind again..woohooo
proton profit is not much if compare to the amount we spend to build the 100 storey mega tower…. i think ten year proton profit cant even cover the cost of the tower… waste the people ‘s money
OMG that looks adorable!
Eh wait, no jet fighter grille?
Let see if we can get some cheap Eco cars thru Afta ^^
The longer we delay the review of our NAP
FIC opportunities are bound to head elsewhere.!!
MITI put on your thinking caps !!
Ah,again the same old bashers keep shouting the same bloody thing.
You think all those things should be in our country,many choose Thai because the labor cost is cheaper.
What’s the big fuss here
If our country cant be an industrial country,what about a finance centre.
Ah,typical Malaysian.
And one more thing,Proton sales in Thailand is increasing.
they choose thailand not so much because of the cheap labor, it is a combination of various factor – somewhat fair government, they don’t have a national car, their market is somewhat big, stable country with some riots that don’t go amok and burn down everything on sight, not many kangaroo courts, no bias automotive policy, foreigners don’t need to give away 30% to set up/buy land factory.
if Honda can produce quality cars with competitive price, then they have the opportunity to grab 90% of the share market, if Kia can produce and even cheaper car with an even better quality then Kia has the opportunity to grab all of the share market. End of the day, the best man wins.
Here, if any foreign company performs slightly better and starts to grab 1 – 5% market share, proton will cry and ask the government to intervene. ask gov to raise tax.
if they want cheap labour, they can always choose laos/cambonia/indonesia
thai is fair gov? obviously you consumed or being fed with too much local politics until you don’t know what’s happening around Malaysia. Thai also have many scandals, go read up. even the king wasn’t happy with ex-PM. no riot? no amok? owh man… where are you in the last few years? bawah tempurung? there are 17 coups (rampasan kuasa) in 60 years, and just recently we see they burned a shopping complex and few other buildings to the ground in riot.
there are some pros and cons in our Gov policies. Gov want local business to grow, maybe that’s why foreigners have to get 30% share from local company. so that not all 100% of the profits would be flowing to japan/us/etc. and i believe this policy no longer in force, foreigners can now own 100% of their business in Malaysia.
speaking of national company vs private (foreign) companies… Proton produced about 150,000 cars and employ 9,500 workers. Mitsu will produce 150,000 cars in their new factory but only employ 3,000 workers. it’s clear that Proton is doing “national service” by employing more workers. more importantly, Proton hire locals. many electronic factories in Malaysia employ Bangladeshi and Nepalese. and Proton is more likely to absorb the impact of economic crisis (by retaining workers) compared to those foreign companies.
Thai automotive policy? they banned CBU import of cars and van in 1978. that’s how they get all Japanese manufacturers to build factories in Thai. the ban was lifted in 1996 after almost 20 years. but there are still many restrictions on imports, and the tariff (tax) is high too. all taxes combined, it’s more than 213% (for 2400cc and below), and up to 308% for 3000cc and above. i guess proton could be more successful if Malaysia ban import cars for 20 years too.. or 30 years like Korea and Japan?
you hire more ppl to do the same job, means you are not efficient. If you open a factory and you are not efficient, you will bankrupt. As we can see, all GLC are bailed out, one after another.
you are very smart. hire more ppl to do a job = national service. no wonder the country is in chaos, smart ppl is in forum, and not so smart ppl are in politics.
in the beginning, proton didn’t aim to be the biggest manufacturer in the world. proton was established to speed up technology know-how, generate employment from heavy industries, and enable more malaysians to buy cars.
we have many foreign factories producing various products before proton era, but they’re just not enough. 300,000 people are currently working in manufacturing and marketing related to Proton, even more if we count Perodua into this figure. i mentioned ‘national service’ because proton did make sure many malaysians have jobs, and the profit from proton can be shared with many citizen. take mitsu from article above as example, only the bosses would get richer and richer and most of the money will be flowing to japan. you could say Proton being inefficient, but they do what they’re supposed to do. Perodua also producing about 150,000 cars per year, and they employ 8,000 workers in Rawang plant, which also more than double the amount of Mitsu workers. is Perodua inefficient too?
Petronas is another GLC doing ‘national service’. they have to absorb the losses by selling gas at cheaper rate to power / electric plants. without this subsidy, electicity would cost higher.
thai has more than double our population. but yet we have the biggest passenger car market in Asean. Cars are cheaper in Thai, but does the industries really help thais get richer and could afford more cars?
The 3,000 I believe, would only account for the 3rd new factory. They already have 2 factories there, I doubt they’ll need that much more man power compared to others. Besides, it’s a small city car that they are producing.
Well, the results speaks for itself. Japs and westerners want to set up factory in Thai.
end of the day, ur report card is how much you can make, not how much you can save.
One more reason they choosed Thailand
There is sufficient amount of workforce
In Malaysia also not enough,see how many foreign workers in our country.
They choosed Thailand because they can set up factory near to South China Sea,they can save cost from there
Those who cant accept facts will surely thumb down this post.
Siapa makan cili,dia terasa pedasnya.
Other posters have clarified the political situation in Thailand, so I am not going to add anything on that. I view Thailand as one of my “homes”, but it does not mean I will accept completely-twisted descriptions as facts.
In any case, I believe Thailand will one day have to create its own automobile companies. Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi may leave when there are better opportunities. Burma/Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are not going to stay in the current state forever, and there is only so much countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia can progress. The world is becoming more and more equal, and before equality is reached, there is going to be a period of at least several decades where currently-backward neighbors will be more viable options for maintaining automobile production bases. Whether or not Thailand can withstand that “blow” is something we do not know. Just that, we are not sure how long Malaysia can last in the present condition either. Malaysia probably has a longer history in automobile development compared to Thailand. Thailand probably has a more consistent knowledge transfer. China appears to have been moving faster in this industry, with local automobile brands becoming more and more desirable. How fast Thailand and Malaysia can move remains to be seen.
great, balanced comment
Great comment. Thailand should make their car soon if it make profit to them.
@malaysia memang boleh: wow u’re ignorant.
@kok uhh didn’t they burn down a mall in some crazy riot? but yet, it’s still more enticing for investors compared to here :( and the fact that the regular joe public can see these things, makes the people in charge look even worse!
until we’ve lost ALL business only will those losers see what’s going on.
Ahh… typical blind Malaysian. So patriotic for all the wrong reasons. tsk tsk tsk.
Even when Proton grow bigger it’s likely they will also built factory in Thailand. Everything there is good – cars, food, fruits,women. So why dont we ramai-ramai migrate to Siam.
Will this blog author make another fuss if Mitsubishi goes along the route of “a decent looking sketch ends up translated into a not very appealing production model”?
It’s a small car lah, don’t expect radical, sporty styling.
maybe we dont get the japs, but still got hope on some germans and some french.
No thanks to Mahathir