The history of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation dates back to 1870, the year that the Tsukumo Shokai shipping company was founded. Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries, which can trace its origins to Tsukumo Shokai, launched the "Mitsubishi Model-A" project in 1917, one of the pioneers of Japanese mass-production passenger cars. Mitsubishi Motors became an independent company in 1970 when the automobile division was spun off from Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries, producing cars, trucks and buses for over thirty years. In 2003 the company was reborn again as the new Mitsubishi Motors, a manufacturer specialized in passenger cars.