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Turns out Mitsubishi's history is far more interesting than we thought

Former Autoblog editor-in-chief Mike Austin was kind enough to drop this little nugget onto Twitter yesterday: the history of Mitsubishi timeline on the company's press website. Basically, it's a virtual museum, spanning from the 1917 Mitsubishi Model A to the 2008 Galant Fortis Sportback. Frankly, it's not that surprising that they didn't go much further beyond that, but still, the timeline provides both a fun trip down memory lane and an introduction to fun and/or wacky JDM models we never got.  Besides showing photos, there's actually a sizable amount of info for each, which has quite clearly and often delightfully been translated from Japanese. Take the New Minica Toppo that "adopted a 1:2 door configuration with a single door on the driver's side and two doors on the passenger side (think a Hyundai Veloster), as well as a 'Super High Roof' that added 70 mm to the height of the standard roof ... Addressing the desire to drive something a little different, the lineup was soon joined by a number of variants with personalities designed to bring more fun to the class and including the recreation specification Carabosse, the young mother and baby-oriented Marble, and the Town Bee with its round frog-eye headlamps projecting just forward of the leading edge of the engine hood." Also, check out those diagonal door handles. There are more than just JDM kei car oddities, however. There's the Mitsubishi FTO, which you may remember from Gran Turismo and other racing video games from back in the day. It was "a car that delivered fun-to-drive qualities in abundance (and) was selected 1994-1995 Japan Car of the Year." If you didn't know, it was called the FTO because it slotted below the Mitsubishi GTO, the car you know as the 3000GT. I didn't know that before. Thanks, timeline! There's also the off-roady JDM Delica vans that are now all over the Pacific Northwest having surpassed the 25-year import embargo. The 1994 Delica Space Gear (above left) was notable in that it moved the engine under the hood rather than beneath the front seats where it was previously (above right with the Delica Star Wagon), but according to the timeline "The Gear variant name was added in the belief that customers would become attached to it as a familiar 'piece of gear' for leisure and everyday purposes." Judging by the ones I see around here in Portland, mission accomplished. "Suspension was by double wishbone at the front and a 5-link with coil spring arrangement at the rear.

2023 Japan Mobility Show Editors' Picks

No, it's no longer called the Tokyo Motor Show, but the Japan Mobility Show is still in Tokyo and it still has to do with motors. In fact, with the rise of EVs, it's more of a motor show than ever before. And there were an astounding number of motors (and engines) to see, or at least concepts that hypothetically have them. Truly, we haven't seen a turnout this amazing since before the pandemic.  As such, the 2023 Japan Mobility Show featured plenty of machines that could, and did, snag points from our editors. And yet, even with the massive field, one car, unequivocally, stole our hearts. Read on to see our favorites.   Toyota Land Cruiser Se concept View 4 Photos 5. (Tie) Toyota Land Cruiser Se  While this concept is not quite the off-roader that the Land Cruiser is known to be, a street-focused electric SUV seems like a fine fit for the Toyota portfolio. It's hard to imagine we won't see an electric Land Cruiser come to production one day, filling out that as-yet underrepresented three-row EV segment. Give us an even more rugged version, and we'll be happy — Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder   Subaru Sport Mobility Concept View 7 Photos 5. (Tie) Subaru Sport Mobility I'm still waiting for a fun, electric sport coupe, and as much as I enjoy the likes of the rear-drive BRZ, I could have some serious fun in something like this all-wheel-drive Subaru Sport Mobility year round. I could fill that hole in my heart left by my '04 WRX. — Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder   Toyota EPU concept View 4 Photos 4. Toyota EPU You know what I like? Useful, funky little vehicles. The Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz fit that bill well, and it seems a lot of other people like them, too, based on demand. You know what I also like? EVs. You know what combines those two things? The Toyota EPU. Assuming it was priced fairly reasonably (well below $40,000 is what I'm thinking), I would seriously be looking at getting one. I also seriously hope that Toyota's seriously looking at launching this, because it seems like a seriously great package. Seriously. — News Editor Joel Stocksdale   Mitsubishi D:X Concept View 8 Photos 3. Mitsubishi D:X Concept We sure do wish Mitsubishi sold the Delica here in the United States. We've long been fans of the van, which initially was sold in rear-wheel-drive form but adopted four-wheel drive in the early 1980s, and judging by the numbers we see imported to the States, we're not the only ones.

Mitsubishi says it will make money from EVs

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the lowest-cost plug-in vehicle available in the US. The spartan EV's small price tag shouldn't lead you to believe the company doesn't see dollar signs where there's a plug. Mitsubishi says that electric vehicles are one of the three profitable segments that have helped the company get back into the black. The other two are light trucks and crossovers. We suspect that the resounding success of the Outlander PHEV played a bigger role in this than the i-MiEV, but you never know. Mitsubishi Motors Corp president Tetsuro Aikawa told Automotive News that the company will keeps its focus on those three segments and ease back on sedans and performance cars. To that end, the Outlander Plug-In Hybrid will come to the US next April, many years after it went on sale in Japan and Europe. The vehicle will fit well with Mitsubishi's plans to shift its strategy to SUVs and CUVs here. Related Video: