Mitsubishi Seeks to Boost Sport-Utility Vehicle Line

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. launched a new vehicle Tuesday designed to help close the gap on industry leaders in the booming market for sport-utility vehicles.

Mitsubishi, Japan’s third-biggest auto maker, put its Challenger model on sale in Japan with a sticker price of $21,000 to $28,600. The company said it will introduce the model to overseas markets, principally the U.S. and Canada, in the fall.

Mitsubishi executives acknowledged that the vehicle was developed to beef up the company’s range in the lucrative market for sport-utility vehicles, currently dominated by competitors such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

The company said it hopes to sell 2,000 Challengers a month in Japan and will export 2,750 of the vehicles per month to North America. It is also working on more sport-utility vehicle models to strengthen its lineup.

“The situation facing Mitsubishi has not always been good recently, but we want to push ahead to achieve our goals,” Mitsubishi Motors President Takemune Kimura told reporters.

Asked if a sexual harassment suit filed against the company’s U.S. subsidiary, Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc., is affecting sales, Kimura said, “No, we have not seen any impact right now.”

Mitsubishi’s sales in the U.S. rose 4.4% in May from a year earlier, another Mitsubishi executive said.

Mitsubishi has been struggling to overcome sluggish domestic sales in the face of strong demand for sport-utility vehicles made by other Japanese makers.

The firm’s domestic sales, excluding minivans, fell 24.5% in June from a year earlier, to 34,554, bringing its cumulative sales in the first half of 1996 to 242,661, down 8.6% from the same period a year ago, according to industry data.