Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has begun the production of its Outlander PHEV, a plug-in hybrid sport utility vehicle, in Thailand, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co., Mitsubishi Motors' local manufacturing and sales arm, started production on Monday at its factory in Laem Chabang, Chonburi Province.

The automaker plans to produce 3,000 Outlander PHEVs annually at the factory, the company told NNA on Tuesday. Reservations in Thailand have been taken since Dec. 1 with deliveries planned to begin in January, according to the company.

Since its launch in 2013, more than 260,000 units of the Outlander PHEV have been sold in more than 60 countries, according to the company's press release.

It is the first overseas manufacturing of the Mitsubishi Motors flagship model that merges electro-mobility with four-wheel control technology.

The company has picked Thailand because of "the potential for growth in the Thai automobile market due to its promotion of electric mobility" as well as the factory's high production capacity, the press release says.

Mitsubishi Motors positions the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region as a growth driver in its midterm business plan covering fiscal 2020 to 2022, it says.

"Mitsubishi Motors provides PHEVs to the ASEAN region based on increasing global awareness of environmental issues," Takao Kato, the company's chief executive officer, said in the press release. "I am extremely happy to be able to deliver locally-produced Outlander PHEVs to our customers in Thailand as a new part of our electric vehicle business." (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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