Mitsubishi puts Ranger Raptor rivalling Triton off again

Mitsubishi has once again resisted the urge to confirm whether it will go up against the Ford Ranger Raptor with an off-road focused version of the Triton.

Last year, the automaker’s Product Planning Head for Australia, James Tol, told motoring.com.au that while the opportunity for such a model exists, the focus has been put on safety and driver assistance systems amidst more buyers opting for pick-ups and SUVs than sedans.

“There’s certainly an opportunity there, but I’m not going to speculate as to whether we are or we aren’t [planning to produce a Ranger Raptor rival]. At the moment we’re concentrating on getting the model range we have bedded down and launched. I’d never say never… we will talk about that down the track,” Tol said.

Earlier this year, a trademark application for the Triton Absolute moniker was rejected by Australia’s Intellectual Property (IP) office after it was discovered that the latter belonged to a Queensland based battery firm, Absolute Batteries, who had applied for the name back in 2016.

In a follow-up, Mitsubishi Australia’s Senior Manager of Product Strategy, Owen Thomson, reaffirmed that while the possibility for a Raptor-esque Triton remains, nothing has yet been cast in stone.

“We’re always looking at opportunities. It is a fairly crowded space in that space in the moment – we have to consider our current model life cycle as well. We’re always watching what the competitors do, and we try to modify our plans accordingly. We can’t control what they do, but we can control what we do,” Thomson told carsguide.com.au.

As is already known, the next generation Triton, due out in 2022, will share its platform with the Nissan Navara and allegedly also spawn an electric version that received the thumbs-up last year. In spite of its alliance partner fielding the all-terrain Navara N-Trek Warrior Down Under, is seems unlikely that Mitsubishi will take a similar route before 2022.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.