Hindustan Motors and its joint venture partner Mitsubishi have been struggling to sell their cars for quite sometime and now the Japanese firm has discontinued not one but three models in the country. Mitsubishi India has removed Cedia, Outlander and the Lancer Evo X models from the auto market, owing to lacklustre sales and dropping profit margins. Following the removal of above mentioned cars, the Japanese auto maker's product portfolio has shrunk down to just two cars in India, namely Montero and Pajero Sport.
Hindustan Motors retails Mitsubishi cars in the domestic market and the two companies have had a decent run in the past with Lancer and Pajero models. However, lately the Indo-Japanese alliance has been struggling to cope up with their contemporaries because of their limited sales and after-sales service network in India. The sales of Lancer Evo X model had never really taken off, but the Cedia sedan and Outlander Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) have had a decent run in n auto market. Despite the removal of three models, sales prospects for Mitsubishi look slightly grim since the domestic car market is going through tough times at the moment.
It must be noted earlier this year Mitsubishi had revealed intentions to focus more on its SUV range. However, the company is yet to reveal any details regarding its plans of bringing in a new Outlander or Cedia model in the Indian auto market. Therefore, Mitsubishi will be hoping that its Pajero Sport and Montero premium SUVs are able to drive sales, until the market survives ongoing slowdown and the company is able to introduce more models in the country.
