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Mitsubishi to slash vehicle platforms Monday, September 4, 2006 (Tokyo): Troubled Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to reduce its number of structural templates for the vehicles it produces to six from the current level of 14 in a move to cut costs. "Each of these templates, called a platform, billions of yen to develop, and the reduction also was expected to shorten the time needed to role out new models," the Nihon Keizai business daily said. Mitsubishi Motors, Japan's fourth-largest automaker, currently uses four separate platforms for its mini-vehicle lineup alone, and plans to consolidate that into one platform, the newspaper said. The Tokyo-based company is racing to cut costs as it fights years of red ink brought on by a recall scandal several years ago. Last month, Mitsubishi Motors said it narrowed its losses for the April-June quarter to 15.1 billion yen for the first fiscal quarter, an improvement from the 21.6 billion yen loss racked up the previous year. Mitsubishi Motors, which has booked three straight fiscal years of red ink, kept unchanged its forecast to return to profitability for the full fiscal year ending March 2007, at an 8 billion yen profit. Money-losing Mitsubishi Motors is the exception among Japanese automakers, with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., reporting stellar results. (AP) http://www.ndtvprofit.com/homepage/storybu...2010:40:31%20AM looks like they r desperate to push for positive results by december/ 2007. 1st - is union pay cut in II USA plant. I suppose WRC 2007 is off too. so will they finally roll out something in 2007? will they close down the aussie plant.