The decline of GAC Mitsubishi may be the most "hated iron not steel" in the joint venture brand market in recent years, people outside of GAC Mitsubishi, almost all see the problems existing in GAC Mitsubishi, and they all know the solution, but GAC Mitsubishi has always been unmoved, so that it has caused "today's disaster".
A few days ago, GAC Group announced the March production and sales express, among the many brands of GAC Group, the most shocking to us are two brands, one is GAC FCA, that is, Jeep brand, and the other is GAC Mitsubishi, the former production and sales in March are only 1, it can be said that it has basically cooled down.
The latter's sales in March were only 2,002 units, which is of course very low for a joint venture brand with multiple products, because the single-month sales of 2002 vehicles, even if it is placed on a model, is also a sales figure for why there is a sense of existence.
Judging from the sales report data, GAC Mitsubishi sold 9439 vehicles in the first quarter, less than 10,000 vehicles, which is actually a very bad performance. Or the above sentence, 3 months of sales of less than 10,000 vehicles, put on a single monthly sales of a single model, in fact, it is only a decent performance.
Before many professional reviews of GAC Mitsubishi's criticism, basically GAC Mitsubishi product update is too slow, if placed in the last 5 years, that is, GAC Mitsubishi products are basically not updated.
However, in March, GAC Mitsubishi listed a new pure electric SUV model - Artuco AIRTREK, only two models, the mileage is 500 kilometers, 520 kilometers, the price is 199,800 yuan - 229,800 yuan, it can be said that after waiting for several years, finally saw GAC Mitsubishi has a new model on the market.
But GAC Mitsubishi seems to have stepped into a track that they are not familiar with, although this Artuco AIRTREK is a brand new model, but it is not the type that GAC Mitsubishi is good at, or that now the joint venture brand new energy vehicles are in the overall downturn, consumers prefer Tesla, domestic new energy vehicles, want to get sales in this field, it is very difficult.
The car was launched on March 23, 2022, and although it was only sold for six or seven days in March, the car sold only 59 units that month, which is quite weak, because even if it averages, the sales volume in a month is more than 200. Obviously, such a start to sales, for Artuco AIRTREK is still a relatively large blow. Of course, this cannot be said that the product quality and configuration level of GAC-Mitsubishi Attuco AIRTREK are not good, but because the gag-Mitsubishi brand strength is already very weak, and the joint venture brand new energy vehicles as a whole are not welcomed by the market.
In fact, friends who pay attention to Mitsubishi know that if GAC Mitsubishi can replace the generation of Outlander that was put into domestic production around 2012 or launch a new model, then the situation may be completely different. Of course, the premise is a few years ago, and now even if the new Outlander is introduced into domestic production, the possibility of re-replicating the glory of the year is also very low, because there are too many models that can be equalized and surpassed by the new Outlander at the level of product strength, "thousands of sails on the side of the sinking boat, and the head of the diseased tree in front of the spring", which is used to describe the current Outlander, it seems to be very appropriate.
When GAC and Mitsubishi jointly established GAC-Mitsubishi, it can be said that the time and place were favorable, and Mitsubishi had a very good brand and product reputation at that time, and the price of products dropped sharply after localization, which was a very good opportunity for Mitsubishi to continue to expand its market performance in China. But who would have thought that this was already the peak of Mitsubishi's performance in the domestic market, and in the years that followed, we witnessed how Mitsubishi gradually "made" itself from a strong brand to an "endangered" brand.
So now from the sales data in March and the first quarter, as well as the opening performance of Artuco AIRTREK after its listing, GAC Mitsubishi has actually fallen into a situation of difficulty extricating itself, as a weak brand, GAC Mitsubishi tries to turn over through new energy vehicles such as Artuco AIRTREK, and the possibility of success is infinitely close to nothing.
The previous relatively best-selling models, such as Outlander, Jinxuan, Pajero and other models, due to the "many years" of core components such as engines and gearboxes, have not been upgraded, resulting in a serious lag behind the product line of the same level of products, and then sales continue to decline, and have lost competitiveness.
In the future, the market performance of GAC Mitsubishi may be difficult to have a chance to pick up, which is one of the laws of the domestic automobile market, it is very easy to lose market share, and it is even more difficult to regain market share. It may not be long before GAC Mitsubishi is like the current domestic Jeep, and the monthly production and sales are infinitely close to 0.