On July 22, Mitsubishi Motors officially terminated its joint venture with Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi Engine Company. This company, which has supplied engines to domestic cars for nearly 30 years, completely withdrew from the Chinese market. With the joint venture renamed "Shenyang Guoqing Power", Mitsubishi's final production traces were erased. This is not only the exit of a certain company, but also the sound of the whistle at the end of the golden age of internal combustion engines.
Mitsubishi’s Chinese story begins with a technical blood transfusion. After the establishment of Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi in 1997, the 4G6 series engines it produced became the "heart" of domestic cars, and early models such as Great Wall and BYD rely on it to drive them. At its peak, one for every 3 domestic cars was equipped with Mitsubishi engines, with an annual supply of over 500,000 units. In 2006, GAC Mitsubishi landed in Changsha, and Outlander and other models set a sales record of 140,000 vehicles in 2018. The factory invested 5 billion yuan and employees exceeded 4,000, making it a benchmark sample for Japanese automakers.
The turning point occurred in 2019. When BYD blade batteries emerged and the penetration rate of domestic trams exceeded 30%, Mitsubishi was in a triple dilemma.
First, product faults. The main models Outlander and Jinxuan have not been replaced for 6 years. In 2022, Artuko, who only relied on "changing the Aion V" to deal with the market, was ridiculed by consumers as "a semi-finished oil-to-electricity product";
The seco
On July 22, Mitsubishi Motors officially terminated its joint venture with Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi Engine Company. This company, which has supplied engines to domestic cars for nearly 30 years, completely withdrew from the Chinese market. With the joint venture renamed "Shenyang Guoqing Power", Mitsubishi's final production traces were erased. This is not only the exit of a certain company, but also the sound of the whistle at the end of the golden age of internal combustion engines.
Mitsubishi’s Chinese story begins with a technical blood transfusion. After the establishment of Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi in 1997, the 4G6 series engines it produced became the "heart" of domestic cars, and early models such as Great Wall and BYD rely on it to drive them. At its peak, one for every 3 domestic cars was equipped with Mitsubishi engines, with an annual supply of over 500,000 units. In 2006, GAC Mitsubishi landed in Changsha, and Outlander and other models set a sales record of 140,000 vehicles in 2018. The factory invested 5 billion yuan and employees exceeded 4,000, making it a benchmark sample for Japanese automakers.
The turning point occurred in 2019. When BYD blade batteries emerged and the penetration rate of domestic trams exceeded 30%, Mitsubishi was in a triple dilemma.
First, product faults. The main models Outlander and Jinxuan have not been replaced for 6 years. In 2022, Artuko, who only relied on "changing the Aion V" to deal with the market, was ridiculed by consumers as "a semi-finished oil-to-electricity product";
The second is internal friction between alliances. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi is caught in a power struggle, China's business has become a victim, and R&D funds have been cut;
Third, the channel collapses. Sales volume plummeted 60% to 38,500 vehicles in 2022, and the capacity utilization rate of Changsha factory was only 16%. The robotic arms in the empty workshop were rusted and moldy.
At this time, Mitsubishi realized the crisis, but it was too late. When the vehicle was stopped in March 2023, the penetration rate of China's new energy vehicle had exceeded 40%.
Mitsubishi's retreat is also a misjudgment of China's speed. When local car companies iterate at the speed of "one new car per month", Mitsubishi's decision-making chain was stuck in the long approval of the Tokyo headquarters. For example, its pure electric platform planned for 2021 will need to be put into production in 2027, while BYD has iterated three generations of trams in the same cycle. What's even more fatal is that Mitsubishi once regarded China's electrification as a "policy-driven short-term phenomenon", but it was unexpected that the technological revolution would be so rapid: in 2022, Chinese brand market share soared to 50.7%, while Japanese share plummeted to 18.3%.
Mitsubishi's exit method is full of symbolism. The Changsha factory was acquired by GAC Aion for RMB 1 and converted into a pure electric base. After the Shenyang engine factory was renamed, it turned to hydrogen energy research and development. It used to build a "heart" for fuel vehicles, but now it is testing fuel cells for Chinese auto companies.
This tide has long spread to the entire Japanese camp. Honda closed its Wuhan factory in 2024, Nissan Changzhou base cut off 70% of its production capacity, and even Toyota cut off its bZ4X production line. As the first multinational car company to completely retreat from China, Mitsubishi has written a bloody lesson with 40 years of rise and fall: in the Chinese market, technical sentiment cannot resist the speed of iteration, and the golden sign cannot withstand the turning point of the times.
Mitsubishi's departure is not simply a retreat, but a microcosm of the transfer of global industrial power. The Chinese market has long changed from a "profit cow" to a "fertile ground for innovation". Here we do not recognize qualifications but only strengths, there is no moat but only assault boats.
Although Mitsubishi engines are good, the market trend has changed now.
