Hindustan Motors will finally launch the Pajero Sport SUV in India at the Auto Expo in January 2012. HM was planning to introduce the model for quite a while but was unable to arrive at a competitive price due to a sharply rising Yen.
The Japanese currency has shot up around 13 percent over last year and this steep rise has pushed up costs. To combat the galloping Yen, HM has adopted to aggressively localise the Pajero Sport by assembling it at its Thiruvallur facility in Tamil Nadu. The same facility also manufactures the current Pajero.
The Pajero Sport is based on the Triton platform and will be locally assembled in India to keep the car in 20-23 lakh price bracket.
The Pajero Sport gets a 2.5-litre 16-valve intercooled turbocharged diesel heart producing 134bhp and 32kgm of torque. It comes with Mitsubishi’s rally-proven shift-on-the-fly Super Select 4WD and a high 215mm ground clearance which should give it terrific off-road capability. With the capacity to seat seven, the Pajero Sport will be a very important model for the survival of Mitsubishi in India.
Also see – Mitsubishi finally brings in the Pajero BS4!
