Mitsubishi will have to stop producing many car models in Australia because they do not meet new safety standards in this country.
From 1 March 2025, the Australian Design Regulations (ADR) will require all new vehicles sold in this market to have an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system as standard equipment to prevent or reduce the severity of rear-end collisions.
Accordingly, Mitsubishi will have to stop producing models that do not meet this safety standard, including Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Eclipse Cross and Eclipse Cross PHEV. The B-size SUV Mitsubishi ASX will be replaced by a slightly upgraded version of Renault Captur but renamed.
In fact, the affected Mitsubishi models are all equipped with AEB systems, but as a whole they do not meet the requirements of the new regulations. This means that Mitsubishi's current product portfolio will only have the Outlander, Outlander PHEV and Triton.
A Mitsubishi Australia spokesperson also confirmed that the company still intends to continue to compete in all segments, suggesting that it will sell the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport when the next generation of the 7-seat SUV is launched.
The all-new generation Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is expected to launch next year, sharing its platform with the latest Triton pickup truck.
This isn’t the first time ADR has forced Mitsubishi to kill a model. ADR’s strict side-impact regulations, which took effect on November 1, 2021, forced the automaker to stop selling the Mitsubishi Mirage B-segment sedan.
TB (summary)