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Category: Automakers

Three New Mitsubishi Diamonds

2024

Video: Three New Mitsubishi Diamonds

Video: Three New Mitsubishi Diamonds
Video: Test drive Mitsubishi Diamante in Russia 2024, March
Three New Mitsubishi Diamonds
Three New Mitsubishi Diamonds
Anonim

Against this background, the conversation between the chief editor of “Behind the Wheel”, Peter LENISH, with the president of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Osamu Masuko, gained particular interest.

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Mr. Masuko, let me start with a personal question. In my opinion, the former head of Mitsubishi Motors, Mr. Rolf Ekrodt, made the impression of a very successful boss - however, as a result, you will have to return to the shareholders four and a half billion dollars spent over the past year on improving the company. What qualities should a crisis manager have?

- Last year really turned out to be very difficult for Mitsubishi - all the difficulties are caused precisely by gross errors in management. However, everything is in order with cars - more than 1.5 million of them are produced. And most importantly, we have technologies that we can rely on! Now you need to change the management culture. The three key principles of our strategy are loyalty, effectiveness, speed, and they are all interconnected. If a person is devoted to his work, then he seeks to achieve results, and quickly!

- Presumably, all these principles determine the credo of the president of the company?

- Undoubtedly. Now Mitsubishi has a very positive atmosphere, which allows it to move the company forward. The structure is changing dynamically - we attract new, young employees.

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- And what would you advise Russian managers in this regard - both young and those who have been working at the enterprises of our automobile industry since former times? Most of these plants are in crisis.

- It is difficult to give specific advice - the circumstances of the crisis can be very different. But I am convinced that the difficulty is not to find the source of the problem. Much more difficult to determine the right direction of its solution! After all, each company has its own story, its own microclimate. Sometimes it takes incredible determination to change something essentially. Sometimes this is simply necessary.

“I have repeatedly talked with Mr. Schweitzer, the head of Renault,” I think his words about ways out of the crisis deserve attention. One of the three components of the success of Renault is a wide range of products, including a star car. Then it was a Renault Scenic. Does your company have anything “stellar” - in plans or projects?

- Of course, we also have first place - products, as well as technologies that help to successfully sell it. It’s always useful to bring new models to the market, for us it is the fastest way to recovery, which we are not going to neglect at all. So, at a factory in Thailand, we started producing a Triton pickup truck, and in Japan, sales of the new Outlander are about to start.

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- And yet, what about the “star” car - such as the “Scenic”?

- This year, Outlander is extremely important for us - it has a new platform and a new engine. We expect to use the same platform in the future for a number of other models. Sales in the Japanese market are growing, but with the advent of Outlander this growth will become even faster.

- Do you consider it necessary to hit the car so that it gives rise to some new class? Or is it not the main thing for a company overcoming the crisis?

- We focus on technology. So, already in January 2006, a small car will appear, created on the basis of the solutions used in Outlander.

- I recall two more trump cards by Mr. Schweitzer: expansion into Turkey and Brazil, as well as an alliance with Nissan. Will you go the same way? I really hope for your expansion in Russia - after all, this is perhaps the only one among the remaining free markets.

- Yes, for Mitsubishi the Russian market is extremely important - next year Russia will be our number one European market. We are grateful to our Russian partners - for example, Rolf. “Lancer” was very well received by customers, and we will make even more efforts to build on the success of this model. After all, this is a completely new concept, a new platform, a new engine. We are convinced of its high security. In addition, we are introducing a new Galant to the Russian market. He is already very successful - and production capacities are designed for 200 thousand cars.

- I do not exclude the possibility that you will be surprised by my question: is cooperation possible between Mitsubishi and AvtoVAZ?

“I never thought about that.” I can only notice that such an alliance should be beneficial for both sides.

- Theoretically, is this possible? Take, for example, the same alliance Renault and Nissan - it was very unexpected. We remember that both companies were then in poor condition.

- In the field of technology alliances, Mitsubishi may still have many surprises. We want to develop business in Russia and will consider any opportunities for cooperation.

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Osamu Masuko, President and CEO, Chairman of the Mitsubishi Motors Business Ethics Committee Born in 1949 in Japan. In 1972 he graduated from Waseda University, Department of Political Science and Economics. A month after graduation, he began his career at Mitsubishi. He worked as a manager in the Indonesian and Korean branches. In 2004, he headed the department for external operations of the company. In January of this year, he became chairman of the business ethics committee created as part of the company's anti-crisis program, and was also appointed president and chief executive officer of Mitsubishi Motors.

- I will continue the theme of alliances. You collaborated with Daimler-Chrysler and Hyundai in the production of engines. What is the status of this project? Mr. Kim Dong Jin, Hyundai Executive Director, told me that Koreans consider this engine theirs … Is this kind of cooperation shocking you?

- This project was equally funded by three companies. The Hyundai motor was really taken as the basis, but Mitsubishi and Daimler-Chrysler applied their technologies to make the final product born. This motor is 70% the same for all three manufacturers - the remaining 30% of the company is used at its own discretion. So let customers decide whose engine is better.

- Allow one more question. It concerns the Nedkar plant of Mitsubishi Motors in Holland. There is a lot of talk about the fact that Mercedes is dissatisfied with the sales of Smart and its production at Nedkar can be stopped. Do you allow such a pessimistic scenario?

- I can’t speak on behalf of Daimler-Chrysler, but, in our opinion, the appearance of Smart has become a significant event in the world market. That is why I believe that its production will not be stopped.

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- “Colt”, “Lancer”, “Outlander” - all these cars are interesting to the Russian buyer. Probably should actively expand the range of cars offered in Russia? We are waiting for the American "Galant" and the new "Mitsubishi Pajero Sport /"> Mitsubishi Pajero Sport ".

- The company seeks to present our news as soon as possible, but first they need to be adapted.

- It is known that the Chinese want to buy hundreds of thousands of hybrid engines. How interesting is this for you?

- At the moment we are developing an electric car on batteries - if necessary, it can become a hybrid. Soon, a test sample will be tested in Japan: their goal is to find out how suitable this technology is.

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