Mitsubishi Motors Corp. posted sales of 5,280 units in April, down 35% from the same month last year. This is the fourth consecutive monthly sale drop for the company, a trend that Chief Executive Officer Yoichi Yokozawa at Mitsubishi Motors North America expects to continue for months. The company has been adversely affected by its discontinued vehicle models. He stated that their sales are "impacted" by their models which completed production last summer. Last summer, the manufacturing of the Endeavor SUV, Spyder convertible and Eclipse coupe at the Normal assembly facility of Mitsubishi in Illinois ended.
Combined sales of these automobiles dropped by 2,962 units in April. Furthermore, most of the automaker's volume models were down last month. These volume models are the Lancer compact vehicle, Outlander Sport compact crossover and Outlander mid-sized crossover. Galant mid-sized sedan sales increased. Most of these sales are made to fleet customers, according to Mitsubishi spokesperson Dan Irvin.
The company's i electric automobile did not help much, as there were only 79 units sold in April. The automaker sold 215 electric minicars in 2012. Yokozawa stated that Mitsubishi anticipated to start posting monthly sales profits after U.S. production of the Outlander Sport commences this summer. Moreover, he disclosed that the four-month sales of the Outlander Sport increased from 2011. For the first four months, Mitsubishi achieved sales of 21,887 units, down 23% or 6,361 units from the same period last year.
