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Mitsubishi leaving US? No, it's doubling its marketing budget

We rarely hear any major news coming out of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) annual meeting in Orlando, FL, but Mitsubishi executives found this a fitting place to announce a big push for increased advertising here in the US. A report in Automotive News states that the struggling Japanese automaker is returning to advertising in prime time television for the first time since 2005, with the push slated to begin in June and July for the launch of the 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander shown above.
Despite dwindling sales and a shrinking lineup, Mitsubishi's new North American chairman, Gayu Uesugi, has said on multiple occasions that the automaker has no plans to abandon the US market. Spending extra money on marketing and advertising should be a good start to help improve sales, but a lack of fresh and competitive products is also keeping showrooms empty. Aside from the new Outlander, the AN report says that Mitsubishi spokesman Roger Yasukawa said that a "yet-to-be-named subcompact" will arrive this year, which suggests the unnamed hatchback shown below (known elsewhere as the Mirage), could be heading to the US after its North American introduction at the Montreal Auto Show last month.

Mitsubishi Motors posts surprise loss as car sales slide

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors on Friday posted a surprise operating loss in the third quarter, its worst quarterly performance in more than three years, hurt by falling sales in China, Japan and Southeast Asia, as well as a stronger yen. The carmaker posted an operating loss of 6.6 billion yen ($60.2 million) for the October-December quarter, widely missing an average forecast for a profit of 11.6 billion yen, based on analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv. It was the firm's biggest loss since the July-September 2016 quarter, when a mileage cheating scandal sapped profits. However, Mitsubishi stuck to an earlier forecast for a 73% drop in full-year operating profit to 30 billion yen in the fiscal year ending in March. The automaker's net loss for the quarter just ended came in at 14.4 billion yen. The fall in quarterly sales was worst in China and at home, while sales also slipped in ASEAN countries, traditionally a stronghold, leading to a 16% fall in global vehicle sales to 320,000 units. The automaker also said it would keep some of its offices in China closed through Feb. 9, as a new coronavirus spreads throughout the country and beyond. The automaking alliance of Mitsubishi, Renault and Nissan on Thursday said they had "no other option" but to drastically improve their joint operations to remain competitive in the fast-changing global auto industry. Related Video:           (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; editing by Richard Pullin) Earnings/Financials Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi bringing Emirai 3 to Tokyo?

Inquiring minds really want to know if the W-shaped steering wheel will return on Mitsubishi's newest iteration of the Emirai electric concept vehicle. The Japanese automaker is slated to show off the third variant of this interesting concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show at the end of the month, according to Technologic Vehicles. Beyond the facts that the car is a two-seater and runs on electric power, we don't have many details to share just yet. One specific item we do know, though, is that concept will once again offer close monitoring of the driver's physical state. In this case, the car is said to use cloud-based data to gauge the driver's physical condition, so the concept goes well beyond the types of sensors we see in other vehicles that offer features like collision avoidance and lane maintenance. The car is also missing doors, which doesn't necessary help the driver's physical state but is still pretty cool-looking. The model could see the light of day – and limited production – by the end of the decade. Two years ago, Mitsubishi brought its Emirai 2 concept car to Tokyo. That super-futuristic vehicle included a biometrics feature that adjusted the driver's seat based on the user's facial temperature and heart rate. It also had a W-shaped steering wheel straight out of a Superfriends cartoon. Mitsubishi was an early entrant in the electric-vehicle sector with its i-MiEV, though that model has been selling in the single-digit figures in recent months. Now that we have a few year's worth of hindsight, the i's jellybean shape looks pretty pedestrian compared to the Emirai. News Source: Technologic Vehicles Green Tokyo Motor Show Mitsubishi Electric