Mitsubishi News: Rumorpile: Mitsubishi Evolution to Reappear As High-Performance Hybrid Crossover

[William Maley]

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution will be bowing out at the end of 2015, but the Evolution name could be coming back on a high-performance hybrid crossover if the base model proves to be popular.

Autocar spoke with boss of Mitsubishi, Tetsuro Aikawa who said “In the future, we would like to launch such a vehicle with Evo characteristics. In Japanese, when you pronounce ‘Oh’ [in Evo], it means ‘king’. So we would like to launch this type of car, featuring EV and PHEV technology, which is the ultimate of its kind. ‘EV’ for electric vehicle, ‘O’ for king - Evo.”

The next Evolution is expected to be based on the next-generation ASX crossover (Outlander Sport sold in the U.S.) which is expected to look something like the XR-PHEV II concept shown at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. The new model is expected to have all-wheel drive and take lessons from Mitsubishi's Pikes Peak racer, the MiEV Evolution. However, don't expect the next Evolution come anytime soon.

“To develop these kind of vehicles, we have to sell a lot of the base models, so we can cover the research and development costs.” said Aikawa.

Source: Autocar

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[G. David Felt]

That is smart to move to the popular CUV's and move the Evolution name from a 4 door sedan to the crossover.