Mitsubishi to leave UK market
Japanese company will withdraw from Europe following dwindling sales to focus on developing vehicles for south-east Asia
● May vanish by end of 2021
● Aftersales service to continue
THE Mitsubishi brand is to disappear from British showrooms, after the firm announced it was abandoning any plans to develop new cars for the UK and Europe.
A brief statement from the Japanese company last week said that the board of directors had “resolved to freeze the introduction of new models to the European market”. Despite the wording, though, the move is not a pause, but rather the start of a phased withdrawal.
There’s no official word yet on when we’ll start to see Mitsubishi models being dropped from UK dealerships. However, while the existing range will continue to be sold for as long as emissions regulations and residual stock levels allow, well placed sources have indicated to Auto Express that the line-up will start thinning out in around six months’ time. New cars could disappear completely by the end of 2021, but British dealerships – run by importer the Colt Car Company – will continue to offer aftersales services, parts and servicing.
Mitsubishi’s announcement came on the back of dismal first-quarter results for the financial year, with a loss of £1.29billion. The company, which is a part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, is going to focus instead on south-east Asia, where it has seen some success in recent years, but also recorded a 68 per cent drop in sales during the first quarter of 2020.
The decision marks a reversal of fortunes for Mitsubishi which, helped by strong demand for its Outlander plug-in hybrid, posted sales of around 38,000 units in the UK as recently as 2018. The Colt Car Company has sold around 860,000 Mitsubishis here since it started importing the firm’s cars in 1974; of those vehicles, around 351,000 are said to be still on UK roads.
But Mitsubishi’s range has suffered a number of blows in Europe in recent years, including a turn away from diesel, increased competition in the pick-up market for its L200 and, in the UK, a switch of government policy on plug-in hybrid cars that hit the appeal of the Outlander PHEV.
The Colt Car Company, meanwhile, is expected to search for a fresh brand to start importing as its Mitsubishi business dries up. The options are all but certain to include a number of burgeoning Chinese firms who have cars to sell but need local experience and established dealer connections.
“Sources indicate the line-up of new vehicles will start thinning out in around six months’ time”