Mitsubishi’s Baby Pajero May Return To Take On The Suzuki Jimny

The Pajero Family Is Growing

Believe it or not, it’s actually happening. Mitsubishi is dusting off the Pajero nameplate – Montero for other markets – and bringing it back from the dead. The company, along with dealer and customer previews, has already spilled the beans: the new SUV will ride on a body-on-frame setup borrowed from the Triton pickup, putting it right back at the top of Mitsubishi’s off-road food chain.

The Montero comeback won’t be a one-and-done deal. But word from Japan is that Mitsubishi is toying with the idea of reviving the Pajero iO – the bite-sized, city-slicker sibling that still packed real off-road chops.

However, don’t expect a ground-up, all-new machine. The rumor says Mitsubishi might just rework an existing SUV from its Southeast Asian lineup, avoiding the costs of starting from scratch.

XForce Roots And A Possible Hybrid Twist

The grapevine points straight at the Mitsubishi XForce as the donor car for this new Pajero iO. If you haven’t seen one, the XForce is already prowling the streets in places like Thailand and the Philippines, rubbing shoulders with the likes of the Honda HR-V and Nissan Kicks.

There’s a catch, though. The XForce isn’t exactly meant for hardcore adventures. No four-wheel drive setup, or at least not yet. To address this, Mitsubishi is reportedly cooking up a 4WD version, possibly with electrification in tow.

Mitsubishi already sells an XForce Hybrid in Thailand, borrowing the technology from the Outlander PHEV. It’s not a plug-in, but apparently it drives a lot like an EV, which is a neat party trick for a regular hybrid. The report claims this setup makes more sense than a full PHEV, since cramming all that extra hardware into a small SUV would eat up precious cabin space.

A New Rival For The Jimny?

If this rumor pans out, Mitsubishi could finally have a contender in the pint-sized off-roader arena that’s been heating up lately. Instead of going toe-to-toe with the big midsize SUVs, the Pajero iO would be gunning for the beloved (and forbidden fruit) Suzuki Jimny.

When asked about the rumored XForce-based Pajero iO, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines executive vice president for sales and marketing Toshiaki Kato told Autoblog: “That’s nice imagination. Let’s see if it will become real.”

Of course, let’s not get ahead of ourselves – this is all still deep in rumor territory. The scoop comes from Best Car, which usually blends speculations with dealer information from Japan. At this point, Mitsubishi hasn’t said a peep about a baby Pajero just yet, but we’ll see.