A major car manufacturer’s dealers are to sell new cars right off its British Motor Show stand for the first time.

Mitsubishi’s UK importer, the Colt Car Company, is clearing out the traditional stand dollies in a bid to make the July event pay. Sales and marketing director Lance Bradley told AM: “We haven’t yet decided where the dealers will come from, and we might invite all 140, but it would probably be the ones who are closest to the show.”

The show has moved from its long-term home at the NEC in Birmingham to London’s ExCeL venue in the Docklands.

Bradley also revealed there will be no sales target, adding: “The dealers will try to close the deal there and then on the stand, but it will depend other things, for example, if there’s a vehicle to part-exchange.”

Mitsubishi will be showing the L200 pick-up, the Colt Cabriolet and possibly the i, a supermini that is being considered for sale in the UK.