Mitsubishi is planning for the total Australian new car sales market in 2010 to match this year's total of around 920,000 sales.
Speaking at the launch of the all-new Challenger SUV, Mitsubishi Australia CEO, Mr Robert McEniry, told Car Showroom that while the Federal Government's 2009 tax incentives may have pulled forward some 2010 sales into this calendar year, improving economic conditions should attract similar sales numbers for the new year.
'The investment bonus this year was a great initiative that certainly drove sales, however all of the economic indicators for 2010 are good so we're anticipating both private and fleet sales will again be strong and, combined with plenty of new model activity, I can see no reason why the industry can't repeat this year's numbers again in the new year,' Mr McEniry said.
On the drawing board for Mitsubishi next year is an all-new compact SUV, some updates for the Colt small car plus a number of 'Special Edition' models.
All-up, Mr McEniry reckons Mitsubishi should be able to achieve a 2010 market share of 6.6 per cent which would account for total sales of around 61,000 vehicles.
'Our dealers are very excited about this vehicle (the Challenger) and to be honest the pre-launch order rate wildly exceeded our planning numbers. They (the dealers) are buoyant about next year so we have every reason to start January with optimism,' Mr McEniry added.
Mitsubishi is still working hard to launch the i-MIEV hatchback late in 2010 to become the first volume-selling electric car in Australia. Long term test vehicles will be on the road early in the new year and while production in Japan is still very tight, the company hopes to secure some initial vehicles for sale in the last quarter of the year.
