Will Mitsubishi Bring an MPV to the US?

Mitsubishi is one of the biggest automakers in other areas of the world, offering MPV models that are perfect for tight cities.

The North American automotive market has become compact SUV saturated and many of the models that we call subcompact SUVs are so small they could easily become hatchbacks. Because of this, we wonder if the future of small models in the US will be MPV models. For the most part, MPVs aren’t often offered in North America, but they are offered in other markets of the world. In fact, MPV models are extremely popular in other locations and offer the active drive and features needed for a variety of uses on the road.

What is an MPV?

The term MPV stands for Multi-Purpose Vehicle. The last true MPV we had in the North American market came from Mazda as the Mazda5. This was a small minivan that only seated five people but offered more cargo room than most minivans. Most of the time, an MPV is built to slot in somewhere between the hatchbacks and the larger SUVs in the market. When you think of this fact, there might not be room in the US for MPVs because we already have a large number of different sizes for the SUVs that we enjoy driving every day.

A Mitsubishi MPV that Might be Offered

If there’s one brand that could bring and MPV to the US and have it sell reasonably well, it would be Mitsubishi. As one of the brands we trust for compact and smaller SUVs, this brand now has a new small MPV that’s being offered in the ASEAN region of the world. This new MPV is called the XPANDER and it’s already received a strong demand in the areas it’s sold, which makes it a vehicle that’s selling well and ready to be expanded to other areas of the world, potentially.

What’s the Draw for the XPANDER?

As a small and useful vehicle, the XPANDER is built in Bekasi, Indonesia, and exports of this vehicle began in April of this year. Originally, this model was planned with a production of only 100,000 units, but the demand that it gained right away caused Mitsubishi to increase production by twenty percent to 120,000 already. This added production is to help reduce wait times for the vehicle that’s what many in the area want to be able to drive. More increases are being considered for the future because this MPV is already so popular.

Are We Missing Out?

As the new Mitsubishi XPANDER is growing in popularity in its markets and new production and capacity numbers are being considered, the question is whether or not this is a vehicle we’re missing out on? We don’t have any vehicles that are classified as MPV models on our market, but we seem to have several different sizes of SUV models to make use of. Does this mean we don’t need an MPV on the market in North America? Does this mean the XPANDER needs to stay in the ASEAN market? Possibly, but we might be missing out on a vehicle that could be extremely useful.