'We will survive!': Mitsubishi is 'not anti-Chinese' but warns there will be a 'correction' in the oversupplied Australian new car market as some new brands become dependable local favourites

Mitsubishi Australia Chief, Shaun Westcott, has issued a warning about the explosive growth of new manufacturers joining the Australian market.

The latest figures from the first half of 2025, show Nissan joining Subaru outside the top-10 manufacturers in Australia, as BYD, GWM, and MG score positions on the scoreboard.

Isuzu is barely holding on to its top-10 position, and the gap between GWM, now Australia’s favourite Chinese manufacturer, and Mitsubishi is rapidly closing.

“Firstly, we’re not anti Chinese and the reality is: they’re not going away,” said Westcott.

“Some of them might, but some traditional brands may as well, some legacy brands may disappear. The reality of our market is that it’s too small to have what we have now, 83 brands or something.”

“That’s just an economic reality. I’m a firm believer in economics and there’s laws of supply and demand that says when a market is oversupplied, there will be a correction.

“That is going to happen. Some of those Chinese brands will survive.

“There’s a closing window of opportunity. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you can have the first mover advantage for a short period of time, then others will catch up. That window of opportunity will close,” he said.

He said the onus was on Japanese brands to differentiate themselves from the pack if they wanted to survive, but said there will be a sheer fight for survival in the coming years.

“There will be a thinning out of some brands, we intend to be one that survives.” he said.

He added Mitsubishi’s success will be in providing the right powertrain at the right time, not rushing EVs to market like some of its rivals have. To that end, the brand is staying the course with popular combustion versions of its combustion Outlander, despite Australia’s emissions laws closing in on non-electrified powertrains.

“We are very intentional about what we do, we are very thoughtful about what we do. We apply a business and commercial mindset to what we do.

“Around the discussion of EVs and why don’t [we] have an EV? [...] We actually, through our alliance, have access to multiple,” said Westcott.

“We have access to that technology. We will bring it to the market at the right time, when we think the market is ready. We have a product, we’ll bring it to market. It’s very thoughtful, it’s very intentional.”

He said just because many EVs were being brought to our market as a reaction to the federal government's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), that didn’t mean that Australian consumers wanted them.

The NVES penalises carmakers $100 for every gram of CO2 they emit over a certain threshold, per car sold. This Threshold gets lower every year until 2030.

He also admitted the amount of competitive advantage established manufacturers had, like the dealer network and decades worth of reliability records, would not last forever as MG and GWM have proven staying power and an ever expanding dealer and service network.

“We will continue to provide products that Australia can trust and rely on and all of those things. There will be a point where that is no longer a competitive advantage over the Chinese.” he said.

Mitsubishi faces something of an uphill battle in the next 48 months as it stares down the possibility of serious gaps in its range where it was once a market leader. The once-popular ASX will be replaced by a Euro-sourced model, which is likely to be more expensive than the bargain offering the long-running Japan-built version was.

It will soon run out of stock of the outgoing ASX, Eclipse Cross and Pajero Sport, thinning its range down to just the Triton ute and Outlander mid-size SUV. It is already down 30.9 per cent year-on-year as stock runs low and rivals like Chery, MG, and GWM close in on its turf.

The new ASX will arrive before the end of 2025, with a new-generation Pajero Sport due in 2026.

The Australian market will also see a new electric Mitsubishi model as part of the brand’s tie-up with Foxconn during 2026.