Mitsubishi Motors Corp. resumed production of its Outlander plug-in hybrid vehicle Monday after a five-month hiatus following problems with an overheating lithium-ion battery.
Mitsubishi Motors has changed the faulty battery and taken preventive measures, it said.
The automaker has received some 18,000 orders for the car in Japan and Europe. It plans to initially make 2,000 units a month at its factory in Aichi Prefecture before bumping the number up to 4,000.
After the car's launch in January, MMC suspended production in March after detecting the defects, which were caused when some batteries were dropped during a screening inspection, and recalled them in June.