Mitsubishi ASX CKD planned for February 2014 launch
In August, reports surfaced speculating that Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) had tied up with Tan Chong Motor Assemblies (TCMA) in an unlikely partnership to locally assemble Mitsubishi vehicles in Malaysia. Both parties declined to comment at the time, but an announcement made by MMC today has confirmed that Tan Chong will begin assembling the ASX in Malaysia in January 2014.
It was not stated which of the two TCMA plants will be used by Mitsubishi, but it is likely to be the older Segambut plant, which currently assembles the Subaru XV in addition to Nissan models such as the Navara, Frontier, and the older Serena C24. The newer Serendah plant is remains exclusive for Tan Chong’s main partner Nissan assembling passenger cars such as the Almera, Latio, Sylphy, and Teana.
The announcement by MMC also confirms that locally-assembled units of the ASX is scheduled to enter the market by February 2014. Moving forward, MMC also confirmed its intention of future line-up expansion in Malaysia with a mixture of fully-imported and locally-assembled new models. The ASX CKD project is part of Mitsubishi’s JUMP 2013 mid-term business plan announced in January 2011.
Mitsubishi’s current line-up of vehicles in Malaysia consist entirely of vehicles fully imported from Thailand or Japan. In coming weeks, the line-up will expand to include the Thai-built all-new Mitsubishi Attrage 1.2 sedan.
