Mitsubishi Motors takes one-time 10.5 billion yen hit from China woes

MITSUBISHI Motors will take a one-time hit of 10.5 billion yen (S$104.8 million) related to slowing sales at its China unit, it said on Tuesday (Apr 25), as mounting competition in the world’s largest auto market hits foreign carmakers.

Mitsubishi made no changes to its full-year results forecast as the impact from the extraordinary loss had already been incorporated into a previously announced outlook “to a certain extent”.

Competition in China has increased and the warning by Mitsubishi, a minor player in the country, is the latest sign of how overseas automakers selling combustion-engine cars are facing a wake-up as China’s electric-car drive leaves them behind.

Toyota Motor chief executive officer Koji Sato said on Friday the world’s biggest automaker would have to move more quickly after facing pressure in China, especially in the country’s growing market for battery-powered and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Mitsubishi Motors said it would post the extraordinary loss despite introducing a new Outlander model in China through its local equity-method affiliate, GAC Mitsubishi Motors, last December.

“Amid changes in the Chinese domestic market itself and intensifying competition, sales targets continued to be missed, and profitability is expected to decline,” the company, which established its China unit in 2012, said in a statement.

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Mitsubishi Motors will on May 9 report results for the 2022 financial year that ran to Mar 31. REUTERS