9,300 bookings for Mitsubishi Xpander, pushes Mitsubishi ahead of Nissan

Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia (MMM) has collected over 9,300 bookings for the Mitsubishi Xpander since its launch in November 2020, of which 2,742 units have been delivered.

“Due to the overwhelming positive response for the new Xpander, we are progressing to increase our production volume to cater for higher production capacity to fulfil all booking demands,” said Tomoyuki Shinnishi, Chief Executive Officer of MMM.

The 7-seater Mitsubishi Xpander is locally-assembled (CKD) in Pekan by a joint venture between MMM and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. Known as MMC Manufacturing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., the outfit operates a Mitsubishi Motors-exclusive vehicle assembly facility within the DRB-Hicom automotive manufacturing complex.

Also read: New Japan-Malaysia Mitsubishi JV for a higher quality CKD 2020 Mitsubishi Xpander

MMM’s biggest seller remains the Mitsubishi Triton, which MMM sold 7,568 units in the last financial year (April 2020 – March 2021), up 32 percent from the preceding financial year.

Including with the Mitsubishi Outlander and ASX, MMM sold a total of 11,554 units for Financial Year 2020, up by a staggering 51 percent from the previous year.

In the first three months of 2021, MMM sold 4,156 units, up 135 percent from the same 3-month period last year. It's MMM's best quarterly sales ever.

With this, MMM says it has overtaken Edaran Tan Chong Motor's Nissan to become the No.3 non-national brand in Malaysia, and now ranks behind Toyota and Honda.

Nissan’s drop however, is to be expected as the company is phasing out the old Nissan Navara, which will be replaced by a new 2021 Nissan Navara, now with a kitted up Navara Pro-4X variant.

Also read: Previewed: New 2021 Nissan Navara (D23) Pro-4X facelift is one bad-A mother trucker!

The new Navara is now open for bookings and the model will be launched later this month. We expect Nissan's sales to improve in the coming months.

On MMM's part, the company will of course want to maintain its No.3 position, and will be launching an accessorized Mitsubishi Triton Athlete variant later this week.