The
Mitsubishi Model A is the only car built by the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company, a member of the
MitsubishiThe , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese conglomerate consisting of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
keiretsuA is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group.
Three types of keiretsu:
Kigyō shūdan : � horizontally diversified business groups
...
which would eventually evolve into
Mitsubishi Motorsis the fifth largest automaker in Japan and the fifteenth largest in the world by global unit sales. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.Throughout its history it...
, and the first series production
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
manufactured in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It was the brainchild of Koyata Iwasaki, the Mitsubishi's fourth president and the nephew of founder
Yataro IwasakiYataro Iwasaki was a Japanese financier and shipping industrialist, and the founder of Mitsubishi.-Early life and the beginning of his career:...
, who foresaw the vast potential of motorized vehicles and the role they would play in the economic development of Japan.
The
Mitsubishi Model A is the only car built by the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company, a member of the
MitsubishiThe , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese conglomerate consisting of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
keiretsuA is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of business group.
Three types of keiretsu:
Kigyō shūdan : � horizontally diversified business groups
...
which would eventually evolve into
Mitsubishi Motorsis the fifth largest automaker in Japan and the fifteenth largest in the world by global unit sales. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.Throughout its history it...
, and the first series production
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
manufactured in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It was the brainchild of Koyata Iwasaki, the Mitsubishi's fourth president and the nephew of founder
Yataro IwasakiYataro Iwasaki was a Japanese financier and shipping industrialist, and the founder of Mitsubishi.-Early life and the beginning of his career:...
, who foresaw the vast potential of motorized vehicles and the role they would play in the economic development of Japan. Envisioned as a luxury vehicle for high echelon government officials and top executives, the Model A had to be reliable, comfortable and a showcase of Japanese craftsmanship.
Based on the
Fiat Tipo 3Fiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
, it was a four-door seven-seat sedan powered by a front-mounted 2.8 litre
straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is a four-cylinder internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a...
engine driving the rear wheels, and was capable of speeds up to . 22 were built at the company's
Kobeis the sixth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture and a prominent port city in Japan with a population of about 1.5 million. The city is located in the Kansai region of Japan and is part of the metropolitan area...
shipyard, including prototypes, between 1917 and 1921.
Because it was expensive to produce—it was built entirely by hand, with a cab made of
lacquerIn a general sense, lacquer is a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required.The term lacquer originates from the...
ed white cypress—it could not compete with cheaper
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an competition, and Mitsubishi halted production after four years. Concentrating instead on its successful
Fuso commercial vehiclesThe Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation is a German-owned, Japan-based manufacturer of trucks and buses. It is headquartered in Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa, Japan. This company is one of the World's largest truck manufacturers...
, the Model A would be the company's last passenger car until the
Mitsubishi 500The Mitsubishi 500 was the first passenger car produced after the Second World War by Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries, Ltd, one of the companies which would become Mitsubishi Motors...
of 1960.
At Mitsubishi's Auto Gallery (a museum of the company's most historically significant vehicles, established at their R&D Center in
Okazakiis a city located in Aichi Prefecture on the main island of Japan.On January 1, 2006 the town of Nukata was merged into Okazaki.- Language :While the local Mikawa dialect is considered to be generally indistinguishable from what is considered modern standard Japanese, there are very subtle and...
in 1989) there is a
replicaA replica is a copy that is relatively indistinguishable from the original. Replicas are often used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference Engine No...
on display, assembled in 1972 using materials of the time. It has a slightly shorter wheelbase, and uses a water-cooled 977 cc four-cylinder
OHVAn overhead valve engine, also informally called pushrod engine or I-head engine, is a type of piston engine that places the camshaft within the cylinder block , and uses pushrods or rods to actuate rocker arms above the cylinder...
engine instead of the larger 2.8 litre original.