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Mitsubishi to showcase eX crossover concept in Tokyo

The Tokyo Motor Show is coming up at the end of the month, and Mitsubishi isn't about to sit it out. That's where the Diamond Star automaker will unveil the eX Concept pictured here. The electric crossover concept packs what the company terms as a "next-generation EV system" into what looks at first blush like a rather dramatic design. Mitsubishi is telling us next to nothing about the eX and its specifications. However, it indicates that the concept incorporates an all-electric powertrain, all-wheel drive, an automated driving system, vehicle connectivity, and active safety systems. The automaker has also only revealed the one rendering above, but it bears all the hallmarks of a modern Mitsubishi concept like the ones we've seen in recent years. That includes the company's signature Diamond Shield front grille, flanked by narrow, angular headlights and oversized running lamps. Naturally, this concept rides on oversized wheels and boasts spindly little mirrors, all in an effort to tell us this is a bonafide show car and not a pre-production prototype. We'll look forward to seeing more in the near future, but in the meantime you can delve into what little Mitsubishi is telling us at this point in the press release below. Related Video: MITSUBISHI MOTORS LINEUP AT 44TH TOKYO MOTOR SHOW – ANOTHER STEP FORWARD WITH SUVS AND ELECTRIC POWER 08/10/15 from Mitsubishi Motors in the UK Print this page Add this release to Your Downloads TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) will unveil the Mitsubishi eX1 Concept, a compact SUV concept car, with a next-generation EV system at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show 20152. The concept car showcases MMC's next-generation electric vehicle (EV) technologies, a new take on the Dynamic Shield front design concept, and a vast range of other technologies for superior driving pleasure in a compact crossover package. MMC's display reflects the main theme of "Driving Beyond" – another step forward with SUVs and electric power. ELEGANCE & SUV & 100% ELECTRIC The Mitsubishi eX Concept is a vision for a unique all electric powered compact SUV aimed at the fast growing compact SUV market. It uses MMC's state-of-the art EV and all-wheel control technologies combined with automated driving, connected car, and active safety systems. Both exterior and interior design indicate the direction MMC Design is taking.

Junkyard Gem: 1989 Plymouth Colt E Hatchback

By the late 1960s, it had became clear to the suits at Detroit's Big Three that their companies needed to start selling subcompacts at home or risk losing large hunks of market share to the likes of Volkswagen and Toyota. Ford and GM developed the Pinto and Vega, but the much smaller Chrysler Corporation couldn't afford such an investment. Instead, the Chrysler Europe-built Hillman Avenger and Simca 1100 crossed the Atlantic and were given Plymouth Cricket and Simca 1204 badges, respectively, while ships full of Mitsubishi Colt Galants with Dodge badges headed east out of Japan. Those were Dodge Colts, sales of which began here in the 1971 model year. The Cricket and 1204 faded into well-deserved obscurity, but American car shoppers loved the Hemi-powered Colt. The Plymouth Division eventually got Colts of its own, and that's what we've got for today's Junkyard Gem. The US-market Colt jumped to the front-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Mirage for the 1979 model year, and that's when North American Plymouth dealerships (which had already been selling the Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste as the Arrow) got their own Mirages to sell. For 1979 through 1982, the Plymouth-badged Colt twin was known as the Champ, after which Chrysler decided that distinction just confused everybody. Then both Dodge and Plymouth (plus, starting in 1989, Eagle) offered near-identical Colts until just before the 1994 introduction of the Michigan-designed Neon. 1989 was the first model year for the more rounded sixth-generation Colt. By the time this car appeared in a showroom, Mitsubishi had been selling Mirages here for six years; this meant that American cars shoppers could choose among four mechanically-identical versions of the same car: the Dodge Colt, the Plymouth Colt, the Eagle Summit, and the Mitsubishi Mirage. All four versions had similar pricing, so it really came down to which badge you liked best and/or which company was offering the best rebates and financing deals at any given moment. The cheapest 1989 Plymouth Colt three-door hatch listed at $6,678 (about $16,340 in 2022 dollars), while the Dodge version cost… exactly the same amount. If you insisted on a sedan, however, you had to get the Summit or Mirage, because the Colt was available only in hatchback form for 1989. Meanwhile, Chrysler had been selling the Simca-derived Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon in the United States since the 1978 model year, with sales continuing all the way through 1990.

Weekly Recap: Toyota wants cars to be your 'close friends' around 2020

Toyota confirmed plans this week to launch autonomous technology in its production cars around 2020. The automaker's version is called Highway Teammate, and it's one element of a broader mobility strategy that includes vehicles communicating with each other and the grid. "Toyota believes that interactions between drivers and cars should mirror those between close friends who share a common purpose, sometimes watching over each other and sometimes helping each other out," the company said in a statement. That sounds utopian, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but it's an acknowledgment that autonomous driving requires more than technology developed in a vacuum. Toyota is looking at its research in a broader context, and dubs its overall strategy the Mobility Teammate Concept. Highway Teammate is the first step. Its test vehicle is a modified Lexus GS, which uses road-mapping data and external sensors to merge or exit highways, change lanes, and maintain safe distances during driving. It's operated on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo. Toyota has been working on autonomous tech since the 1990s, with the goal of providing mobility for older people and the disabled, as well as lowering the frequency of traffic accidents. Toyota's push comes as an early adopter, Nissan, is hedging on its own deadline to implement the autonomous tech by 2020 due to a lack of firm laws governing self-driving cars around the world. Conversely, Volvo took the landmark step of being the first automaker to accept liability for when its cars will operate in autonomous mode, and urged the US government to set federal guidelines to regulate the technology. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 BMW M4 GTS: Your water-injected, turbo-boosted demon BMW is unleashing its most powerful M4 ever, a 493-horsepower special edition that's road legal yet bred for the track. The company is making 700 copies for sale around the world, and 300 of them will come to the United States. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder revs to 7,600 rpm and uses a water-injection technology to cool the intake air and lower the compression temperature. BMW says this allows it to wring more power out of the inline six. The car also uses carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for the roof, hood, engine compartment strut brace, drive shaft, and rear spoiler to reduce weight. The M4 features BMW's organic light-emitting diode taillights, which are said to be an industry first.