The Mitsubishi Pajero Is Coming Back After a 5-Year Hiatus

Mitsubishi confirmed on May 29 that the Pajero nameplate is returning this autumn, five years after it was dropped from overseas markets in 2021. The new model shares its ladder-frame chassis with the recently redesigned Triton pickup, with Mitsubishi's own release describing model-specific cabin and suspension tuning layered on top of that shared platform — a familiar strategy for reviving a nameplate without the cost of an all-new architecture underneath it.

The badge carries real weight: the Pajero (sold as the Montero in the Americas and the Shogun in the UK) won the Dakar Rally outright 12 times and sold more than 3.25 million units worldwide across its run, making it one of the most decorated off-road nameplates any manufacturer has ever built. Killing it off in 2021 — even as Mitsubishi kept selling it in a handful of markets — was a genuine loss for buyers who wanted a proper body-on-frame SUV with that pedigree attached.

What Mitsubishi hasn't said yet is what's under the hood. Some outlets are reporting a 2.4-liter twin-turbo diesel or an Outlander-shared plug-in hybrid system as likely candidates, but the official release stops short of confirming powertrain details — that's expected to come alongside the full autumn reveal.