Mitsubishi to launch a new car in executive segment

Bangalore: Mitsubishi is planning to launch a new car in the executive segment.The Hindustan Motors Chief General Manager for Marketing, Mr K Chandran, said at a press conference that work has started on launching a new car for India. "But it is at a nascent stage right now," Mr Chandran said.

The new car would be in the executive segment, at a much higher range than the Lancer car which is in the mid-size segment. Hindustan Motors makes Lancer cars in India under a technical tie up with Mitsubishi. It will take nine to 12 months for the new car to hit the roads.

Mitsubishi does not have any plans to enter the small car segment as the ``segment was too crowded.'' Hindustan Motors has fine tuned its marketing strategy and also made some changes in the pricing of Lancer variants in an attempt to sell more number of Lancer cars during 2004 to make up for the negative growth in 2003. In 2002, Hindustan Motors sold 4,500 Lancer cars but its sales dipped to 3,000 units in 2003. It now expects to sell 5,000 cars in 2004.