Mitsubishi entered 2025 with a simple goal: survive a turbulent economy and come out better than it went in. The macro headwinds were howling. Rates were up, consumer confidence dipped, and the subcompact-car segment that once kept Mitsubishi’s volume humming continued to shrink like a receding shoreline.
And yet, somewhere in that storm, Mitsubishi found some grit. The brand’s SUV lineup didn’t just tread water. It punched upward, drew showroom traffic, and reminded shoppers that Mitsubishi still knows how to build practical, value-forward crossovers that feel tailor-made for American roads.
Models are listed in ascending order based on sales, from the lowest sales to the highest.
People Are Buying Mitsubishi
The headline number tells only part of the story. Mitsubishi Motors North America reported 94,754 total sales in 2025, down year over year, but the drop had an asterisk carved right into the hood: the brand discontinued the Mirage hatchback and Mirage G4 sedan, exiting an evaporating segment. In the places Mitsubishi is actually investing in its future, the picture brightens. SUVs clicked up over 2024. The fourth quarter landed with real force, delivering 21,354 units and bringing some of the strongest individual months of the year. December, in fact, ranked as the Outlander’s second-best month of 2025.
This momentum isn’t an accident. Mitsubishi laid out a North American blueprint literally named “Momentum 2030,” promising new metal and significant refreshes every year from 2026 through 2030. That future is already casting a shadow forward. In 2026, the updated Outlander Plug-in Hybrid, an all-new BEV crossover, and a rugged Outlander variant will reinforce a lineup already gaining traction. Layer on dealership “Gallery” locations designed for high-traffic retail districts, and you can see the strategy crystallizing: accessibility, electrification, and smartly targeted SUVs. So what actually powered Mitsubishi’s spike in 2025, Q4 strength, and SUV growth? These models did. Let’s see why.
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Outlander Plug-in Hybrid
2025 Total Sales: 6,294 units
The electrified flagship might not be Mitsubishi’s highest-volume machine, but its role is outsized compared to its raw numbers. With 6,294 sales in 2025, the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid registered its third-best year ever, just shy of its 2024 peak. That matters. It proves there’s sustained consumer appetite for Mitsubishi’s particular brand of plug-in practicality, especially among buyers who want electric commuting without abandoning the security blanket of gasoline range.
Underneath, the Outlander PHEV combines a gasoline engine with dual electric motors and Mitsubishi’s Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) system. With usable EV-only range, on-demand AWD confidence, and the ability to operate as a conventional hybrid once the battery is depleted, it lands right in the sweet spot between full-EV ambition and real-world flexibility. It’s also the technological beacon of the Mitsubishi lineup, the one that signals exactly where the brand is steering next.
Owners like it because it feels like a future-forward family machine that doesn’t require lifestyle contortions. It’s quiet around town, capable in poor weather, and efficient in stop-and-go commutes, while still being a genuine road-trip SUV. Awards back that up: the Outlander and Outlander Plug-in Hybrid were co-named Green Car Journal’s ‘2026 Family Green Car of the Year’, the first sibling pairing to ever take that crown. Even if its sales volume isn’t massive yet, its influence is.
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Mirage
2025 Total Sales: 14,577 units
The 2024 Mirage is the model that both explains Mitsubishi’s sales dip and helps frame its strategy. With 14,577 units sold in 2025, it actually remained meaningful in volume, yet its discontinuation kneecapped year-over-year totals. That wasn’t a failure so much as triage. Subcompact sedans and hatchbacks have been collapsing in the United States for years, and Mitsubishi finally stepped out of the shrinking circle.
The storage space in this spirited little contender is surprisingly good. Think of it as your favorite pair of stretchy pants; it’s accommodating and flexible, ready to handle a spontaneous shopping spree or the aftermath of a particularly successful yard sale raid.
– Noah Washington for TopSpeed
Mechanically, the Mirage has always been simple transportation: a lightweight subcompact powered by an efficient three-cylinder engine, focused relentlessly on fuel economy and price. Low running costs, easy parking manners, and one of the longest warranties in the segment kept it popular among first-time buyers and urban commuters. It was, quite literally, the friendly budget ambassador of the brand.
And still, the future is moving elsewhere. Mitsubishi is positioning itself toward electrified crossovers, plug-in hybrids, and small SUVs where margins and demand are healthier. The Mirage’s final chapter in 2025 marks the end of one era and the funding mechanism for the next. It did its job. It brought buyers into showrooms with the title of “cheapest new car in America.” Now those shoppers are being handed keys to taller vehicles with more tech, more capability, and a bigger role in the brand’s resurgence.
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Eclipse Cross
2025 Total Sales: 17,508 units
The Eclipse Cross might quietly be Mitsubishi’s comeback character. It finished 2025 with 17,508 sales, up nearly 38 percent year over year, scoring its second-best full-year performance ever. The fourth quarter was a cannon blast: 5,166 units, which may not seem like much, but that represents a 103 percent increase against Q4 2024, and the third-best quarter in the model’s history.
While it resides in the weird coupe SUV segment, it remains a better value than anything else in this class, to say nothing of its near-bulletproof reliability rating and generous warranty coverage.
– William Clavey for TopSpeed
Power comes from a turbocharged four-cylinder paired with available all-wheel drive. Size-wise, it lives in the sweet spot of the subcompact-to-compact crossover zone, which makes it easy to park while still dominating Costco runs. Mitsubishi has polished the styling over time, and while it’s not the coolest thing on four wheels, the brand sharpened the interior presentation and kept the tech competitive, especially in driver-assistance features and infotainment.
Why do people like it? Because it feels like the crossover equivalent of a well-worn favorite jacket: light, versatile, dependable, and maybe a little cooler than you remember. According to Ipsos, 94 percent of subcompact crossover shoppers who shopped for an Eclipse Cross actually bought one. That’s an outrageous conversion rate, and it tells you everything: once people sit in it, drive it, and see what it costs, they tend to buy one.
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Outlander Sport
2025 Total Sales: 20,480 units
The Outlander Sport is the veteran soldier. It has been in the lineup long enough to earn its stripes, yet 2025 turned into one of its best campaigns in years. Mitsubishi sold 20,480 units, a 35.4 percent increase over 2024, and its strongest full year since 2021. Fourth quarter sales hit 5,522, up 61.5 percent year over year and the best Q4 since 2019. For a nameplate with history, that’s a second wind.
Under the hood, most buyers went with the efficient four-cylinder paired with front- or all-wheel drive. It’s not chasing Nürburgring lap times. It’s aimed at durability, affordability, and the confidence of S-AWC-based systems in poor weather. The cabin layout prioritizes simplicity over flash, which, for many shoppers, is precisely the point. It’s a tool that feels honest about being a tool.
People appreciate that honesty. The 2025 Outlander Sport is sized right for city life but toughened for road trips and rougher roads. It’s also a ladder into the brand, often serving as a first crossover for younger buyers moving out of compact sedans. Ipsos data underscores its magnetic pull: 97 percent of small SUV shoppers who considered one ended up purchasing it. High conversion rates don’t happen by accident. They happen when expectations are met.
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Outlander
2025 Total Sales: 35,895 units
This is the anchor, the flagship, the gravitational center of Mitsubishi’s lineup. With 35,895 sales in 2025, the Outlander represented more than one-third of total Mitsubishi volume, making it the undisputed sales leader for the marque. It was recently redesigned, refreshed again with a new interior, and fitted with an industry-first Yamaha-branded audio system that feels like a private concert hall on wheels. Add in the Trail Edition arriving mid-year, and the Outlander didn’t just sell. It commanded attention.
The cabin of this top trim takes on a very premium feel, not common in the non-luxury SUV segment. And at a sub-$45,000 price point, it certainly adds value, going well above the outgoing model.
– Amee Reehal for TopSpeed
Mechanically, it offers a choice of powertrains, available three-row seating, and Mitsubishi’s hallmark S-AWC all-wheel-drive technology. This is the family hauler that wears hiking boots. The Trail Edition amplified that identity with off-highway styling cues, program-specific trim, and a cascade of dealer-installed accessories that let owners personalize their rigs like adventure postcards.
What makes buyers flock to it? Versatility. It’s comfortable enough to be the daily school-run shuttle, capable enough to take dirt roads seriously, and priced in a way that undercuts some rivals without feeling bargain-basement. December even clocked in as its second-best month of the year, proof that demand wasn’t fading toward the finish line. In a lineup full of solid crossovers, the Outlander is the one raising the company flag.
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The Bigger Picture
Mitsubishi’s 2025 story isn’t about chasing headlines or flooding the streets with sedans. It’s about understanding that the American market has turned decisively toward crossovers and plugging directly into that current. Even with the Mirage’s exit pulling total sales down, Mitsubishi’s core utility lineup grew, Q4 surged, and electrified nameplates like the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid kept the brand in the sustainability spotlight.
With more electrification coming, a rugged Outlander on the horizon, and a new BEV set for launch, Mitsubishi isn’t just reacting. It’s building momentum deliberately, model by model. And as 2025 showed, the formula is already working.
Sources: Ipsos, Mitsubishi