The T.50 Arrives

Gordon Murray has released the T.50 supercar. It comes with a super price of £2.8 million but as only 100 will be made, so exclusivity is guaranteed. I would assume resale value would be assured as well. The man who designed the Mclaren F1 has retained many of the fundamentals of that classic car.

Differences are that it is lighter, 150kg lighter than the F1. The rear of the car has a fan that takes air from underneath the vehicle, which creates more down force and reduce drag. No performance figures have been released, as that isn't the objective of the car. A pure driving experience is, which I think is a focus more manufacturers should prioritise.

I like the idea of no digital instruments. All driver aids can be deactivated too, but that could be a risky move for an overconfident owner. Overall, an interesting exercise and with the majority of the limited run already accounted for, a winner.

Mitsubishi Euro Sales (By Model) : 2000-2019

The original Outlander

Mitsubishi has been in Europe since back in the mid 1970's but recently announced it will wind down its operations and at some point stop sales altogether in Europe. That's not a bad move, considering it needs to make money and it appears that isn't happening in this region.

In the decade prior to this century starting, the brand was consistently between 1.0% - 1.5% penetration. Not big but useful. Did it have ambitions to do more than that? I would have thought so but at what price in order to achieve that?

2000-04: The new millennium started off with a thinning of the range. It did have a wide range of vehicles for the sales it was achieving, so a sensible move. That sent its share of the market under the 1% mark. The Space Star was assembled in Europe but with very modest volume and that ended in 2005 .

A major problem was there wasn't a model that really captured the market, like say what the Qashqai did for Nissan. By 2004, all the vehicles were below 30,000 sales and the total had gone from 176,000 to 137,000.

	Mitsubishi
	Model / Year	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000
	Space Star	29,183	37,147	42,074	40,923	36,591
	Pajero/Montero	23,275	25,785	26,799	26,739	26,795
	Colt	21,263	7,048	8,638	7,409	15,982
	Lancer	15,431	5,089	547	3,464	10,129
	Outlander	11,468	8,544
	Carisma	11,282	19,410	21,866	21,911	34,078
	Pajero Sport	10,153	8,341	8,841	5,632	10,160
	Pajero Pinin	6,527	8,556	11,372	11,301	11,399
	Grandis/Space W	5,887	2,765	3,869	4,446	8,581
	Galant	498	3,514	5,673	7,493	13,636
	Space Runner	8	173	105	1,788	3,443
	Shogun Pinin				3,705	1,776
	Shogun Sport				1,545	968
	Space Gear				434	1,833
	3000 GT				82	209
	Eclipse				70	125
	Others	2,066	17	303	42	324
	Total	137,041	126,389	130,087	136,984	176,029
	% Europe	0.8	0.9	0.9	1.0	1.3

2005-09: The Colt did become the big hitting model it was needing and registrations for that car peaked at 70,000 in 2006. Market share nearly returned to 1% as well. That proved somewhat of a false dawn as the Colt couldn't sustain the sales and the brand's numbers drifted down. They went under 100,000 units by 2009 and market share back to 0.7%.

	Model / Year	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
	Colt	45,720	52,396	62,678	70,150	63,365
	Lancer	22,788	19,878	10,958	14,770	15,044
	Outlander	18,782	28,941	34,020	7,921	9,218
	Pajero/Montero	5,740	8,151	18,523	14,028	17,316
	Grandis	2,829	4,437	7,145	10,406	7,874
	Pajero Sport			1,972	7,207	9,769
	Space Star			32	1,923	13,761
	Pajero Pinin				1,507	4,428
	Carisma				72	426
	Galant					216
	Others	36	114	83	210	428
	Total	95,895	113,917	135,411	128,194	141,845
	% Europe	0.7	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.9

2010-14: Sales took on a stable look as the ASX and the Outlander became the two most popular within the range. The Space Star returned (Mirage elsewhere) and between the three of them maintained sales at around the 100,000 point. Was that enough?

	Model / Year	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010
	ASX	33,725	26,208	31,909	46,817	20,498
	Outlander	34,984	25,760	14,497	17,642	21,567
	Space Star	22,116	13,942
	Pajero/Montero	4,819	3,437	4,432	6,904	6,762
	Lancer	3,730	2,808	5,071	12,762	20,252
	i-MiEV	675	885	1,634	2,608	97
	Attrage/Colt		7,492	18,134	25,237	29,665
	Grandis					1,848
	Others	325	133	54	333	37
	Total	100,374	80,665	75,731	112,303	100,726
	% Europe	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.8

2015-19: The Eclipse Cross joined the team and sales started heading toward 150,000 and Euro market share was nudging 1%. Things were better and one could have assumed that the brand would be sticking around. The downside was the company wasn't in a great place financially, leading to Nissan taking a share to help it survive.

Rationalisation was needed and the company was at its best in the Asia/Pacific region. This was to be its new focus and Europe simply wasn't a justifiable expense. It was time to wind things down and forget the idea of it needing to be everywhere. Profit was the goal and Europe was a hindrance to achieving that.

	Model / Year	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
	Outlander	47,402	39,529	36,453	41,223	46,589
	Space Star	39,135	36,059	30,377	27,735	29,661
	ASX	30,493	32,026	39,382	40,880	44,926
	Eclipse Cross	27,004	26,751	573
	Shogun Sport	551	359
	Pajero/Montero	508	4,505	4,475	5,619	5,965
	i-MiEV	166	333	450	487	713
	Lancer	44	589	1,630	2,736	3,604
	Attrage/Colt				168	356
	Others	9	32	18	40	26
	Total	145,312	140,183	113,358	118,888	131,840
	% Europe	0.9	0.9	0.7	0.8	0.9

For others in the series, please click on the brand name below.

Alfa Romeo - DR Motors - Fiat Part 1 - Honda - Infiniti - Lancia -
Land Rover - Mazda - Nissan - Opel/Vauxhall - Peugeot Part 1 -
Renault Part 1 - SEAT

The current Space Star