NORTHVILLE – Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America Tuesday announced plans to invest approximately $70 million in its Mason, Ohio, and Maysville, Ky. plants.
The investment in equipment and assembly lines strengthens Mitsubishi Electric?s capabilities to produce high efficiency alternators and electric power steering products in North America. The investment also allows the company to meet its customers? production needs as vehicle sales continues to grow in the U.S. market and automakers work to meet increasingly stringent fuel consumption requirements.
?The investment we are making in our Mason and Maysville facilities will strengthen our competitiveness and expand our business scale in the U.S. by increasing our production capacity,? said Mike DeLano, executive vice president and sales group president, Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America.
At the same time that vehicle sales in the U.S. are returning to more normal levels, more stringent regulations designed to improve vehicle fuel efficiency are going into effect. Mitsubishi Electric is developing compact, lightweight, efficient and high power products to improve vehicle fuel efficiency worldwide.
Once these improvements are completed at the Mason and Maysville facilities, new production is expected to launch in January 2014 for high efficiency alternators, and in October 2014 for motor control units used in electric power steering. Production volumes for each product will increase to 1.3 million units per year by 2016.
Mitsubishi Electric high efficiency alternators are the lightest, most compact, highest performing alternators, featuring high density coil windings and efficient part cooling structures.
Its motor control units for electric power steering are the industry?s most compact and highest-output power units. They feature the company?s original ?Poki-Poki? motor, which optimizes the electromagnetic design, increases coil density, and integrates both the motor and control unit.
