Although Mitsubishi, as a brand, has faded as near completely from the U.S. market as can, it does still build one interesting car: the high-performance, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive Lancer Evolution. Ignore the bargain-basement Mirage, oddball Outlander, ho-hum Outlander Sport, and forgettable Lancer—the Evo is the only Mitsubishi worth devoting any thought to at all. And it's about to get a lot more interesting, if a report from Motor Trend is anything to go by.
Today, the Evolution is, for all intents and purposes, a highly worked-over Lancer sedan, at which Mitsu throws its fancy all-wheel-drive system with rear-axle torque vectoring, turbocharged 2.o-liter four, and a neat body kit. Motor Trend's sources indicate, however, that the next iteration will break from its Lancer roots, at the same time becoming a showcase for Mitsubishi's plug-in hybrid technology. Details are fuzzy, but it looks like the Evo could get some form of a hybridized powertrain with electric motors front and rear, a 1.1-liter turbocharged three-cylinder, as well as a ton of lightweight materials. The ultra-specialized propulsion system apparently will require its own bespoke platform, which MT says will lead to the car dropping the Lancer name, and potentially the Evo badge, too.
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As exciting as the proposition of a unique, hybridized neo-Evo is, we're skeptical that Mitsubishi could pull off such a car. Just look at Subaru, which originally intended to take its Evo competitor, the WRX, off of the Impreza platform for 2015—only to backpedal and end up sprinkling some high-performance gear and a new front end over the Impreza sedan. And, unlike Mitsubishi, Subaru is actually doing well financially, so the idea that the small, beleaguered manufacturer could build a relatively low-volume performance car with tons of new technology on a bespoke platform is nothing if not ambitious. Of course, we'd love to be proved wrong, but we'll have to wait until 2016 at the earliest to see.
from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com
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