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2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Practice Day 3

The third practice day of the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is done. While the other classes got running time on the middle and top sections of the course, qualifying times were set on the bottom section of the course for the Open, Open Wheel, Electric, Exhibition and Vintage classes.
Everyone managed to keep it on the black stuff today, Greg Tracy setting the fastest time ahead of Hiroshi Masuoka, both men driving the Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution II four-wheel-drive prototype. Not even half a second behind Masuoka came Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima in his Monster Sport E-Runner, who has taken about 18 seconds off his time since the first practice day. Rod Millen was the fourth fastest on the day in his Toyota TMG EV POO2.
Topping the Open Wheel class was Clint Vahsholtz, followed by Donner Billingsley, Andy Figueroa and Rodney O'Maley. The only driver in that class not to be given a time today was Dan Novembre. Kenshiro Gushi took the Exhibition class today as his Lexus IS F CCS-R made it up the mountain in 4:27.248, followed by Sage Marie in the Honda CR-Z at 5:19.591. Simon Pagenaud and his Honda Odyssey weren't classified.

The 100,000th EV sold in the US is... a Mitsubishi i-MiEV

The news here isn't that 100,000 EVs have been sold in the US, although that's quite the accomplishment. It's that the 100,000th car is a Mitsubishi i-MiEV - a car that takes nearly a full day to recharge on a standard outlet and can only travel about 62 miles per charge (according to the car's Monroney).
Jabs at the Mitsubishi aside, the fact that US dealers have moved 100,000 electric cars is made more impressive in that it's only been done since the latest generation of EVs arrived, typified by the Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric and aforementioned i-MiEV. Chronologically, that means roughly the last two years. It's a number that we can only expect to climb, as EVs gain a stronger foothold among manufacturers and consumers.
Plug In America, an EV advocacy group, crunched the numbers for a contest called #PIA100K, to find the lucky buyer, who would be given a ClipperCreek Level 2 charger (which takes the i-MiEV's recharge time down to just seven hours). The winner, Rich Salmon of Grand Bay, Alabama, picked up his i-MiEV from Pete Moore Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi to offer new Galant, Montero in US?

We admit it - we've been skeptical about Mitsubishi's fortunes here in the US for a long time now, and this month's reveal of the 2014 Mirage subcompact at the New York Auto Show didn't do much to quell our consternation. Yes, the Mirage should attract a certain portion of the buying population based on what will likely be the best fuel economy figures in its segment and a low price, but the profitability of basic small cars is limited even under the best of circumstances. Mitsubishi is clearly going to need something meatier in its portfolio if it wants to get back on track financially.
Help appears to be on the way. According to The Detroit Free Press, Masatoshi Hasegawa, the company's executive vice president here in North America, has confirmed that at least two more models are destined for the company's US dealerships, and it looks like they're going to be entries into higher-volume, higher-margin segments. Hasegawa pledges that the company will overhaul its lineup over the next two to three years, and one of them will be a successor to the often-ignored Galant, a midsize sedan we last saw for the 2012 model year.
And what of the other model? Apparently it will be an unnamed "bigger brother" for the new 2014 Outlander, an acknowledgment that suggests Mitsubishi is considering bringing its Montero/Pajero SUV back to the States. Earlier this month, we heard a report that a next-generation model for the venerable off-roader remains a few years out, but it's possible Mitsubishi might import the current aging model before the new one is produced. A big shift is said to be in the works for the fifth-generation model, with a massive weight loss and possible plug-in hybrid variant tipped as top goals for the program.