NIKKEI ASIA: Mitsubishi Motors to build new plant in Bangladesh

[F-6 enthusiast]

You can get JDM Mitsubishi Mirage Hatchback for 13 lakh. Thanks to Bangladesh govt. 300% tax.

Would have been around 2.5 or 3 lakhs if there was no tariff.

Mitsubishi range is underwhelming. If introduced, the VW Golf has the potential to dominate the market but getting spares could cost a lot (for some time).

 

[Bilal9]

Mitsubishi range is underwhelming. If introduced, the VW Golf has the potential to dominate the market but getting spares could cost a lot (for some time).

Honestly, If I were you, I would just get a re-conditioned JDM-spec Toyota Premio and be done with it. Will last at least for five years, if not more.

Premio/Allion are similar to Toyota Carina (discontinued model), which is the size in between Corolla and Camry in Western countries.

Parts for these things are available in any mudi dokan. These are reliable to a fault. May cost a bit more say around 20 lakhs but they are worth it.

 

[bluesky]

what about hatch-backs? haven't seen that many hatch-backs in BD. Enough room for 5 ppl and small in size and economical (with a small engine)

Hatchbacks nowadays for almost all cars on the Japanese streets. But, somehow our people like old-fashioned sedans. This is why exporters (mostly Bangladeshis and Pakistanis) export sedan cars that their customers ask them to ship.

Japan is full of hatchbacks with many different engine displacements starting from 660cc engines. This one is called K-cars here. K stands for KEI in Japanese, meaning light. So, K-cars mean light cars. Probably 30% of the Japanese market is occupied by K-cars produced by various companies.

I would love Mitsubishi to introduce K-cars in BD because they will be cheaper to buy and fuel-efficient than the normal sedans and will be affordable to many lower-middle-income families. This car is for four persons to ride but you may carry one or two children.

Below are two K-car models (660cc) produced by Mitsubishi Motors.

Not only that, but spare parts for Japanese automobiles are readily available in BD.

I believe auto parts are not produced in BD. Genuine parts go from Japan and non-genuine ones go from China and other countries. So, parts are available.

Once M/Bishi introduces a vehicle in BD it will look after the availability of parts for them and will supply from Japan and other sources. Dealers/ importers would also import usually the non-genuine parts and stock them to supply to the retail shops.

 

[SMX 3.0]

Bangladeshi products exported even to India are cheaper, better quality and present a new affordability and value proposition to Indian consumers, which dhokeybaaj Indian Banyas and their pet dog Sanghis in their govt. are trying to resist.

Which products exactly, those $500K worth transformers? Wonder why you don't have any export success with those products.

Excellent Post @bluesky bhai.

The other company that can really help nation building in Bangladesh is their FUSO truck group which is I believe owned by Daimler group now. Other than HINO and ISUZU, FUSO trucks/buses (and construction equipment) are the most common Japanese trucks/chassis found on Bangladesh roads.

FUSO is represented in Bangladesh and is assembled by Rancon group.

Which are assembled from CKD kits exported from BharatBenz plant in Chennai.

I wonder why Daimler does that, given Bangladeshi made products are if better quality.

 

[bluesky]

You can get JDM spec Mitsubishi Mirage Hatchback in Dhaka for 13 lakh, maybe a bit less, which has a 1.2-liter Inline-3 engine. Thanks to Bangladesh govt. 300% tax.

Heavy duty and sales taxes are very much needed in BD where the collection of income taxes and others are insufficient. How the govt can function without collecting an optimum amount of taxes?

Note also heavy taxes discourage people to own cars. More to the above, roads are very insufficient and the system is inefficient in BD. So, what do you think will happen with so many cars on the streets. There will be ten accidents in one second.

Dhaka (especially Old Dhaka), Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and all other district towns need renovation work to enlarge roads. Otherwise, any car industry will remain limited to utility vehicles.

So, it is necessary to do Land/ Area Re-adjustment or 区画整理 (Kukaku Seiri) in these Cities whereby an old locality is re-planned and re-built, people living in small/ shoddy houses are highly compensated to get out. Some houses, shops, or business centers are targeted and given a good price to move out.

A new township with wider roads, new streets, wide (say, 5m) footpaths, high-rise buildings, an efficient drainage system, and children's parks with toilet and water facilities are constructed under a Master Plan.

Nation-building is not limited to Padma or Rooppur, it includes also what I wrote above, that is civic facilities. I have first-hand knowledge of the subject because I am a construction laborer in Japan.

 

[Indos]

Mitsubishi plant in Indonesia ( Bekasi, West Java) use robotic machinery

 

[Bilal9]

Mitsubishi plant in Indonesia ( Bekasi, West Java) use robotic machinery

Thanks for posting this brother.

The Mitsubishi Motors JV being talked about in Bangladesh is basic in scope (assembly of CKD or SKD kits) and will probably use some of the stamped/process parts from Indonesia operations, like the large door frame panels shown. We have to learn how to crawl/walk before we can run.

Also, the best way to add value in Bangladesh is to use maximum manual labor, which we have plenty of.

Heavy duty and sales taxes are very much needed in BD where the collection of income taxes and others are insufficient. How the govt can function without collecting an optimum amount of taxes?

Note also heavy taxes discourage people to own cars. More to the above, roads are very insufficient and the system is inefficient in BD. So, what do you think will happen with so many cars on the streets. There will be ten accidents in one second.

Dhaka (especially Old Dhaka), Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and all other district towns need renovation work to enlarge roads. Otherwise, any car industry will remain limited to utility vehicles.

So, it is necessary to do Land/ Area Re-adjustment or 区画整理 (Kukaku Seiri) in these Cities whereby an old locality is re-planned and re-built, people living in small/ shoddy houses are highly compensated to get out. Some houses, shops, or business centers are targeted and given a good price to move out.

A new township with wider roads, wide (say, 5m) footpaths, high-rise buildings, an efficient drainage system, and children's parks with toilet and water facilities are constructed under a Master Plan.

Nation-building is not limited to Padma or Rooppur, it includes what I wrote above. I have first-hand knowledge of the subject because I am a construction laborer in Japan.

Thanks @bluesky bhai. We need practical insights like this from experienced people like you.

The Japanese are of course highly organized, but I heard from my elders that they benchmarked systems in EU and US long before they standardized their own systems, which included construction technology. This adaptation is what makes Japan so great.

 

[bluesky]

The Japanese are of course highly organized, but I heard from my elders that they benchmarked systems in EU and US long before they standardized their own systems, which included construction technology. This adaptation is what makes Japan so great.

Yes, Japan followed and adapted from European countries like Germany, France, or the UK. But. it was after the 1868 Meiji Restoration about 150 years ago. Before that, for example, Tokyo was called Edo and it was another big village or the combination of many villages without any modern amenities.

Japan followed the examples only in Europe and America. Once they learned about these countries' city planning systems they started building their own. Now, the newer a city the more it is beautiful. Tokyo is not that beautiful only because it is too large to do so but new areas outside Tokyo are well-planned.

The theme I have cited about Land Re-organization is being done in many localities in Tokyo to make them beautiful that improves the quality of people's living.

One example, though well water is easily available in remote villages, the govt has adopted laws that discourage people to use well water. The city, town, or village Offices supply them running water through pipes.

Japan is more socialist than even China is and its living standard is far higher than even in America. Its Health Insurance system covers all its citizens including persons like me. America is Winners Take All, on the contrary.

PerCapita GDP figures are misleading. With a higher per capita GDP, America killed more than 600,000 of its citizens by corona because people were worried about the related expenses. Only 15,000 died in Japan because patients were well taken care of and the expenses were covered by the universal health insurance system.

 

[bluesky]

Eventually the same thing will happen to higher priced countries, cost of labor will creep up and there will be no alternative other than Bangladesh, even for vehicle assembly.

Labor costs are very high in Japan. Yet, its car producers do not produce their cars abroad with very cheap labor and import to Japan. It is because the Japanese laborers are reliable and poor countries' laborers are not.

Some Japanese car makers were forced by America to build some of their plants to California (?). But, the Japanese do not buy made-in-America cars. They of course buy German and Swedish cars but not cars of their own brands built in America.

So, please do not expect our assembled vehicles to be seen in other countries' streets. Moreover, Bd has a big population and whatever may be the production will be consumed in the local market,

Please note that Japan produces more than 9,000,000 motorized vehicles every year and none is shoddy.

 

[PoondolotoPandalum]

Mitsubishi is in a tight spot financially, they are no longer the Mitsubishi (motor cars) of the 1980s or 90s or even the 2000s. I blame their "grand alliance" with Nissan and Renault. When Nissan and Mitsubishi merged with Renault, quality went down. An obsession with cutting costs, rather than engineering perfection, like their older models.

But Bangladesh should exploit such an opportunity for its benefit.

 

[bluesky]

Mitsubishi is in a tight spot financially, they are no longer the Mitsubishi (motor cars) of the 1980s or 90s or even the 2000s. I blame their "grand alliance" with Nissan and Renault. When Nissan and Mitsubishi merged with Renault, quality went down. An obsession with cutting costs, rather than engineering perfection, like their older models.

But Bangladesh should exploit such an opportunity for its benefit.

Following are the year by year sales of MITSUBISHI MOTORS CORPORATION:

FY 2014: Yen2,180,728 million (US$19,853 million)
FY2015: Yen2,267,849 million (US$20,646 million)
FY2016: Yen1,906,632 million (US$17,358 million)
FY2017: Yen2,192,389 million (US$19,960 million)
FY2018: Yen2,514,594 million (US$22,893 million)

 

[Michael Corleone]

Most of Mitsubishi sales in bd is also to the govt. I’ve seen many Mitsubishi vehicles in bd this year, all govt cars though