The Mitsubishi Pajero is coming back, according to a report out of Japan, but it’ll be quite a different beast than before.
Best Car Web reports the fifth-generation Pajero is set for a debut in 2027, and will use the same platform as the next-generation plug-in hybrid Outlander.
Instead of being just another mass-market mid-sized SUV, however, the Japanese outlet reports the reborn Pajero will be a “Japanese-made Range Rover”.
It’ll reportedly measure 4900mm long, 1900mm wide and 1850mm tall. That’s almost identical to the fourth-generation model, which exited production in 2021 and was the same length but 25mm narrower and 50mm taller.
Mitsubishi reportedly ruled out using the Triton ute’s body-on-frame platform in favour of underpinnings that could furnish a more comfortable ride.
That means the new SUV will feature unibody construction, as the last two generations of Pajero did.
Updated CMF-C/D underpinnings will reportedly take learnings from the CMF-EV electric vehicle architecture, while the new Pajero may be powered by an improved version of the current Outlander’s 2.4-litre plug-in hybrid four-cylinder powertrain.
Mitsubishi announced in July 2020 it would axe the Pajero after 2021. The vehicle had already been discontinued in Japan in 2019.
It also sold off the Pajero Manufacturing plant in Sakahogi, Gifu Prefecture in Japan, which had produced every generation of Pajero since the first series was launched in 1982. This was sold to a toilet paper manufacturer.
The Pajero’s last redesign was in 2006, though this was still a heavy update of the previous series launched in 1999.
Mitsubishi and Alliance partner Nissan have been sharing platforms, but there’s reportedly no work being done on a new Pajero based on the Nissan Patrol’s body-on-frame underpinnings.
The company has previously said the Pajero is “the heart of our brand” and doesn’t want to rely too heavily on its Alliance partners for a new generation.
“If we do that, of course we want to control everything. We might utilise some of the Alliance systems and components, but we would like to produce our vehicle,” Koichi Namiki, executive officer responsible for product at Mitsubishi Motors, told Australian media in 2023.
While the Pajero is dead, at least for now, Mitsubishi still sells a Pajero-badged off-roader in the Pajero Sport.
This is a different vehicle altogether, being body-on-frame and based on the outgoing Triton ute.
