Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

Mitsubishi has set a target to reduce in-use emissions intensity by 40% by 2030 compared to 2010. However, as the company does not publish its 2010 intensity value, the alignment of the target to its 1.5°C pathway cannot be assessed. It has a target to reduce manufacturing emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2014, but, with current and anticipated activity levels, this is not ambitious enough for its 1.5°C pathway. To focus management attention on emissions reductions, Mitsubishi should publish science-based targets aligned with its 1.5°C pathway. These targets should look out beyond the regionally weighted average lifetime of its sold vehicles and be set at five-year intervals.

Mitsubishi’s updated ‘Small but Beautiful’ business plan stresses the importance of electrification development. However, the company does not disclose details on its financial commitment to research and development (R&D) on decarbonisation technologies. While the company reports that it will jointly develop technologies with its Alliance Group partners Nissan and Renault, in particular to utilise common components such as those for its plug-in hybrid technology, it does not provide details. Mitsubishi should demonstrate financial commitment to developing non-mature technologies which displace the use of fossil fuels for light duty passenger vehicles.

In 2015, with a 2.8% share of low-carbon vehicles (LCVs) in its sales mix, Mitsubishi had the fourth highest LCV share in sales across all the companies assessed. In 2020, with a 4.3% share, it had dropped to fifteenth place on LCV share. Other companies are ramping up LCV sales much faster. The company needed to have reached a 10% share of LCVs in its sales mix by 2020 to align with its 1.5°C pathway, and it will now need to make very fast progress to reach the 64.5% share needed by 2030. It plans to focus sales and investments in countries in Southeast Asia but has no programmes to promote sales of LCVs over internal combustion engine vehicles in this fast-growing market.

The company’s New Environmental Plan Package includes three main targets for 2030: a 40% reduction in emissions from new vehicles, a 40% reduction in emissions from business activities and a 50% share of electrified vehicles by 2030.

The company plans to reduce manufacturing emissions with energy efficiency programs covering painting, casting and forging, boilers, compressors and motors, and with on-site renewables. The company plans to develop vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid systems to support vehicle electrification (mainly plug-in hybrid).

The company is working to develop higher capacity batteries and more highly efficient motors for its electrified vehicles. In 2020, a decrease in the company’s SUV sales reversed an increasing trend in the company’s in-use emissions intensity of sold vehicles. The low-carbon vehicles share of the company’s sales mix reached 4.3% in 2020.

With the exception of 2020, when sales decreased significantly and the company’s mix shifted to smaller cars, the in-use emissions intensity of Mitsubishi’s sold vehicles has been increasing (by 6% from 2015 to 2019). The company’s manufacturing emissions intensity has not improved since 2015.

The company’s strategy to focus on plug-in hybrid sports utility vehicles will not reduce in-use emissions fast enough to align with its 1.5°C pathway. The company does not have climate expertise at the board level and emissions reduction performance is not a primary driver of executive remuneration.