Mitsubishi has admitted the new-generation ASX is not living up to expectations as the brand loses ground to aggressive Chinese rivals in the small SUV space.
“It’s not desirable,” Australia GM of Product Strategy and PR Bruce Hampel said of current ASX sales.
“We never set the target for the new model to be at the same level. It’s positioned to target a different kind of customer compared to the previous one,” he recently told CarsGuide.
Before the new ASX launched Mitsubishi said its targets were lower, but the volume has taken more than a significant hit.
The new Captur-based version is doing roughly 10 per cent of the volume of the previous model year-on-year. So far in 2026 the nameplate has racked up just 513 registrations, while at this point last year it had managed 4484.
So what does the company plan to do about it?
“The volume isn’t meeting our expectations. Is it just overpriced? That’s the easy thing to say. With the end of financial year offer we’re dropping the entry price down and hopefully that will get people actually experiencing the car,” Hampel said.
But with an entry point of $34,990 even on discount for the current base LS grade, an entry-level version of the top-selling is still more than $10,000 cheaper at $23,990 .
has managed to sell nearly 10,000 Tiggo 4s in 2026, while the previous price-leading Chinese challenger, the also continues to perform well, racking up 6021 registrations so far this year.
Hampel seemed aware of this stark reality facing the brand.
“Go back five years and the ASX was the entry point to the Mitsubishi brand but there are customers looking for just cheap vehicles so that’s where that cross shopping happens.
“What we’re trying to do with the Mitsubishi brand is offer value, and we’re trying to hold on to those loyal customers with things like the Diamond Advantage [10-year and capped price .
One seemingly obvious answer to Mitsubishi’s price-related woes lies overseas in the shape of the successful XForce. A ‘true Mitsubishi’ which uses an updated version of a dated in-house platform, the small is available in both combustion and plugless forms.
Recently, this model was confirmed to join the line-up in New Zealand, where it will be named the Outlander Sport and sold exclusively as a hybrid.
Sadly though, the tough Australian Design Rules (ADR) will rule it out for a local launch, even if the Australian division wanted it.
“They’re lucky they can import that vehicle,” Hampel said of Mitsubishi New Zealand. “We’d love to have it, but it was never designed to meet Australian requirements.
“But we’re working hard with Mitsubishi to offer a similar product,” he said.
“We’re pushing for a full range of electrification and we’re part of the alliance – Renault, and now Foxtron [a new joint-venture between Mitsubishi and Taiwan’s Foxconn]. The business case is a big part of the challenge.
“There are various options we can source, but it becomes challenging, so we have to be careful with what we select.”
Hampel added a mid-term plan will be announced in the coming months, and the company needs to navigate Australia’s tough emissions laws once its full range of new products has arrived.
Before the end of the year, Mitsubishi confirmed the fully Foxconn-based small SUV will go on sale, as will the next-generation Pajero, which promises to be a volume seller that replaces the Pajero Sport.
Still, with that model more likely than not to be a turbo-diesel, at least at launch, it creates a short-term issue for the Japanese giant in terms of racking up fines under the federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).
“Customers are still preferring in a lot of cases,” Hampel said. “They’re not quite ready to embrace in certain vehicle classes. There isn’t really an easy answer for how we’re going to get a lot of [emissions] credits, but we’re trying to work within what the government wants.
“The need for electrics is one element, but you need enough volume and to get it, customers have to actually want to buy those products,” he said.