Detailed SWOT Analysis of Mitsubishi Motors- Japanese Automobile Leader

About Mitsubishi Motors

Mitsubishi Motors is the sixth biggest automaker in Japan and the sixteenth in the world and has a headquarters in Tokyo. This company has an annual turnover of 1.92 trillion JPY and deals in both cars and heavy vehicles. It has a presence in all categories of cars such as hatchbacks, SUVs and sedans.

Some of the top products of the company include Mitsubishi Pajero, Lancer, Eclipse and Outlander. The company sells around 926,000 car units per year and sells them across 160 countries across the world. Mitsubishi Motors maintains its prominent position in the market by critically analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis

The company manufactures cars in 5 factories which are located in 3 countries in the world each of which is fully owned subsidiaries and they co-own another 10 factories where their cars are manufactured in various locations.

The company has also been lately involved in research on alternative energy and vehicles like hybrid cars and electric cars. Some of their recent electric cars have received a favorable response from the market.

Services provided by Mitsubishi Motors

Mitsubishi Motors offers the following products:

• Passenger Cars
• Economy Cars
• Commercial Vehicles

Competitors of Mitsubishi Motors

There are numerous players in the automobile industry, the top 5 competitors are as follows:

• Hyundai Motors
• Tata Motors
• Toyota 
• Honda
• Chevrolet

So, without any further delay, Let’s dive into the SWOT Analysis of Mitsubishi Motors.

SWOT Analysis of Mitsubishi Motors

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool. With the help of this tool, managers can do a situational analysis of the company. It is an important and beneficial technique to evaluate the present Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats a company is facing in its current business environment.

1. Strengths of Mitsubishi Motors

Strengths are known as capabilities or available resources that a company uses efficiently and effectively for its development and overall growth. Sky stands ahead of the competition because of the following strengths:

• Customer-Centric: This company has always been highly focused on the demands and requirements of customers. The company has always been focused on the customer’s requirements. It also takes regular feedback and the consciousness of the company is also a result of that.
• History: The company was first established in the year 1870 and ever since then the company has been involved in the creation of new designs and models that are in tune with the current trend of the market. The rich and old history of the company has been responsible for the innovative spirit that the company has displayed throughout these years. 
• Positioning: Mitsubishi has positioned its vehicles as being safe, easy to control and durable. Mitsubishi Motors is the sixth biggest automaker in Japan and the sixteenth in the world. The company competes primarily and internationally in segments that need powerful and bigger cars and these cars have been rated very high on performance.

• Attention to detail: The company always gives a lot of importance to detail and demands and has always been focused on the value aspect of every part to ensure that they come with efficient cost. This company also ensures that research is conducted to justify and clarify every new addition and the cost that needs to be shelled out for them and customers.

2. Weakness of Mitsubishi Motors

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of a company are referred to as those factors that affect the growth of the company and thwart the company’s process from achieving its goals. There are a few weaknesses of the sky network, that needs to address:

• Ethics of Operations: In previous years, Mitsubishi Motors have got into serious trouble regarding misinterpretation of their emissions data. The company admitted that the fuel economy test data that it had submitted was false and manipulated which led to the degrowth of the company.
• Leadership Challenges: The company has been facing critical challenges in leadership and management and there have been a lot of changes recently in the top management of the company which has led to a lot of uncertainty and disturbance amongst the employees.
• Lack of Presence in Smaller Cars: Most of the products that Mitsubishi Motors produce are in the sedan or the SUV category. The company has no products in the hatchbacks or crossovers category. This is a category where the demand and trend have been growing in the emerging economies and the company must address this segment.
• Suspension of Numerous Models: Mitsubishi Motors had come out stating fudging of fuel economy data after the Volkswagen scandal. This resulted in the company suspending a lot of its models and products some of which were money-spinners for the company and this led to a huge loss for the company.

3. Opportunities for Mitsubishi Motors

Some of the game-changer opportunities for Sky are listed below:

• Demand for Hybrid Cars: Hybrid cars and green cars have suddenly become in the news since there has been a lot of talks and awareness on global warming and environmental protection concerns and this is the opportunity for this company.
• Demand for Smaller Cars: The number of demands and requirements for small cars has been growing with the increase in the number of working women throughout the world and the increase in average family income. Many households are also willing to invest in a second car which increases the demand for cars in trend.
• Focus on Emerging Markets: Automobile sales of the company are expected to grow in emerging and changing markets like China and India. The number of cars that will be sold in these emerging markets is expected to increase by 10 to 20% in the next decade by 10 to 20 % which is a huge demand.
• New Trends: New trends and designs in consumer behavior are opening a new market for Mitsubishi Motors. It provides a good opportunity for the company to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories by meeting the demands of consumers.
• New Environmental Policies: These new opportunities will create a level playing field for all the players in the industry throughout the world. It represents a greater opportunity for Mitsubishi Motors to drive home its advantage in new and online technology and can gain market share in the new product category.

4. Threats to Mitsubishi Motors

Threats are the external factors that can cause harm and hinder the development of the company. These factors should be addressed as soon as possible to avoid any major damage or harm to the organization. The threats to the Sky are:

• Competition: Mitsubishi Motors faces the pressure of competition from many other companies in this industry like Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai.GM etc. It is tough for the company to be in this competitive market. There’s high competition among these companies.
• Increasing Costs: The company is facing threats from increasing costs such as fuel and material prices. In this dynamic world, because of rapidly rising competition and depleting resources inflation is constantly increasing because of which hinders the growth of the company. 
• Political Climate: As the company is operating in numerous countries across the globe it is exposed to currency fluctuations and exchange rates and especially given the volatile political climate in several countries in markets across the world.
• Local Distributors: Increasing number of people and strengths of local distributors also poses a great threat in some markets of the world as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors and nowadays governments also provide many schemes to protect their interest.

Conclusion

Mitsubishi Motors have always been in the top industries of automobiles in Asia and also created a benchmark in the industry.

The company has a bright future ahead in the automobile industry and this company has already made plans according to future requirements and demands of the customers. They are also creating new models and designs according to a new trend that will prevail over the markets across the world.

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Hope you gained some insights from this case study on the SWOT Analysis of Mitsubishi Motors. If you are looking forward to more such case studies, please visit IIDE’s case studies page to learn about the business strategies of some of the popular brands all over the world.

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