Mitsubishi Announces 2022 Production, Sales and Export Figures

Mitsubishi Motors reported strong sales across the full fourth quarter and annual results this week, with year-on-year increases across the board in sales and production, which ushered  in a successful close to 2022. Despite the fact that industry-wide supply constraints imposed limitations, the company saw increases across its markets in Asia, Europe, and North America.   

In North America alone, fourth-quarter 2022 sales reported to record 20,756 vehicles and annual sales of 85,810 vehicles, as industry-wide supply constraints continued to limit sales volume. With a focus on maximising dealer inventory for retail deliveries throughout the year, Mitsubishi Motors North America (MMNA) saw its fleet volume in Q4 represent the single-lowest percentage of total sales ever, and full-year fleet volume was also the lowest ever.

Mitsubishi car and truck production in Japan increased 172 percent year on year in December to 44,091, totaling 440,762 units for 2022. Overseas production increased by 67.7 percent in December to 42,718, bringing the year total to 571,646. Mitsubishi produced 1,012,408 vehicles in Japan, Thailand, China, and Indonesia combined.

Similarly, exports increased, with Japan exporting 23,538 units in December, for a total of 222,242 this year. The rest of the world's exports totaled 14,577 in December and 133,729 for the entire year.

Mitsubishi Motors did not provide a breakdown of vehicle sales by model in its report. However, in the US, the Outlander remained the company's top seller.  The model remained the company's record breaker, with North American sales charting 40,942 units sold through the full year, making it  the best single year in the nameplate's history.

As the auto industry as a whole is experiencing, MMNA's inventory heading into the new year remains far below ideal levels, and far below natural customer demand.

Mitsubishi is still revamping its lineup for 2023 and beyond. It reintroduced the Ralliart nameplate as a special edition package on key models last fall. . Then there were renderings of a new Eclipse sports car, which could indicate that Mitsubishi is thinking about resurrecting the car that was popular in the 1990s and early 2000s.