Mitsubishi is a giant automobile model in Australia, however for the way for much longer?

Mitsubishi does a wonderful job of promoting automobiles in Australia, which is all of the extra spectacular given it has withdrawn from China, come near doing the identical in Europe, and is little greater than a distinct segment participant within the US.

It is a model that didn’t appear to endure in any respect from ending native manufacturing, not like Holden.

Purely taking a look at gross sales numbers from 1991 onwards, Mitsubishi has exceeded 80,000 annual gross sales 5 occasions: twice earlier than 2008, the 12 months it ended native manufacturing, and 3 times after that.

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Final 12 months, it delivered 74,574 autos in Australia, making it the fifth best-selling model right here. It was much more standard in New Zealand, the place it sat in third place in 2024.

Much more impressively, it managed that feat with an incomplete lineup of new-generation Triton autos, a trio of fairly abnormal SUVs, plus the rather more spectacular Outlander.

However yesterday’s information that Mitsubishi is discontinuing its Eclipse Cross and Pajero Sport and at last changing its ASX has uncovered some key vulnerabilities for the model.

Because the junior member of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Mitsubishi has been geofenced beneath the triumvirate’s ‘leader-follower’ mannequin improvement technique.

Its focus is on Southeast Asia, with areas like Europe – a promote it stated it might go away and earlier than it backtracked the next 12 months – being an afterthought. “Oh, I assume we’ll stick round. Right here, pop our badge on this Renault.”

That led to the corporate launching a brand new, totally modern-looking Xforce small SUV… solely to show round and ensure it wouldn’t meet Australia’s more durable – and, as Mitsubishi would argue, usually onerous – laws.

That our market didn’t appear to issue into Mitsubishi’s decision-making isn’t altogether shocking, given we’re only a small piece of Mitsubishi’s pie. The corporate produced over 1,000,000 autos globally in 2023, for instance, whereas promoting lower than 75,000 right here.

We could love Mitsubishis right here, however we’re hardly an enormous market within the grand scheme of issues.

Now, an incoming Australian authorities regulation is forcing Mitsubishi to axe its fourth and fifth best-selling fashions right here, and to interchange its third hottest mannequin with a European-souced car that’s virtually sure to be costlier and which can be extra supply-constrained.

Don’t get me unsuitable, I’m glad to see the again of the present ASX after 15 years on sale. Changing it with a rebadged Renault will lead to a higher-tech, extra dynamic small SUV gracing Mitsubishi showrooms.

Nevertheless, it nonetheless gained’t be a category chief and now it’s not fairly as secure a option to suggest to buddies or relations who care completely nothing about automobiles.

There’s additionally the very actual query of how for much longer Mitsubishi will hold rebadging Renault merchandise, as a Nissan-Honda merger looms massive and will properly deliver Mitsubishi with it.

Is that this ASX merely a stopgap, and what’s going to Mitsubishi’s lineup appear like in 5 years? If Mitsubishi can’t faucet Renault, and if its autos aren’t engineered for Australia, what’s going to it promote?

We’ve seen Mitsubishi’s shadowy future mannequin teaser, that includes what seems like a new-generation Delica and Pajero Sport plus a smattering of crossovers, however it has but to share detailed plans for the remainder of the last decade for our market.

Earlier than then, count on a drop in ASX gross sales with the brand new mannequin, whereas the lack of Eclipse Cross and Pajero Sport quantity can be keenly felt.

Mitsubishi has indicated it doesn’t plan to withdraw from these segments without end, however it hasn’t stated precisely when replacements will come – aside from that its “a number of all-new or considerably up to date fashions” will arrive sooner or later by 2030.

This might find yourself being a blip. Mitsubishi has survived the top of native manufacturing, and stayed excessive within the gross sales charts throughout years when it had pretty common merchandise.

It has completed this on the again of a fairly stable repute for reliability, in addition to pricing that has traditionally been sharper than that of rivals like Toyota and Mazda.

Will it be capable to stay fairly as robust with probably costlier and fairly completely different merchandise in its showrooms? We’ll see.