On July 22, Mitsubishi Motors announced that it would terminate its joint venture with Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi Automotive Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi") and the engine business operations of the joint venture. This means that from vehicle production to core engine business, this Japanese automaker, which has been deeply rooted in China for more than 40 years, has completely withdrawn from the Chinese automobile production stage.
Mitsubishi Motors logo
Mitsubishi Motors admitted that considering the rapid shift of China's automobile industry to electrification, the company re-evaluated the market environment in China and had to adjust its regional strategy and decided to terminate its participation in the joint venture.
Unlike other foreign-funded enterprises, Mitsubishi Motors adopts the business strategy of "parts first, then complete vehicles" in China. In 1973, Mitsubishi Motors started its business in China by exporting medium-sized trucks. In the 1980s, Mitsubishi Motors took advantage of the engine technology cooperation to deeply penetrate the Chinese market. In 1997, China's first engine joint venture, Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi, was officially established, introducing Mitsubishi engine technology. The following year, Mitsubishi Motors established its second engine joint venture in China - Harbin Dong'an Automobile Engine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Dong'an Mitsubishi").
The two major cooperation platforms of Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi and Dongan Mitsubishi have made Mitsubishi engines the "heart" of many domestic brands, and once occupied 30% of the engine share of domestic models. At that time, domestic brands were in the initial stage, and car companies including BYD, Geely, and Great Wall had purchased or reverse-developed Mitsubishi engines. This also established Mitsubishi Motors' position as the "domestic godfather". In addition, in the 1990s, imported models such as Pajero became the "darlings" of the official car market with their powerful performance.
For a long time, Mitsubishi Motors adhered to the cooperation concept of "only selling technology without participating in management" in China. Until 2012, GAC Group, Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Corporation jointly established GAC Mitsubishi, integrated the imported car business, and established a sales company, forming an SUV matrix represented by Pajero, Outlander, ASX, Eclipse Cross, etc., with sales reaching 144,000 units in 2018. Later, due to factors such as the slow transformation to electrification, the delay in launching new models, and the internal friction of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, GAC Mitsubishi's sales began to decline, with sales of 133,000, 75,000, 66,000 and 33,600 units in 2019-2022 respectively.
It was not until October 2023 that Mitsubishi Motors announced that it would completely withdraw from vehicle production in China. GAC Mitsubishi was reorganized into a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group, and the Changsha plant was taken over by GAC Aion at a symbolic price of 1 yuan.
Although the vehicle production business in China has come to an end, Mitsubishi Motors still had an engine business at that time. However, the engine business was also cleared out later. Among them, Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi has been renamed Shenyang Guoqing Power Technology Co., Ltd., and the shareholder structure has also been adjusted synchronously. Mitsubishi Motors and others have withdrawn, and Beijing Saimu Technology Co., Ltd. has been added. As for Dong'an Mitsubishi, there is no trace of Mitsubishi Motors among its shareholders.
Mitsubishi Motors has been in China for more than 40 years. From its initial glory of opening up the market with its engine technology, to its later expansion into vehicle production and sales, to its current decline from mainstream vision, the ups and downs along the way not only reflect its own vacillations and mistakes in strategic layout and the decline in product competitiveness, but also become a vivid footnote to the Chinese automobile market's rise from a faltering start, from foreign-dominated to independent breakthroughs, and witnessing the drastic reconstruction of the market structure and the profound changes in consumer demand.
Now, Mitsubishi Motors has completely eliminated its production footprint in China, from vehicle production to core engine business, and an era has come to an end. In the future, Mitsubishi Motors will increase its investment in the Southeast Asian market.