New Adelaide Airport HQ for Mitsubishi Motors Australia and technology shift to car-home energy solutions
Mitsubishi Motors Australia's headquarters opened on the corner of Sir Donald Bradman Drive and Sir Richard Williams Avenue at Adelaide Airport in 2021.
Mitsubishi Motors Australia, one of Adelaide’s major car-making presences at Tonsley from 1980 to 2008, resumed a higher profile in the city in 2021 with new corporate headquarters opened at Adelaide Airport.
Mitsubishi Motors Australia had maintained an office at Tonsley but it had decided on the move to Adelaide Airport as the global gateway to the Japanese automaker’s Australian business, with benefits of being central to domestic and international transport links. Its new $26 million building (with $2 million state government support) at the airport on the corner of Sir Donald Bradman Drive and Sir Richard Williams Avenue would house 200 employees.
Its opening coincided with Mitsubishi’s transition from an automotive business to a mobility technology solutions company. Mitsubishi Motors Australia chief executive Shaun Westcott the company was moving to offering its car customers solutions that allow them to generate, store and transfer energy between cars and properties.
Mitsubishi’s Dendo Drive House technology – first unveiled by parent Mitsubishi Motors Corporation at the Geneva International Auto Show in 2019 – would be displayed at the Adelaide Airport offices. The system was a 100 kilowatt solar and battery system with two bidirectional and 14 single directional charging points for electric vehicles. Dendo Drive House would be compatible with Mitsubishi’s new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles Outlander (2021) and the Triton (2022).
“With 2.6 million Australian houses with solar roofs, and Australia’s capacity to provide wind and wave power, we are confident that our energy management ecosystem will provide the right technology for Australian households,” Westcott said.
Mitsubishi had 183 dealers around Australia, 28 of them in South Australia. Mitsubishi was the nation’s fourth-most popular car brand with a market share of 8%.
