Mitsubishi to invest P7B in PH in 5 years

JAPAN’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (MMC) is planning to invest P7 billion in the next five years to increase its operations in the Philippines, Malacañang said Friday.

MMC President and CEO Takao Kato was said to have made the commitment during a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang a day earlier.

Kato told Marcos that the expansion plan would include the production of a new model at Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) facility in Laguna.

“In the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), (the) Philippines is our number one market,” Kato also said.

Marcos, meanwhile, welcomed MMC’s plans as this would create more jobs for Filipinos.

“The jobs that it will provide, that your investment will provide, are very important to us and certainly, vehicle manufacture is one of those,” the Palace quoted him as saying.

The president also said that MMC would be included in the government’s Revitalizing the Automotive Industry for Competitiveness Enhancement Program, a new proposed version of the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy Program.

MMC is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in April 1970. It has production facilities in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Russia, and the Philippines.

MMPC, on the other hand, is a 100-percent wholly owned subsidiary. It began operations as Chrysler Philippines Corp. in 1963, assembling and distributing Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth passenger cars.

MMPC has a manufacturing plant located in Santa Rosa, Laguna, with 50,000 units of annual production capacity. It has the potential to expand to 100,000 units per year.

MMPC is the second-largest vehicle manufacturer in the Philippines next to Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. It accounted for 19 percent of the domestic market in 2024, selling a total of 89,124 units — a 13.7-percent increase from the previous year.