MITSUBISHI Motors Phils. Corp. has Thursday expressed its bid to further strengthen sales in 2013.

MMPC President Hikosaburo Shibata said that the company is eyeing to sell 43,000 vehicles next year, significantly more than its record set in 1996 of 36,533 vehicles sold.

“I’m very happy that the Philippine market is increasing year by year. I hope this trend will continue,” Shibata said.

MMPC Vice President for Marketing Froilan Dytianquin said that the company will likely hit sales of 35,000 units to 36,000 units by the end of the year. He added that the recent launching of the Mitsubishi Mirage boosted the performance of MMPC’s passenger cars.

Out of the 1,292 Mitsubishi cars sold last month, 1,000 were Mirages and the remainder were 1.6-liter variants of the Lancer EX.

Dytianquin said that from Janurary to November, some 31,500 Mitsubishi units were sold, and that MMPC is “banking heavily” on the strong sales of the Mirage and two yet-to-be-launched models—a passenger car and a commercial vehicle—to reach the company’s target next year.

MMPC Executive Vice President Taizo Furuhashi said that in November alone, the carmaker sold 3,840 vehicles—its highest monthly sales volume in its 49 years of operations.

“2012 is MMPC’s sixth straight year to register growth in sales volume,” he said, adding that the brand will release upgraded models in 2013.