From 1 April through to 31 December 2010, the Tokyo-based carmaker posted an operating profit of 13.0 billion yen (€115.3 million), an improvement of 32.8 billion yen (€291 million) over the same period last fiscal year. The increase in sales volume together with factors such as reductions in material and other costs more than countered the negative impact of the higher yen.

And for the same period, Mitsubishi reported an ordinary profit of 11.4 billion yen (€101 million), an improvement of 32.6 billion yen (€289.2 million), and posted a net loss of 2.2 billion yen (€19.5 million), an improvement of 23.5 billion yen (€208.5 million) over the same period last fiscal year.

Global retail sales volume for the first three quarters of fiscal 2010 totalled 807,000 vehicles; an increase of 17% over the same period last year.

However, profits dived in Q3 due to increased operating expenses and foreign exchange losses. For the three months to 31 December, Mitsubishi posted a net profit of 2.68 billion yen (€23.8 million) compared with a net profit of 10.7 billion yen (€94.9 million) a year earlier.

Revenue rose 18% to 446.17 billion yen (€3.96 billion) while operating profit declined 52% to 6.08 billion yen (€53.9 million).

The company said it's sticking to its overall 2010 full-year sales volume plan of 1,124,000 units published on 28 October 2010 and has also said that it will leave its full-year forecasts (net sales of 1.9 trillion yen (€16.9 billion), operating profit of 45 billion yen (€399.2 million), ordinary profit of 30 billion yen (€266.2 million) and net profit of 15 billion yen (€133.1 million) published at the beginning of fiscal 2010 unchanged.