Mitsubishi Motors Geneva Motor Show press conference script

Good afternoon. Thank you for coming to Mitsubishi Motors, and to this annual gathering of the motor industry in beautiful Switzerland.

SUVs have always done well here, and with our impressive history of SUVs and electrification, no wonder Mitsubishi Motors feels right at home --- and so does our Outlander PHEV.

That is why Europe is our major contributor to Outlander PHEV sales globally; making it the world’s most successful PHEV.

We pioneered the PHEV SUV segment in 2013, and by now, we have sold almost 200,000 Outlander PHEVs.

But --- let’s not dwell on the past.

Today, I want to give you a glimpse of the future.

To look into the future, let’s go on a little trip. The higher you go, the better the view, so let’s drive up into the mountains.

Up in the mountains near Lucerne is a small town called Engelberg.

Engelberg is beautiful, rugged, and it has a history of sporting success. Engelberg is a little like Mitsubishi Motors, only with more snow and higher mountains.

And that’s why what you are about to see is called the Engelberg Tourer.

And you will see something else: The Engelberg Tourer is more than a car.

Ladies and gentlemen, here it is, the Engelberg Tourer:

 

You can see why we are excited about this car.
And as it becomes evident, the Engelberg Tourer is a masterpiece of high-class design. With an improved packaging, it offers space for three-row seating, for more battery capacity, and for even more performance.

Of course, the Engelberg Tourer features a new-generation 4WD technology, a further development of our rally-bred S-AWC system.

The Engelberg Tourer is a plug-in hybrid with the heart and soul of an electric vehicle.

Its next generation Twin Motor PHEV system offers intelligent control of EV driving modes, for excellent response, and smooth acceleration.

The Engelberg Tourer brings a lot of driving excitement with minimal impact on the environment, with a pure electric range of more than 70km, and a total range of more than 700km.

All EVs can be charged from the electricity in your home.

The Engelberg Tourer on the other hand can also give electricity back to your home.

This way, it will smooth out the peaks and troughs of electrical supply and demand, and it will help us make the most of our renewable energy sources, and so, by the way, will the current Outlander PHEV.

To hear more about this revolution, please welcome Kazuhiro Watanabe, Head of Overseas EV Marketing.

Thank you Trevor-san.

The power outage we just now experienced may not have been for real. What is real is that our PHEVs can now really become part of the energy infrastructure.

Dendo Drive House is an ecosystem solution for your home and vehicle. It lets you generate, store, and share power.

Dendo Drive House consists of solar panels for your house, a bi-directional charger, a home battery, and of course, any PHEV from Mitsubishi Motors, in this case the Outlander PHEV.

With the Dendo Drive House, electricity can be generated from the solar panels, stored in both the car and the home battery. You can then send this stored renewable energy back to your house and enjoy the savings. You can drive an Outlander PHEV using electricity brought by the sun and be nice to the environment. 

If needed, you can also share the electricity stored in your PHEV to your house through bi-directional charger.

Most importantly, Dendo Drive House is not just a concept. We at Mitsubishi Motors plan to offer Dendo Drive House at our Mitsubishi dealers in the near future.  Customers can buy the full package when they order their new Outlander PHEV.

I’d really love to tell you more, but I yield back to Trevor. He has some very interesting 4x4 and SUV announcements for you.

Thank you, Watanabe-san.

The Outlander may be our best-selling automobile in the world. But it is not our only automobile. It is not our only SUV either…

Today, the new L200 is making its European debut. It’s tough, rugged, robust, and dynamic at first sight.

At the other end of our SUV range, I’m proud to announce the world premiere of the newest version of ASX.

The design concept for the new model was to create a car with "Impact and Impulse."

The ASX has a bold new look, thanks to the latest iteration of our front face identity, the “DYNAMIC SHIELD,” it shares with the Engelberg Tourer and L200.

With this bold new look, we are sure ASX will continue its global career.

Your time is precious, so let me end with the hope that you get a sense of why we are energized and excited at Mitsubishi Motors.

We are energized not just because we are growing faster than ever before, adding, with your help, in 2018 a 15% growth to the already astounding 19% growth in sales in 2017.

We end the second year of our mid-term plan, and it proves to be as rugged, robust and foresighted as the cars that drive this plan.

Engelberg Tourer, Dendo Drive House, L200, ASX, they all are part of that successful plan.

Mitsubishi Motors is not a company that wants to change the world. The world is rapidly changing as it is, but what we want to do is to help change the way cars add new power to our lives, that is all.

And now you know why we say that Mitsubishi can Drive Your Ambition.

Thank you.

 

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