Mitsubishi Motors India

Ownership
In India, Mitsubishi is in collaboration with Hindustan Motors Limited, for form HM Mitsubishi Motors, a fully owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Group of Companies, a Japanese conglomerate.

The Mitsubishi Group of Companies is Japan’s largest general trading company with over 200 trading bases in over 80 countries worldwide, Mitsubishi Motors is the sixth largest Japanese automobile manufacturer in the world.

Hindustan Motors Limited's (HML) was founded in 1942was previously the largest car manufacture in India, before the rise of Maruti Udyog (now Maruti Suzuki).

Hindustan Motors Limited's has traditionally entered into collaboration with foreign companies for its manufacture of their automobile parts and transmissions and this is the type of collaboration contract they have with Mitsubishi for the production of the Pajero and Lancer.

With the signing of this collaboration agreement between the two principles, in 1998, Mitsubishi entry into the Indian market was complete and assured with the formation of "The Chennai Car Plant,” thus making Mitsubishi India one of the leading automobile companies in India.

The word Mitsubishi is a compound word, made up from ‘mitsu’ which means three and ‘hishi’ which forms the middle part ‘bishi’ means water chestnut. Thus the name Mitsubishi can be taken to mean ‘three water chestnuts’. Alternatively, because the water chestnut leaves have a diamond shape to them, it can mean ‘three diamonds’.

Business Interests
Mitsubishi has risen to become a leading automobile company in India through the promotion of their brand cars like the Mitsubishi Cedia and Mitsubishi Lancer, and other SUVs that use diesel like the Montero and Pajero, and have made into the Indian car market having carved a niche for themselves.

For years, Mitsubishi cars have proven themselves to be reliable bringing customer satisfaction with utility and looks. The Mitsubishi from Japan, became a global brand in cars and heavy industries. In 2008 Mitsubishi announced plans to quadruple their production capacity within the next three to four years. This plan is to try and capture the growing luxury market by increasing capacity from the present 6,000 to 24,000 per annum.

Mitsubishi will also grow its dealership network across India, by adding seven new dealerships opening in the next two months. These dealerships will sell the full range of Mitsubishi cars, products, as well as the Pajero, Cedia, Lancer, and Montero models.

In the last ten years, there has been increased demand for diesel engines. Mitsubishi has also opened a diesel engine assembly line to cater for this demand.