Kiwi input into Taiwan-sourced crossover’s development has also been well received.

RECENT opportunity to drive the electric car coming here within the next 12 months as a Mitsubishi has further convinced a local brand high-up it’s the right product to lead his make’s re-entry into that sector.

Tony Johnston, chief operating officer for Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand, says that hands-on experience in Taiwan late last month has also left him highly impressed by the project’s joint venture partners there.

“They're an incredibly professional organisation,” Johnston said of Foxtron Vehicle Technologies.

“They're young, incredibly dynamic and enthusiastic, and they really respected and valued our feedback.

“Driving early production cars, left hand drive was incredible … a really, really great experience.

“It’s actually a very good car … very, very good.”

Intended to stave off cut-price competition from Chinese EVs, Mitsubishi’s project is global but will first service New Zealand and Australia.

It was only announced in May, but reason why development has progressed so rapidly is that the eventual product is based on a Foxtron car already on the road.

While Johnston says he can say nothing about the kind of vehicle coming, independent media accounts say we are set to see a rebadged version of one of Foxtron’s newest models, the Model B (pictured), that is popular in Taiwan.

The five-door medium crossover styled by Pininfarina has been in production since 2023 and avails in single-motor rear-drive and dual-motor all-wheel-drive forms.

Thought is that it will compete against the BYD Atto3, MG ZS, Kia EV3 and others. That’s a price zone that begins at just under $50,000 and tops out at $75k.

Johnston said he learned during his visit last month that the car has already been in New Zealand, but under secrecy and in disguise.

That was when it underwent extreme cold weather testing last year at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground, between Queenstown and Wanaka.

The exact export plan is still under wraps, but it is known Foxtron - a division of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, Foxconn - is working with Taiwan’s biggest carmaker, Yulon Motor, to bring the Mitsubishi car to market readiness.

The thought is that NZ market variants will be built by Yulon, rather than at a Mitsubishi factory.

The Japanese make has no direct production in Taiwan, and closest regional factories seem to be in Japan and Thailand.

The Memorandum of Understanding Mitsubishi and its partners announced in May cites that the car will bring “excellent driving performance as an EV and an advanced infotainment system making it optimal for the Oceania region.”

The car is also going to Australia, and Johnston says colleagues from across the Tasman have also been lending their thoughts about how it should present and drive.

Asked if both countries have equal weight of influence on this, he replied: “Obviously they're a bigger market than us, so they probably have a little bit more sway.

“But to be honest, the way Foxtron operates, they're a car producer that produces a car and there's actually not a lot of variation that's possible.”

He anticipates some pre-release testing will be undertaken in Australia.

Foxtron also builds a bigger car, the Model C, and its parent Foxconn is responsible for producing the Apple iPhone, Google Pixel, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo devices.

MMNZ made headlines but earned few sales when it launched the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle, the teensy i-MiEV city car, here 16 years ago.

But since that short-term pitch with what was then little more than a novelty blighted by short range and a huge price it then hasn’t involved in the sector.

Preference instead became being a trailblazer with plug-in hybrid, being the first export market for the 2013 Outlander, the world’s first PHEV SUV.

Since end of 2023 PHEV interest has lapsed considerably, with two impacts on popularity being the loss of rebates for sub-$80,000 cars - which are MMNZ’s stock in trade - and then the imposition of Road User Charges. As PHEVs are also hit by petrol tax, perceived cost of ownership benefits all but evaporated.

MMNZ last year trialled the Japan domestic market eK EV, a rebadged Nissan Sakura but was dubious about its potential.

Mitsubishi Japan has cited the Foxtron car as being core to ’Momentum 2030’, an ambition to have eight new and refreshed models in showrooms by the end of the decade.

Mitsubishi is rolling out hybrid and PHEV models across multiple regions, including the impending upgrade to its Outlander PHEV and new hybrid EV versions of its Xpander and Xforce SUVs, the latter just in Southeast Asia.

The company says its approach to electrification includes leveraging its alliance with Renault and Nissan.

Mitsubishi is already sourcing OEM electric models from Renault in Europe and Nissan in North America and is reported to be considering similar arrangements with alliance partners in other regions, including NZ and Australia.

Johnston shared last week that MMNZ is also keen to bring a closed-loop hybrid here within the next 12 months, but has declined to say what that might be.

One model of that type that is potentially available, as it already builds in right hand drive for the United Kingdom, is the Grandis, a medium crossover that is a rebadging of the Symbioz, a car from Alliance partner Renault.

The Mitsubishi version marries a 80kW engine with two electric motors, a 36kW drive motor and a 15kW generator, fed a 1.4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion traction battery.