The Mitsubishi ASX replacement Australia isn’t getting – for now
Meet one of the candidates to replace the 13-year-old Mitsubishi ASX small SUV in Australia – but it needs a multimillion-dollar investment in safety upgrades before it can be sold here.
Mitsubishi has unveiled a new small SUV for South-East Asian countries that – if costly upgrades to the vehicle’s structure and technology get the green light – could replace the ASX in Australia.
As previously reported by Drive, Mitsubishi is in a race against time to find a successor to the ASX small SUV – which is now 13 years old, more than twice the usual lifespan of a car before it is replaced by a new model – in Australia before the current model reaches the end of the line.
Among the options being considered by Mitsubishi head office in Japan is a new, unnamed small SUV coming to countries in the ASEAN region, which spans 10 countries in South-East Asia such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Unveiled in Indonesia this week – where it will be built from later this year – it is based on the Mitsubishi XFC concept revealed last year, and it shares its underpinnings with the Xpander people mover sold in Asia.
However it has been designed for markets with less strict safety standards, and Mitsubishi Australia says it would require costly safety upgrades before it would introduce it locally – with the aim of earning a five-star safety rating in independent ANCAP crash testing.
In its current form, Mitsubishi estimates the vehicle would only be capable of three stars in ANCAP testing – which would exclude it from corporate fleets that require five-star scores, and family buyers that value top marks.
“The XFC in its current form can’t be used because of the ANCAP requirements,” Mitsubishi Australia CEO Shaun Westcott told an Australian media briefing last week.
“If we took that XFC platform we would have to re-engineer the entire car for the Australian market, because the requirements of ANCAP are not requirements in the other markets where we will sell that vehicle.
“If you take the numbers – anything between 15,000 and 20,000 [annual sales for a new ASX] – and the tooling investment and re-engineering costs to redesign the car for ANCAP’s requirements will be many, many, many millions of dollars, to be able to sell 20,000 vehicles a year? The numbers just don’t stack up.”
Mitsubishi global vice president of product development, Hiroshi Nagaoka, told an Australian media conference: “The XFC concept … is based on the current Xpander platform that’s really focused on ASEAN markets and some other countries, but not Australia, New Zealand or those developed countries.
“So honestly speaking, some of the equipment – electrical equipment, [electrical] architecture and so on – it’s not enough to comply with Australian regulations.
“If we want to comply with Australian regulations or other countries like the United States or Europe, we need to significantly modify those components or even the architecture itself. That’s why it’s a little bit difficult … to adopt the Australian regulations.”
The “spectrum” of options to replace the ASX in Australia is bookended by an Australianised version of the new Asian-market small SUV – and a rebadged version of the Renault Captur city SUV that will be sold in Europe as a new Mitsubishi ASX.
“The reality is the XFC was developed on an existing platform that no longer meets current ANCAP requirements. It would have met ANCAP requirements a few years ago, but it no longer meets the current requirements,” said Mr Westcott.
“That doesn’t mean the XFC is off the table entirely, because … we may go ‘this is an important enough product to our market’ that we make that investment – even though it is wasted in other markets – to bring that product to Australia.”
Mitsubishi executives told Australian media a decision on how to replace the ASX may be made and announced before the end of this year.
“I want to introduce [a new] ASX into Australia,” Mitsubishi global CEO Takao Kato told media.
Mr Westcott added: “Having an ASX replacement is very important for us, and we are fighting, begging, crying, doing everything that we can to get an ASX replacement.
“The reality is, and you heard it from Kato-san himself, our parent company understands the importance of that product for us and are working very hard on getting a vehicle for us.
“The problem is the answer is not a simple one – it’s a complex problem. And there are a number of options on the table that can be considered, and two of them were mentioned by [media]: the Renault Captur rebadged European version, and the XFC concept. Those are the bookends.
“What didn’t come through today is those are the two absolutes – it’s not black and white, this or that. There’s a range of options within that.
“You heard Kato-san talk about Mitsubishi-ness, the desire that our products have a distinctive Mitsubishi character … Between those extremes there are some options as well, which may be a Renault type of vehicle platform with lots of Mitsubishi-ness, or a Renault platform with less Mitsubishi-ness.”
The small SUV unveiled in Indonesia is powered by a 1.5-litre non-turbo petrol engine from the Xpander, driving the front wheels through a continuously-variable automatic transmission.
It measures 4390mm long, 1810mm wide and 1660mm tall – 25mm longer, 20mm taller and no wider than the current ASX.
Available features confirmed to date for top-of-the-range models include 18-inch alloy wheels, LED daytime-running lights and tail-lights, and a Yamaha sound system.
The post The Mitsubishi ASX replacement Australia isn’t getting – for now appeared first on Drive.
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