The Mitsubishi Mirage has become the most popular hatchback eco-car in the Thai market, driving away with a 49% market share as of January.

Since being launched in the first quarter last year, 49,296 Mirages have been sold - almost 50% of Mitsubishi's sales volume in Thailand, said president of Thai operations Nobuyuki Murahashi.

The Mirage is a global compact car produced at a new third factory at MMTh's Laem Chabang Plant, the largest Mitsubishi plant and export hub outside Japan. As of last month, at least 109,300 vehicles were produced, with 54% (almost 58,800 units) being for the domestic market and 46% (50,500 units) for export.

"For the Thai market, we still have about 10,000 back orders and customers have to wait for approximately two months," he said.

As for export markets, Murahashi said the Mirage was introduced in Brunei in June, Japan in August, Indonesia in September, the Philippines and Malaysia in November, Bangladesh and Australia in January and New Zealand in February, followed by European markets. Up to date, Mitsubishi has exported 21,500 Mirages to Japan.

"We got a very warm welcome from export markets, especially Japan. The Mirage has been given good reviews by Japanese auto magazines," he pointed out.