Four decades and still trucking on

IT’S 1978, and the world is changing. Space Invaders spreads to arcades across the globe and launches the video game industry. The first automated cellular phone network is being built in Japan and Superman takes off in cinemas.

Another product is launched which, over the next four decades, will bring mobility to 4.7 million people – the Mitsubishi 1-ton pickup (pictured).

And Mitsubishi are now celebrating their iconic pick-up truck’s 40th birthday

It’s a pickup truck that can handle all types of road, anywhere on the planet. It has been developed with a design brief - to meet the comfort and ride that are on a par with a passenger sedan.

The first models were appropriately named FORTE, although other badges used included L200, which remain in use today. From the very beginning, the L200 was engineered to provide tough, dependable transport for people and goods.

The L200 was developed to provide a 1-ton carrying capacity and yet be as easy to drive, have a combination of rugged reliability, easy-to-drive nature and impressive carrying capacity.

This soon made it a firm favourite across the world, from frozen wastes to sun-baked deserts.

To ensure customers could go even further afield, Mitsubishi Motors built on its four-wheeldrive heritage by adding a 4x4 version to the range in 1980. This became the foundation for modern Mitsubishi 4WD vehicles, leading directly to the SHOGUN and DELICA.

The L200 pickup, renamed TRITON in some markets, had a profound effect on the Mitsubishi Motors’ business too. The first and second generation platforms were mainly produced at Mitsubishi Motors Ohe Plant.

Since the third-generation model in 1995, production has been concentrated in the Laem Chabang Plant in Thailand, from where they are exported worldwide.

It is now Mitsubishi Motors’ biggest factory, producing about 400,000 vehicles a year.