⁍ Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors faced doubts about a quick recovery after posting dismal quarterly sales in its key Southeast Asia market.

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⁍ Sales in Southeast Asian countries, which normally account for a quarter of its global sales, plunged nearly 70% to make up just 17% of total sales.

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⁍ Some experts say that Mitsubishi’s sales recovery may lag other automakers and complicate a restructuring plan that it detailed on Monday.

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– Shares in Mitsubishi Motors hit an all-time low Tuesday after the Japanese automaker reported its worst-ever quarterly sales and projected its biggest loss in at least 18 years, Reuters reports. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mitsubishi sold just 139,000 vehicles in the April-June quarter, a 53% drop from the year before. Southeast Asia was the main culprit, with sales in the region down 70%. “ASEAN was meant to be its growth driver and was even positioned as its key attractive point to the Renault-Nissan Alliance,” says analyst Mio Kato of LightStream Research. “ASEAN sales have collapsed and it is now generating losses.” Mitsubishi’s shares fell 12% to 236 yen on Tuesday, marking a lifetime low since its 1988 listing. The shares have nearly halved this year. Some analysts were sanguine about the company’s longer term outlook and backed its recovery strategy. “In the short term Southeast Asia is not going to work that well for them, but in the longer term it’s the right thing for them to do,” says Chris Richter of CLSA.