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Mitsubishi plans to halt U.S. production of 3 models in August

Mon, 25 Apr 2011

Mitsubishi will stop making three models at its Normal, Ill., plant in August.

Production of the Eclipse coupe, Eclipse Spyder and Endeavor crossover will cease, while the Galant sedan will continue to be built, said Yoichi Yokozawa, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America.

A decision on when to end Galant production will be made later, Yokozawa said.

Mitsubishi is retooling the Illinois plant to build the Outlander Sport starting next year. The automaker said in February that it plans to build about 50,000 units of the crossover annually at the plant and export about half of that.

Until now, Mitsubishi had said the vehicles would be phased out by 2013, without specifying when production would cease.

Yokozawa said the move is unlikely to hurt dealers. He said supply of the canceled vehicles is adequate.

On April 1, Mitsubishi had more than a 180-day supply of the Eclipse and Spyder, about a 23-day supply of the Endeavor and a 27-day supply of the Galant, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

Yokozawa, who replaced Shinichi Kurihara as CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America last month, said the Illinois plant builds about 20,000 vehicles annually.




By Ryan Beene- Automotive News