Mitsubishi on a roll after May spike

MITSUBISHI Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) is confident it can maintain its upwards sales momentum after its massive 46 per cent sales increase in May.

MMAL vice-president of brand management, Paul Unerkov, told GoAuto Mitsubishi wanted to continue to lift sales ahead of the market this year, which was likely to be just short of one million units.

Mr Unerkov said he was not surprised at the strength of the market in May.

“Everyone is pushing pretty hard,” he said. “A lot of stock has been brought in because everyone is talking about how the market is going to be close to a million cars.

“There are now so many manufacturers out there talking about close to a million that it is probably a bit hard for it not to be a million because the stock will be there and people will market accordingly.”

Mr Unerkov said the jump in May sales for Mitsubishi became possible because the company had imported plenty of stock for May, June and July in expectation of strong mid-year demand followed by new models coming through in August and September.

“We planned to have plenty of stock for this time of the year. So we are planning to have a big June and July and start to load up with new models coming through in August and September.”

Mr Unerkov said MMAL was confident it could hold share because the new models are in segments in which the company does not compete at present.

“The new ASX should give us growth, the Outlander 4x2 should give us growth, and we have a ‘club-cab’ Triton that should give us growth as well,” he said.