Monday, January 5, 2026, is the first official day for new Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited (MMAL) CEO Shunichi Kihara, who is looking to turn the automaker’s local fortunes around amid falling sales and stronger rivals.
While the reveal of a new Pajero – a nameplate on ice since 2021 – appears imminent, it may not arrive in the first 12 months of the new CEO’s tenure as the new-car sales battleground only intensifies.
Mitsubishi’s hard-won role as a value brand, offering a lot of car for the money – even if there were better, albeit costlier, competitors – has been usurped by the influx of predominantly Chinese brands.
The resignation of previous CEO Shaun Westcott in late September 2025 came unexpectedly, even if the brand was looking down the barrel of a significant fall in sales.
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Official new-car sales figures for the full year are not due to be issued by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) until January 6, 2026, but over the first 11 months of 2025, Mitsubishi slipped in the sales race.
The automaker was down 17.5 per cent year-on-year to the end of November 2025, one of the biggest falls for a Japanese brand in Australia.
Only its Alliance partner Nissan (down 18.7 per cent) and Suzuki (down 27.4 per cent) – which endured supply interruptions for its top-selling Jimny SUV – fared worse.
Admittedly, the overall market was not booming, with sales down 1.8 per cent across all brands per data from both the FCAI and the Electric Vehicle Council.
This saw Chinese brands GWM and BYD overtake Mitsubishi as it slid to ninth place after finishing fifth in 2024 behind a dominant Toyota, then Ford, Mazda and Kia.
In 2018 – Mitsubishi’s best sales year, when it sold 84,944 vehicles – the brand finished fourth behind Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai but ahead of Ford.
Many newer Chinese brands saw significant growth in 2025, and while admirable, much of it came from expanding lineups and dealer networks – as well as price cuts in some cases – as they looked to gain a foothold in Australia.
Yet unlike some newer brands, GWM and BYD don’t look like short-term prospects in Australia and appear genuine, long-term competition for Mitsubishi – and every other marque.
In its 2025 cabinet, Mitsubishi Australia offered only five nameplates, down from eight as recently as 2022.
The Outlander mid-size SUV was its best-selling model, but it stumbled to 20,523 sales, a drop of 19.9 per cent compared with 25,622 sold to November 30, 2024.
While it has been its most valuable player, the Outlander now has to contend with literally boatloads of fresh competitors – some strong and some not so strong – from China.
Mitsubishi gave the petrol-powered version a facelift in 2025, with a facelifted plug-in hybrid range due during the first quarter of this year.
The BYD Sealion 6 overtook the Outlander PHEV as Australia’s best-selling plug-in hybrid in 2024 and sales figures are expected to show it outsold the Mitsubishi again in 2025, with the BYD Shark 6 PHEV ute passing them both for the top PHEV spot.
The Outlander PHEV has proven a battler for the brand, helped by the rising popularity of hybrid models, and will get a bigger battery as part of its imminent facelift.
The only Mitsubishi posting gains in the first 11 months of 2025 was the Triton, and although its 4×2 numbers dipped 23.6 per cent, its combined 4×2 and 4×4 sales were up 5.2 per cent.
That’s a positive performance given the top three best-sellers – the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max – saw declines of 12.0 per cent, 3.0 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively.
The newcomer BYD Shark 6 PHEV pushed Triton to the number-five spot behind this trio for overall sales to the end of November.
In 2026 the Triton, too, will score an update just after its Nissan Navara twin lands in showrooms, but the automaker won’t have a hybrid Triton yet, despite telling CarExpert at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show such a model was being fast-tracked.
One of the company’s engineers explained to CarExpert it had been testing the Shark 6 during development for the upcoming hybrid Triton, which still doesn’t have an official launch date.
Alliance partner Nissan has shown the Frontier Pro, a dual-cab PHEV ute due in Australian showrooms in 2027.
It’s unclear if Mitsubishi would be able to sell a version of this vehicle, which Nissan developed with its Chinese joint venture partner Dongfeng.
Going into 2026 – as Mitsubishi celebrates 45 years in Australia – it doesn’t have a single battery electric vehicle (EV) in its local lineup, something even Toyota, criticised for being late to the party, managed in early 2024 with the bZ4X SUV.
The brand hasn’t offered an EV outside Japan since the i-MiEV hatchback, sold in Australia between 2010 and 2012 to predate the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf EVs here.
The cooling of EV sales growth in Australia makes this seem more like a deliberate move than a misstep, with the growth of hybrid sales something the brand was better placed to capitalise on – again, with the Outlander keeping the wheels turning.
Yet it will rectify this with a new EV – a small SUV built by Foxtron, an electric vehicle subsidiary of Foxconn which builds devices like iPhones – due in the second half of the year to compete with the BYD Atto 3 and Kia EV3.
The Mitsubishi EV’s arrival was prompted, according to the company, by the 2025 introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) – something previous CEO Shaun Westcott was critical of.
The new ASX arrived in Australia in mid-2025 as a rebadged version of the Renault Captur, replacing the first-generation ASX, which was still selling strongly despite being in showrooms for 15 years. The new generation has a significantly higher base price than its predecessor.
While the ASX has been replaced, the larger Eclipse Cross, which sat between the ASX and Outlander in terms of size and price, was dropped from the local lineup in 2025 due to new safety regulations.
An electric Eclipse Cross successor, which uses the Renault Scenic E-Tech as a base, has been confirmed for Europe and could make it two EVs in Australian showrooms in 2026. However, a local launch has yet to be announced.
Mitsubishi Australia ceased importing the Pajero Sport in 2025 due to the same regulations that forced the Eclipse Cross’ departure, but has confirmed it plans to return to the large SUV segment.
Globally, the brand has teased a new-generation model which could simply be called the Pajero.
Mitsubishi has a massive dealer network across Australia – with more than 200 locations – and in late 2025 it strengthened its 10-year new-car warranty to include up to 10 years of roadside assistance.
It won’t be easy, but Mr Kihara doesn’t inherit a Mitsubishi brand without some aces up its sleeve, including clever marketing campaigns and initiatives.
Australian new-car buyers will ultimately determine if there’s substance behind the spin, as sales figures ultimately don’t lie.
MORE: Explore the Mitsubishi showroom
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