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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mitsubishi set to relaunch L300 with cleaner engines

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Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. said it will reintroduce  L300 vans in the Philippines within one-and-a-half years after the model was phased out under the government’s program to make all new vehicles compliant with Euro 4 standards.

MMPC vice president for marketing Froilan Dytianquin said Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp. approved the proposal of the Philippine unit to re-introduce the L300 model that would be equipped with a new motor that is Euro 4 compliant.

“Even before the call to upgrade to Euro 4 engines, we already announced that we will be phasing out the L300 model. Right now, all locally-manufactured L300 are still using the Euro 2 engine. We have to upgrade now to higher engine specifications to comply with the provision of the Clean Air Act,”  Dytianquin said.

The reengineering process will take about one-and-a-half years, just about in time to enroll in the PUV Modernization Program.

Mitsubishi is retiring Euro 2 engine models that include L300 and Adventure utility vehicles.

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The company ramped up the production of the two models to catch up with demand, with a target of  assembling 21,500 units for both until October 2017.  The sale of the two models was extended until early 2018.  The Land Transportation Office said it would allow the extension of the sale of Euro 2 engine models provided that the units have the certificate of stock report dated Dec. 31, 2017.

The L300 cab and chassis are produced in two plants in the Philippines and Thailand.

Dytianquin said the current traffic protocol that disallows light trucks from Edsa at certain hours would be advantageous to the company once the new generation L300 was introduced.  Many light truck users shifted to using vans customized from L300 cab and chassis.

Mitsubishi is the second biggest automotive firm in the Philippines.  The company eyes the Philippines as a hub for small car production, Thailand as hub for trucks manufacturing and Indonesia as hub for multi-purpose vehicles.

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