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K. Giriprakash

Bangalore , Nov. 19

WITH Octavia and Corolla zooming ahead of the luxury edition of Lancer, Mitsubishi is planning an 1800 cc Lancer variant that will be priced aggressively to take on competition in its segment.

Sources close to Mitsubishi told Business Line that the company is planning to launch a new variant of Lancer with 1800 cc engine priced between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 10.5 lakh. "It will be more powerful and have far better features than the other variants of Lancers," sources said. The new Lancer is expected to be launched early next year.

While Octavia and Corolla sell an average of 800 units every month, the luxury edition Lancer, LE has been able to sell a total of 200 units between April and October this year.

For 2002-03, LE sold 536 units of the petrol variant and 300 units of the diesel variant. Mitsubishi launched the luxury version of Lancer, LE in November, 2001 to cash in on the customers' preference for fully loaded luxury cars, in the C + + segment which was later exploited by Octavia and Corolla.

For example, Skoda Octavia, which was launched in February 2002, sold around 5,800 units during the same year and within the first nine months of 2003 it sold a total of around 7,000. The target for the total sales of Octavia in 2003 is around 10,000. Priced between Rs 10.5 lakh and Rs 12.5 lakh, Octavia has both petrol as well as diesel variants.

Toyota Corolla, which is priced higher between Rs 11.18 lakh and Rs 12.18 lakh, has sold a total of over 6,000 units since its launch in February last. In July, sales touched a peak of 980 units with the target for the entire year being 10,000 units. Toyota has so far sold more than 30 million Corollas in 142 countries worldwide.

However, the luxury edition of Lancer, priced much lower than both Octavia and Corolla between Rs 8.9 lakh and Rs 9.9 lakh, sells far less though company officials say that Lancer including all variants has had impressive sales.

For 2002-03, Lancer sold a total of around 5,000 units with the petrol versions selling the most. Between April and October this year, a total of 1,500 Lancer units were sold which include all the 12 variants of the car. Since its launch in 1998, a total of over 30,000 Lancer units have been sold.

Dealers say that customers prefer an Octavia because of the status symbol as it comes from the Volkswagen stable and is a BMW look-alike with a perceptible difference in the diesel version.

Corolla seems to find more buyers largely because of its refined engine and with all the gizmos thrown in looks a better buy.

But sources in Mitsubishi Lancer said with newer cars being launched in the mid-sized segment almost every month and because of better financing schemes, customers prefer to change their models more often than they used to do earlier. Lancer cars are known for safety, reliability and fuel efficiency which few cars in its category can match, sources said.

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