Sales Of Mitsubishi MiEV in Japan Fell Off Sharply in 2013; Battery Production Constraints Probable Cause

Last year, Mitsubishi sold in Japan 83,852 kei cars, which gave the automaker 4.0% market share for the segment. This result is better than the 80,096 kei cars Mitsubishi sold in 2012.

However, sales of electric Mitsubsihi kei cars fell from 4,782 in 2012 to 3,554 in 2013. These figures include the passenger car i-MiEV  (1,491), delivery version Minicab-MiEV (1,461) and mini truck Minicab-MiEV Truck (602).

The first two models saw sales drop significantly last year and the third model is new on the market (introduced in 2013).

3,554 electric cars compared to 83,852 doesn't sound too impressive, but this is still over 4% for the brand. Sadly, overall market share for EVs is only 0.16% in Japan.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in 2014 when Mitsubishi increases battery production (we heard from Mitsubishi that the Outlander PHEV is eating almost all of Mitsubsihi's current battery supply) and starts delivering the cheaper (by as much as $9,000 USD) electric MiEVs announced a few months ago.