MITSUBISHI Motors Australia Restricted (MMAL) has introduced that it’s going to discontinue gross sales of its Specific van in Australia. This improvement comes a mere 22 months after the Renault Trafic-based mannequin was launched within the native market.
The corporate says that upon assessing present world enterprise and provide situations with Mitsubishi Motors Company, the “determination has now been made to stop manufacturing of (the) Australian market Mitsubishi Specific”.
Might 2022 would be the closing manufacturing month for brief wheelbase (SWB) variants of the Specific, nonetheless MMAL says “stable shares” of the mannequin means there’s adequate provide of the car to satisfy demand till the tip of the calendar 12 months. The provision of lengthy wheelbase (LWB) Specific variations is anticipated to be exhausted by mid-year.
MMAL will proceed to offer service, components and equipment assist for the Specific and says the mannequin has delivered worth for house owners since its introduction right here in mid-2020.
Regardless of an appalling zero-star ANCAP security ranking – and a design age of greater than eight years – the X82-series Mitsubishi Specific has continued to promote nicely domestically, attaining year-to-date section gross sales of 387 items, rating it fifth total within the Vans/CC 2.5t – 3.5t class.
The Specific entered the Australian market in June 2020, with the mannequin aimed squarely on the fleet consumers. Talking to GoAuto on the time, MMAL product technique senior supervisor Owen Thomson stated that whereas the light-commercial mid-size van section was not a significant one when it comes to total quantity, it was an essential market nonetheless.
That significance quickly pale when the Specific van didn’t ship the extent of security fleet consumers anticipated. In March final 12 months, the Mitsubishi Specific was awarded a zero-star security ranking by the Australasian New Automobile Evaluation Program (ANCAP). The protection physique stated the Specific van’s inherent lack of security programs and marginal efficiency in bodily crash checks resulted within the issuing of its first-ever zero-star crash take a look at consequence.
Particularly, the van acquired a rating 55 per cent for grownup occupant safety, 40 per cent for weak road-user safety and simply seven per cent for safety-assist programs.
Chest-, knee- and neck accidents have been all famous as severe threat areas throughout frontal influence testing, whereas partial ejection was recognized as a significant threat in the course of the side-impact- and pole checks.
ANCAP chief government Carla Hoorweg expressed her disappointment within the outcomes and stated the (then not too long ago launched) Specific’ specs “don’t align with in the present day’s security expectations”.
MMAL defended the consequence by saying that, as was the case of with its “twin below the pores and skin” Renault Trafic, the Specific was designed to adjust to 2015 Euro NCAP standards. When the Trafic was examined in Europe seven years in the past, it was awarded a three-star security ranking; MMAL famous that, by 2020, the Specific was deep into its product cycle.
Regionally, the sunshine business van section is dominated by the Toyota HiAce. With YTD unit gross sales of 2596, the mannequin outpaces opponents together with the LDV G10/G10+ (880), Hyundai Staria Load (688), Ford Transit Customized (493), Mitsubishi Specific (387), Volkswagen Transporter (290), Renault Trafic (213), Mercedes-Benz Vito (212), the now defunct Hyundai iLoad (78), Peugeot Knowledgeable (63), in addition to the LDV V80 (51).
