Mitsubishi halts production of electric cars for PSA
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RENNES, France -- Mitsubishi Motors has halted production of the Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn electric cars for PSA/Peugeot-Citroen because of slow sales.
The C-Zero and iOn are rebadged versions of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and are built at the Japanese automaker's plant in Mizushima, Japan.
Spokespersons from PSA and Mitsubishi said that the production halt was temporary but did not say when production would resume.
"This is a matter of PSA adjusting its orders to market demand," a Mitsubishi Motors spokesman told Automotive News Europe.
In the first six months, PSA sold 935 C-Zeros and 852 iOns in Europe, according to market researchers JATO Dynamics.
Mitsubishi has been shipping the cars to PSA since 2010 as part of an agreement to supply a total of 100,000 vehicles.
Since beginning production of the i-MiEV in 2009 and the C-Zero and iOn in 2010, Mitsubishi has built 28,000 units of the three models.
"Our production total is lower than what we had originally hoped for," the Mitsubishi spokesman said.
The production halt does not affect Mitsubishi's agreement to co-develop EV versions of the Peugeot Partner and the Citroen Berlingo vans, the spokesman added.
You can reach Bruce Gain at bgain@crain.com.
