The ASX VR-e is a new electric vehicle (EV) built by a company that you probably didn't realise even made cars, yet Mitsubishi is confident it's chosen the right partner for one of its most important collaborations to date.
The new small SUV will be Mitsubishi's first EV on sale in Australia in nearly 15 years, arriving at the end of 2026. It's built by Taiwanese brand Foxtron, an automotive joint venture co-owned by iPhone maker Foxconn, and sold overseas as the Bria.
Foxtron was chosen despite the existing three-way Alliance between Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC), Nissan, and Renault, from which the Japanese brand could logically have borrowed EVs like the Nissan Leaf – already badged the Mitsubishi Eclipse Sportback in North America – or the Renault Scenic E-Tech, sold in Europe as the Eclipse Cross EV.
Mitsubishi Australia (MMAL) already borrows the Renault Captur, which is rebadged and sold as the non-electric ASX both here and in Europe.
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But MMAL CEO Shunichi Kihara reaffirmed MMC's confidence in Foxtron and outlined that Australia and New Zealand were key markets for the ASX VR-e globally.
"MMC in Japan, of course, has the Alliance partnership with Nissan and Renault, but their position is more open to collaborate with other companies where appropriate and possible," he told media, including CarExpert, at the VR-e's first local preview.
"As part of the evaluation study, when they came to the project to bring the battery EV to Australia and New Zealand, they selected Foxtron based on their evaluation results.
"The level of input and involvement [MMAL] had for this program, we are very much satisfied with the collaborative work. We are quite happy with the result."
MMAL's ASX VR-e product strategy manager, Tim Clarke, echoed Kihara-san's comments and expanded on the values that MMC identified as strengths within Foxtron.
"I think MMC, when they reviewed the Foxtron platform and product, they could see the similarities with the ‘Mitsubishi Motors-ness’ that they want from their products, and the pathway to get to that was relatively low-resistance," he told media.
"Foxtron wanted to help; they wanted to grow their product and create export markets. We wanted a product that fits our brand and would work in Australia that we could get access to quickly, so it ticked all those boxes and led to the program that we’re in."
'Mitsubishi Motors-ness' is the brand's internal philosophy guiding all Mitsubishi-badged vehicles. The brand defines it as "embodying and delivering the value of 'Eco-friendly x Safety Technology, Peace of Mind and Comfort'."
It covers factors like vehicle technology, driving performance in all conditions, and reliability and durability, extending to its off-road and electrified lineups. As such, MMAL was entrusted with guiding Foxtron's development of the ASX VR-e to ensure it met those goals.
"In terms of our input to the product itself, the core product as a Foxtron-badged vehicle was still very good. We did mainly teach Foxtron about Australian requirements, because they didn’t have that in the scope of the product when they were developing it," Mr Clarke said.
"We gave them really good exposure to Australian conditions and roads, and what Mitsubishi drivers want from their vehicles. We had open discussion, and then they went away and did what they did to the vehicle to meet that brief and that goal for us."
Mr Clarke added that the Foxtron Bria was more technologically advanced than most modern Mitsubishi vehicles, which presented unique opportunities to tailor the ASX VR-e for the brand's Australian showrooms.
"We had a number of different opportunities to drive the vehicle locally and in Taiwan, and we also had MMC in Japan evaluating vehicles, and that all fed back to Foxtron, who made changes around the steering calibration, the ride and handling, and we’re still doing [safety] calibration activities, which is one of the other benefits of this vehicle being a totally software-defined vehicle," he said.
"With Foxtron’s expertise in that space, they’re so agile to update even just lines of code in operational systems that they can push out over-the-air.
"It’s a different experience for me at Mitsubishi to have that capability within a vehicle and to be able to improve it so rapidly; we’re typically used to model-year cycles to implement those sorts of improvements, so it’s allowing us to move forward really quickly to a product that we’re really excited about."
Given the ASX VR-e is Mitsubishi's first EV in Australia since the diminutive i-MiEV was axed here in 2012 – and one of only a few EVs offered by the automaker globally since that in-house model was introduced – Mr Clarke said that "in terms of the electrical architecture of this vehicle and the software-defined nature", the brand was "learning a lot".
"I’m sure MMC are also looking at that because we’re not blind to that probably being the future for most transport, being software-defined with a higher level of electrification," he said.
"We need to be moving in that trajectory, and Foxtron provides us with a really high benchmark of what can be achieved in that space."
The ASX VR-e will be available locally with single-motor rear-wheel drive and dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrains. It uses a 57.7kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery and has a claimed WLTP driving range of up to 403km.
Despite being scheduled to launch in the next three months, pricing has not been confirmed – Kihara-san, however, has said it "won't be the cheapest option in the market".
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