Despite a recent global pandemic, Mitsubishi has experienced near-unprecedented growth in recent years, with an almost 45% spike in overall sales compared to the prior year — an area helped along by the company’s flagship Outlander model seeing a more than 200% year-over-year increase, as well. In response to this increased demand, the Japanese marque is developing no less than 16 new models that it plans on debuting by 2025. Alongside a BEV Renault alliance model, this ambitious plan also includes the first fully redesigned version of the Triton pickup since the fifth-gen debuted in 2014. And while the carmaker has yet to pull the cover off of the sixth-gen Triton — also known as the “L200” in some markets — we’re now getting our first glimpse of the new truck with an off-road concept version of the mid-sized pickup that’s based on the gen-six Triton.
Dubbed the XRT Concept, this one-of-one truck comes cloaked in a custom lava rock-inspired livery complete with 10-parallel line RALLIART graphics. Taking a page out of Team Mitsubishi RALLIART’s playbook, the concept truck benefits from a host of performance-focused upgrades that increase its go-anywhere capabilities through the addition of more ground clearance and suspension travel, as well as fortifying the truck and bolstering its durability. This has been achieved by bestowing the vehicle with a snorkel, rock sliders, a custom headache rack, a pair of full-sized spares housed in a one-off bed-mounted carrier, and fender flares at all four corners that open up space for the build’s increased suspension travel and new off-road wheels and tires. And, while there’s no mention of them and they can’t be seen in photos, we imagine the bottom of the truck has been capped off with a set of skid plates.
On top of serving as the basis of the XRT Concept, the forthcoming generation of the Triton will also be the platform used by Team Mitsubishi RALLIART which will be campaigning a Group T1-spec prototype of the gen-six truck in the Asia Cross Country Rally with two-time Dakar Rally champion driver (2002 and 2003) Hiroshi Masuoka at the helm. With Chayapon Yotha having already won last year’s Asia Cross Country Rally for Team Mistubishi RALLIART, we can only imagine how much more competitive the TMR squad will be this year with a new and improved race platform to work with. It does remain to be seen if Mitsubishi plans on offering any of the upgrades seen on the XRT Concept as optional add-ons for the production model once it arrives in showrooms — a move that quite a few of the brand’s fellow Japanese marques and American competitors have made in recent years.
The Mitsubishi XRT Concept is currently on display at the 2023 Bangkok International Motor Show until April 2nd. While pricing, specs, and availability have yet to be revealed, the sixth-generation 2024 Mitsubishi Triton (and L200) will arrive in select markets before the end of the year.
