The Hindu Business Line : Mitsubishi Motors, HM ties to undergo significant change

Bangalore, Aug. 16 The partnership between Japanese auto giant Mitsubishi Motors and Hindustan Motors appears set to undergo a significant change. Mitsubishi Motors will henceforth play a greater role in the marketing and distribution of all its passenger cars in India.

For starters, the partners have initiated the process of appointing a new marketing advisor for marketing and sales of all Mitsubishi products in India.

Currently, Hindustan Motors not only manufactures some of the passenger cars of Mitsubishi, but also markets all its products.

Confirming the development, Hindustan Motors head for corporate communications, Ms Soni Shrivastav, told Business Line that the marketing advisor will report to the Hindustan Motors’ business head and will work as part of the team.

“This (new step) is being carried out on the initiative of Mitsubishi Motors to strengthen its presence in India,” Ms Shrivastav said. She said this is part of an initiative to ensure better product penetration of Mitsubishi passenger cars in the country.

Major changes

Sources close to the developments told Business Line that this move could lead to major changes in the relationship between Hindustan Motors and Mitsubishi. “It is evolving. We don’t know how the future ties are going to develop from here onwards,” sources said.

Sources say that one of the first indications of the changing relationship between the two car giants was revealed during the launch of Montero. While most of the new Mitsubishi products were launched in Chennai, where Hindustan Motors has a car manufacturing plant, or in Delhi, the Montero was launched in Mumbai, which is the biggest market for premium passenger cars, followed by Delhi.

Another factor noticed during the launch was the large participation of officials from Mitsubishi. The development comes at a time when all the Japanese car manufacturers in India are performing extremely well while Mitsubishi is yet to take full advantage of the boom in the auto industry here.

Mitsubishi’s portfolio in India includes, Lancer, Lancer Cedia and the sports utility vehicles, Pajero and Montero which was launched recently. The Lancer, which costs about Rs 6.75 lakh, and the Cedia, which costs about Rs 8.6 lakh, sell a total of around 250 units per month and are manufactured in India while the Pajero (Rs 19 lakh) and the Montero (Rs 32 lakh) sell a total of around 200 units per month. Both the sports utility vehicles are imported as completely built units.

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