Origins:
Small boat company (1870), Group founded in 1911 (shipbuilding, banking, coal mines, trade, insurance), car manufacture started in 1917, Diesel bus production in 1935, Diesel trucks in 1936, Mitsubishi 500 built in 1960, First mass-production model: Mitsubishi 500 (1960). The Model A of 1917 is regarded as the first series-production car to be made in Japan.
Milestones:
First model exported to Europe: 500 (1962).
First model exported to USA: Debonair and Galant (1970)
Model most sold abroad: Mitsubishi Galant - 120,885 units exported (1979).
Number of employees (as at 1979): 22,000.
Position among Japanese Manufacturers (as at 1979): 5th (8.6 per cent of home market).
Position among manufacturers/exporters (as at 1979): 5th (7.8 per cent).
Associates (as at 1979): 15 per cent of capital held by Chrysler, 85 per cent by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mitsubishi imports Chrysler models into Japan. Chrysler imported Mitsubishi models into USA. Mitsubishi Motors and Mitsubishi Corporation held 99 per cent of Chrysler Australia.
Group products: Cars, vans, trucks, buses, tractors, light four-wheel drive vehicles, ship-yards, aeroplanes, petro-chemicals, spinning mills, cameras and optical instruments (Nikon], hi-fi, canning, shipping, insurance, glass products, trade, non-ferrous metals, nuclear energy, banking, electrical apparatus. In 1979 it was the largest economic and industrial group in Japan: 10 per cent of the working population was employed by it.
Range (as at 1979): Mitsubishi Galant (two models), Mitsubishi Galant Sigma (four models), Mitsubishi Celeste (two models), Mitsubishi Lancer (four models), Mitsubishi Colt (four models).
Mitsubishi Car Production 1960 - 1979 |
Year |
Production |
Exportation |
|
5,203 |
11 |
|
7,552 |
156 |
|
8,396 |
236 |
|
15,882 |
408 |
|
29,497 |
1,196 |
|
45,905 |
1,657 |
|
75,643 |
1,393 |
|
105,952 |
3,474 |
|
130,253 |
4,944 |
|
127,812 |
6,133 |
|
246,422 |
15,450 |
|
260,981 |
60,500 |
|
222,890 |
52,950 |
|
280,998 |
62,000 |
|
233,121 |
114,900 |
|
288,846 |
100,900 |
|
402,844 |
217,050 |
|
486,432 |
255,350 |
|
628,886 |
320,850 |
|
528,555 |
243,720 |
|
