Mitsubishi to assist Pragati Industries with local production

The Vice-President of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Tatsuo Sato gave a proposal to the Minister of Industries Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun on assisting Pragati Industries Ltd. with local vehicle production under the marque on December 4, while attending a meeting about forming an integrated automobile policy for Bangladesh. They expressed interest in jointly-manufacturing buses, trucks, pick-ups and motor cars with the state-run organisation.

When asked, the minister said that the government has already formed a draft of automobile industrial policy to increase local and foreign production and are now taking the opinions of stakeholders such as Mitsubishi. Currently, Mitsubishi already jointly assembles some of their vehicles with Pragati in Bangladesh, including the Pajero Sport SUV.

Local production of internal combustion engine vehicles at a time when the world is slowly moving towards electric vehicles (EV) seems counter-productive. In fact, two local companies, Bangladesh Auto Industries Ltd. and Nitol Motors, are already setting up for local EV production, with Nitol announcing plans to bring their EVs to the market by March 2020. The vehicle will cost about BDT 12 lakh, and will have a maximum speed of 150 km/h.