Mitsubishi Motors Corp, inaugurated a new manufacturing plant in Indonesia following a $565 million investment to build a facility that will produce 160,000 units a year at full capacity.

The plant, located in the new GIIC Industrial Estate in Bekasi Prefecture, was completed following a two-year construction project backed by Mitsubishi Motors Krama Yudha Indonesia (MMKI), MMC's manufacturing joint venture with Mitsubishi Corp. (and its Indonesian partner PT Krama Yudha (KY).

The manufacturing plant will begin producing a sports utility vehicle, the Pajero Sport, which will be followed by an a seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) and the COLT L300 light commercial vehicle.

The opening of the Bekasi plant forms part of MMC's expansion in the ASEAN region, where it also assembles vehicles in Thailand and the Philippines. The company's growth plan is supported by Nissan, which acquired a 34% stake in the automotive group in 2016.

Demand in Indonesia, which has the fourth largest population in the world with more than 260 million people, is expected to grow faster than the overall economy. Motor vehicle ownership in Indonesia, at 78 per 1,000 people, lags China and is less than half that in regional neighbor Thailand.