Mitsubishi Triton Ralliart 2024 clearly revealed in XRT prototype ute ahead of release date

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The all-new, sixth-generation Mitsubishi Triton is believed to be on track to launch in Australia in the first months of 2024 with the brand acknowledging it’s now locking in final changes to the next-gen ute.

As well as revealing its launch timeline, Mitsubishi has pulled the covers off the design and styling of the 2024 Triton, obscuring it only slightly with lava-rock camouflage paint.

That’s if you go off the XRT concept that Mitsubishi is showing at this month’s 2023 Bangkok motor show – a late-stage prototype that the Japanese brand says is the “concept car of the all-new Triton pickup truck.”

We’ll get our first dynamic look at the new Triton in August this year, when Mitsubishi’s Ralliart team will race the next-gen ute in the 2023 Asia Cross Country Rally (AXCR) in Thailand and Laos.

The XRT prototype shows us our best look yet at the first new-generation Triton in nine years, with the upgraded model set to consign the current value-led fifth-gen ute to the history books.

Beneath the ute is a new light pick-up truck platform that Mitsubishi has engineered on behalf of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. The underpinnings, which are capable of hybridisation and full electrification, will be used for the next Nissan Navara.

Much of the engineering, tuning and validation work for the next Triton was completed right here in Australia due to the variation, remoteness and ruggedness of our driving conditions.

It appears that the XRT concept previews a high-end version of the upcoming Triton – perhaps the hotly-anticipated Triton Ralliart model.

Expected to sit at the top of the global Triton range, the Ralliart model would act as a value-packed rival to the Toyota Hilux GR Sport, Volkswagen Amarok Panamericana and Ford Ranger Raptor, if not quite to the latter’s level of performance.

Mitsubishi points to the XRT’s prominent front and rear overfenders and fitment of mud-terrain tyres, plus the reference to the ten-line Ralliart logo in the car’s camouflage-effect paint.

Under the bonnet is expected to be an upgraded and modernised version of the outgoing Triton’s 2.4-litre turbocharged diesel four-cylinder engine. Expect Mitsubishi to tinker with the motor to improve power while reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

However, we know that Mitsubishi is working on two levels of electrification for the Triton, with a plug-in hybrid version set to arrive first to rival the confirmed Amarok PHEV and Ranger PHEV.

Later, with a 2028 deadline, Mitsubishi will release a fully-electric Triton BEV model.

Electric utes will become a bigger part of the Australian commercial vehicle landscape in future years: LDV has already released its eT60 model locally, while partners Ford and Volkswagen are working on their full-EV Ranger and Amarok with a 500km driving range target.