Mitsubishi dealers are living in interesting times. After a tumultuous fall in sales after the recession, the last year and a quarter has given Mitsubishi double digit gains in sales. Sales for 2018 rose 14 percent and so far this year, sales are up an astonishing 17.6 percent.
The question for Mitsubishi is where do they go from here? With two small crossovers, a large one, and a subcompact car, the next logical answer for their dealers is adding a mid-size pickup to the mix. Mitsubishi last offered a pickup in the Mitsubishi Raider which was a rebadged Dodge Dakota.
Now part of the Nissan-Renault alliance, Mitsubishi is reportedly taking the lead on building the platform for the next line of trucks for the trio. Mitsubishi currently builds the Triton for other global markets, while Nissan fields the Navara, and Renault produces the Alaskan. All three would be consolidated to a single platform headed by the Mitsubishi effort in about 5 years. Five years is an eternety in the automotive world, but it may be that the dealerships would need to wait that long to get their wish.
It was recently revealed that Nissan is working on a next generation Nissan Frontier, but that truck will use an updated version of its current platform rather than move to a global one. Still it is possible that a future Frontier could move to the Mitsubishi based platform that is years away from production.
In the meantime, Mitsubishi is working to expand its dealership network. There are some markets in the US where the brand is non-existent. So Mitsubishi is looking to expand in markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New York, and Boston.
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