The 4A9x family was designed by Mitsubishi to replace the Orion engine in its small vehicles. Mitsubishi designed it to be lightweight, compact and powerful. All 4A9x engines feature an all-aluminium design with chain driven double overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder (16 in total) and MIVEC on the intake camshaft. It is the first Mitsubishi engine to use a high pressure die-cast aluminium block.
The engine has been built at the joint Mitsubishi Daimler-Chrysler facility - MDC Power in Germany since 2003 and the Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi Motors Engine Manufacturing Co Ltd in China since 2009.
