Mitsubishi Pajero Sport Automatic launch next fiscal

HM has plans to expand the Mitsubishi portfolio in India and the first product to the line-up will be an automatic gearbox equipped Pajero Sport. ET reports that in addition to the Pajero Sport automatic, another model will be added to the Mitsubishi stable.

The Pajero Sport is available in India with a 2.5-litre 4-cylinder diesel engine developing 178PS. It is mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. This new automatic transmission could be the INVECS-II 5-speed automatic transmission with Sportstronic sold in the Thailand market mated to the same 2.5-litre diesel engine.  

“The company has finalised an agreement with its long time collaborator Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Japan to launch an automatic version of the renowned SUV Pajero Sport...," Hindustan Motors Chairman, C K Birla said at the company's annual general meeting, held at Kolkata recently. 

"It has also been decided to launch another model from Mitsubishi stable. Both the launches are slated for next fiscal," added C K Birla. This second model could be the new Outlander. 

The Pajero Sport and Montero are the only models sold by Mitsubishi in India after they discontinued the Cedia, Outlander and Evo X in June last year. The Pajero Sport was launched in early 2012 as a CBU and then re-introduced as a CKD built at the Tiruvallur plant in Chennai. This plant is up for sale or lease after a recent HM decision and as a result, the fate of future Mitsubishi models seem uncertain.