Mitsubishi Plant Fate Could Be Decided This Year - Ward's Auto
Motors North America, tells WardsAuto a decision on the future of the plant, the automaker’s sole vehicle-assembly site in North America, likely will come this year. “We just have to determine what’s the best use of (the Normal facility), and then make some decisions on what we’re going to do with it. ”. Only one of the six models in Mitsubishi’s U. S. lineup is built in Normal, the Outlander Sport. The plant began building the compact CUV in 2012 after the Galant midsize sedan, Eclipse sports car and Endeavor CUV were discontinued. “(Normal) has been a vital part of Mitsubishi, but at the end of the day we make the Outlander Sport in four or five different locations,” he says, referring to Mitsubishi plants in Japan, Brazil, China and Indonesia. Unique as the only unionized Japanese-owned vehicle-assembly plant in the U. S. , the central Illinois facility opened in 1988 as Diamond-Star Motors, a 50/50 joint venture between Mitsubishi and the former ’s stake in 1991, the plant has been... Source: wardsauto.com
