President Michiro Imai said after launching the new Pajero sport utility vehicle (SUV) yesterday. The new investment will cover product design and development, as well as new equipment. The old machinery in the plant will also be replaced to help improve production efficiency.

The PPV, based on the structure of the Triton pickup truck, was initially scheduled to be introduced in the local market during the last quarter of this year. The overseas market would have followed later.

Mr Imai said the planned PPV production in Thailand had nothing to do with the medium-term business plan of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC), called Step Up 2010 for fiscal year 2008 through 2010, as the PPV project was originally planned in Thailand.

MMC's Thai unit was required under Step Up 2010 to maintain the Laem Chabang plant as the vehicle production base as part of the company's effort to continuously enhance exports and improve local sales.

The Japanese automaker said in its business plan that it aimed to more than double its annual net profit over the next three years by boosting sales in emerging markets. MMC planned to focus on small to medium-sized vehicles and sport utility vehicles, as well as environmental technologies.

MMTh became the first Thai automobile manufacturer to export vehicles in 1988. It is currently the most productive of Mitsubishi Motors' four plants outside of Japan, and exported its millionth pickup truck in October 2007.

Earlier MMC invested 21 billion baht to increase vehicle production capacity at Laem Chabang plant to 200,000 units per year in anticipation of the pickup truck market's growth.

Today, the Laem Chabang plant produces 180,000 vehicles per year on average. Of those, 85-90% are pickup trucks and the remainder are sedans and multi-purpose vehicles. Of the total output, 80% are earmarked for export.

Yesterday, Mitsubishi launched the new Pajero, catering to executives who like comfortable and luxurious SUVs. The new model, with a 3.8-litre engine and automatic transmission, is priced at 3.95 million baht.

BMW led the luxury SUV market last year with 652 units for a 26% market share, followed by Volvo with 22%.