European sales of Mitsubishi Motors cars for the first half of 2005 were up 21.8% year on year to 137,088 compared with 112,579 a year ago.
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June sales were up 13.2 % year on year.
The NedCar-built Colt (different in dashboard and other details from the Japanese-made car) is now the automaker’s best seller in Europe with 37,615 sales and has taken a 1.5% share of the European B-segment.
“It should be noted that these sales were achieved without resorting to mass fleet channels such as daily rentals,” Mitsubishi said in a statement.
Introduced during the first quarter of this year, three door versions took 29% of Colt sales. The coupé-cabriolet will be launched in Europe next spring.
Second best seller was the Lancer (28,395 sales, up 62%), with the sedan version taking 80% of sales.
Mitsubishi said this was due largely to its popularity in Russia where distributor Rolf Holding has made the Lancer the top imported car line.
Russia is also now Mitsubishi Motors´s top European market with 24,726 sales in the first half, up 103% on H1 2004.
The United Kingdom, once the top market, has dropped to third in the automaker’s European top 10 with 21,618 units, up 18% year on year.
Hit last year by DaimlerChrysler’s withdrawal of support for Mitsubishi Motors, German sales were back on track in H1 ‘05 with an increase of 43 % (23,363 vs. 16,317).
Sales in the Netherlands were up 16%.
