Distributor unable to say how long petrol 2.5-litre variants will be hit by spec change forced by semiconductor shortage.

HOW long petrol-dedicated editions of the new Mitsubishi Outlander will continue with an analogue dashboard is simply uknown but the downgrade will not impact the impending plug-in hybrids.

This today from Mitsubishi New Zealand, which in addition to acknowledging the changeover has occurred has also confirmed the cause is the global shortage of semiconductors.

Reece Congdon, the head of marketing and corporate affairs for the Porirua-based national distributor, offered comment in wake of a story outlining the problem published by MotoringNZ.com on January 21.

In that article, (https://www.motoringnz.com/news/2022/1/21/outlander-running-change-alerted), Dave Hartnell of Tawa related how he ordered the new Outlander in $49,990 VRX 2.5-litre front-drive specification in late September, noting listed features included the 12.3 inch electronic display.

He subsequently test-drove a dealer demonstrator car, which also featured that console.

He was taken aback when the vehicle he ordered showed recently with old-school dials. It was then explained by the dealership delivering the car that only the initial shipment had the new-gen electronic display.

Congdon has confirmed this and reiterated that the petrol-dedicated 2.5s, which span six variants, are impacted.

“Regarding the ICE Outlanders … there has been a forced a running change due to the well-publicised chip shortages.

“While our first shipment contained a digital dash, we unfortunately had to make a running change to later shipments to ensure supply.” 

Hartnell had been critical of how MMNZ has handled the revision, saying it was his impression that the distributor had been “extremely quiet” about it.

Congdon offered that “we have tried to ensure that this has been well communicated to customers - especially at the point of sale.”  

Congdon says 100 cars arrived with the original console but he simply cannot dare forecast how many might yet feature the lower-tech type.

“I’m not in a position to forecast future arrivals and I think it would be futile to do so given the volatile nature of worldwide manufacturing and shipping. 

“The hope is that we can move back to the digital dash as soon as the chip shortages are resolved.”

Pricing for the Outlander petrol has not altered and, interestingly, the recommended retails list on the MMNZ website as special offers.

Said Congdon: “There is no revision to the price. Outlander remains one of (if not the best) best value SUVs in the market.”

Cars can take up to 1000 computer chips to run everything from comfort features to safety tech. The global shortage has strangled supply of new cars, with customers being forced to wait months for delivery of the more popular models.

The crisis hit car makers hard last year and impacted on vehicle manufacturing in all regions. High volume makers have expressed hope the situation will ease as the year progresses, but Toyota last week said it had cut its worldwide output for February by 150,000 units, to about 700,000 vehicles, because of the shortage. 

Infineon, one of the biggest suppliers of automotive semiconductors, said today it expects the shortage of its core product will not end until 2023.