TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors Corp., now wallowing in red ink for six-straight quarters, hopes to restore profitability by focusing on the quality of its sales in the U.S., not the quantity.
To drive better results in North America, Mitsubishi will launch the redesigned Outlander midsize crossover, with the reveal set for Feb. 16, and dial down fleet sales in a bid to bolster brand value.
Yoichiro Yatabe, Mitsubishi’s co-COO, outlined the U.S. strategy last week while announcing a worsened financial performance for the automaker. Mitsubishi widened its net loss to ¥34.1 billion ($330.3 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31. It posted a $139.5 million net loss a year earlier.
“We have changed course … from spending a large amount of money to increase our market share and sales volume,” Yatabe said of the new North America strategy. “More specifically, we are trying to make our sales network leaner and more muscular, and we have significantly changed our sales method from relying on fleet to achieve greater sales volume.”
The quest for profitability over share will be aided by the Outlander launch, he added.
Despite the wider loss in the October-December quarter, Mitsubishi upgraded its financial outlook for the full fiscal year ending March 31. The automaker still expects net and operating losses, but narrower ones than forecast in November.
Mitsubishi credited that to progress in its structural reform program to cut fix costs, improve production utilization rates and focus on more profitable sales mixes.
At the same time, however, Mitsubishi downgraded its full-year sales outlook.
It now expects sales to drop 29 percent to 802,000 vehicles in the fiscal year.
It had earlier expected a 27 percent decline to 824,000. U.S. retail sales are projected to fall to 79,000 vehicles from 115,000 sold in the previous fiscal year.
Naoto Okamura contributed to this report.