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Owl Auto (ID:owlauto) reports, recently, Mitsubishi Motors officially unveiled the fifth-generation Pajero globally in Tokyo. This classic model, carrying the passion of countless off-road enthusiasts, made a strong return after seven years of discontinuation. New car pre-orders will open on October 1st this year in Japan, followed by a launch in approximately 100 countries and regions including Thailand, Australia, and the Middle East.
As the core highlight of this generation update, the fifth-generation Pajero completely abandoned the unibody chassis with integrated ladder frame of the previous generation, which leaned towards urban SUV orientation, and fully returned to the body-on-frame ladder structure. The new car is built on the Mitsubishi Triton pickup platform. Not only is the chassis structure strength significantly improved, but it is also equipped with the classic Super Select 4WD-II system and S-AWC all-wheel control technology, providing 7 driving modes including snow and desert. In terms of body dimensions, the new car's length, width, and height are 4920/1925/1910mm respectively, with a wheelbase reaching 2870mm. The exterior continues the Dynamic Shield family design language, the vertical louver decoration on the C-pillar pays tribute to the first-generation classic. The interior significantly enhances the luxury and quietness of the cabin while retaining physical buttons and digital off-road gauges. Regarding power, the new car is equipped with a 2.4T twin-turbo diesel engine, with a maximum power of 150 kilowatts, peak torque of 480 Newton-meters, paired with a new 8-speed automatic transmission.
The return of the Pajero is essentially a strategic self-rescue by Mitsubishi Motors in a severe market environment. Since global sales reached a peak of 1.24 million units in 2018, Mitsubishi's sales have continued to decline, dropping to 790,000 units by 2025. Especially in the Southeast Asian home base, facing the strong squeeze from Chinese new energy vehicle companies, Mitsubishi's growth has been weak. To this end, Mitsubishi explicitly clarified in its latest medium-to-long-term vision to shift the operational focus from small cars to SUVs and pickup trucks, planning to launch 13 new cars by 2031, of which 7 are off-road models. By reusing the mature Triton pickup platform, Mitsubishi significantly reduced R&D costs, making this flagship model, which was originally economically difficult to support independent R&D, regain commercial viability.
However, the delayed return puts the Pajero facing unprecedented cruel competition. Mitsubishi predicts that global off-road SUV demand will grow by 80% to 6.6 million units by 2030, but the rules of this market have been reshaped. In overseas markets, Chinese brands such as Great Wall's "Tank" series have quickly grabbed market share with advantages in electrification and intelligence, performing strongly in non-unibody SUV markets such as Thailand. In the domestic market, with the exit of GAC Mitsubishi, the new Pajero will likely only be introduced through parallel import channels, with an estimated price above 400,000 yuan. In this price range, domestic consumers already have numerous choices of domestic hard-core off-road vehicles equipped with air suspension, advanced intelligent driving, and plug-in hybrid power.
Overall, the resurrection of the fifth-generation Pajero demonstrates Mitsubishi's profound heritage and pragmatic business considerations in the hard-core off-road field. However, with the definition of global off-road market growth being rewritten by Chinese brands, whether this model, which focuses on traditional mechanical four-wheel drive and emotional connection, can break out in the new track where intelligence and electrification intertwine and regain the favor of new generations of consumers, still needs the market to give the final answer.
