Ralliart Closure Won't Affect Present or Future Mitsubishi Models
After Japanese Mitsubishi-tuner Ralliart announced early this morning that it would shut its doors for good, Mitsubishi wants to clarify that the closure will not affect Ralliart branded Mitsubishi models sold in the United States. According to PR boss Maurice Durand, Ralliart vehicles will continue to be produced and, “this doesn’t mean there won’t be any future Ralliart vehicles either.”
The reason that the closure won’t have much of an affect, is that the closure only relates to the Ralliart subsidiary in Japan, which produces high-performance parts for street and race cars. In other markets where Mitsubishi licenses the Ralliart name to different companies, only those companies that import official Ralliart Japan products will be affected. According to Durand, in most markets the Ralliart parts are actually re-branded parts from another tuner (like HKS).
The parts used on official Ralliart models sold in the U.S. are developed seperately and so will not be affected.
“While the demise is sad,” says Durand, “this is a part of the economic reality. There just isn’t much of a market for elite high-performance products, especially in Japan right now.”
With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. He has won numerous automotive journalism awards including the Best Video Journalism Award in 2014 and 2015 from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Colum founded Geared Content Studios, VerticalScope's in-house branded content division and works to find ways to integrate brands organically into content.
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