2003 Mitsubishi Montero Limited on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi Concept GC-PHEV could hint at next-gen Montero [w/video]

In desperate need of some competitive new products, Mitsubishi showed up at the Tokyo Motor Show with three concept vehicles. The most important of them might just be this fullsize Concept GC-PHEV (Grand Cruiser). With its full-time four-wheel-drive system and roughly the right package size, we can only hope it hints at a future design for the Pajero/Montero.
Longer, taller and wider than the current Pajero (which is still offered in other markets), the Concept GC-PHEV is a big SUV with a fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid powertrain. A 335-horsepower, 3.0-liter supercharged V6 and an eight-speed automatic transmission are paired with a 94-hp electric motor and high-capacity battery to provide some serious brawn in a green wrapper. The result is targeted fuel consumption of 15 kilometers/liter on the Japanese cycle (around 35 miles per gallon) to go with an all-electric driving range of more than 25 miles.
Mitsubishi's styling team has arguably done a much better job with this Tokyo trio than we've seen from recent new products like the Outlander and Mirage, possibly suggesting a future design language for the automaker. In true concept car fashion, the design is Concept GC-PHEV is over the top, but it's not hard to imagine a vehicle of this size with similar cues gracing the Mitsubishi lineup at some point in the near future. Likewise, while the concept's interior only seats four, the sheer size of this vehicle could easily allow three rows of seats for a production model.

Mitsubishi looks to crossovers and EVs for US success

Say what you will about Mitsubishi, but the Japanese automaker is slowly seeing a resurgence here in the United States. December 2015 marked the company's twenty-second consecutive month of year-over-year sales increases, and looking at last year as a whole, Mitsubishi's sales were up 23 percent over 2014. Ken Konieczka, Mitsubishi's vice president of sales operations, says that in order to stay successful, the company will bet big on crossovers and electric vehicles in the coming years. And that means a relatively aggressive product plan here in the US. First up, a brand-new CUV will launch in early 2018, previewed by the eX Concept that debuted at last year's Tokyo Motor Show (pictured). Konieczka says Mitsubishi is making room for this new crossover in its lineup – the Outlander will slowly get bigger, and the Outlander Sport will get smaller. The production version of the eX will slot between those two. Speaking of the Outlander siblings, both will be replaced in the next five years. A new, larger Outlander will arrive in 2019, and the smaller Outlander Sport will arrive in 2020. To fulfill the electric side of the business, Konieczka confirms the next Outlander Sport will sprout an EV variant, and the Outlander plug-in hybrid will launch in the United States later in 2016, as a 2017 model. As for the rest of the company's portfolio, Mitsubishi will offer the updated Mirage hatchback and new G4 sedan later this year. The future for the Lancer, however, looks grim. Konieczka says Mitsubishi still can't find an OEM partner to help create and produce a new Lancer, and our gut says the compact sedan will be phased out in the very near future. "We made a lot of mistakes," Konieczka admits, saying Mitsubishi was "spread too thin [and] had too many models" in the past. This new, more focused approach on EVs and crossovers certainly sounds promising, and will hopefully help Mitsubishi continue its slow growth here in the US market. Still, we won't know for sure until the new products actually reach showrooms. But for now, at least, things are steadily on the rise.

Mitsubishi cheated on Japanese fuel economy test since 1991

Mitsubishi now says that its cheating on Japanese fuel economy tests stretches as far back as 1991. The automaker has hired an independent panel of investigators to get to the bottom of what happened, and the company will give them three months to prepare a report about the deception. Mitsubishi's cheat involves how the company calculated driving resistance to determine fuel economy. In 1991, Japan's Road Transport Vehicle Act established a coasting test to establish the driving resistance, but Mitsubishi's engineers used their own "high-speed coasting test," according to its statement. In 2007, the company decided to only use the country's mandated evaluation, but the employees kept utilizing the high-speed test in the field. In the most recent scandal, workers selected low values for driving resistance from the results, which made the fuel economy look better. Mitsubishi's presented these details in a report to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. "We are currently investigating the reasoning behind each of the decisions," the company said in a statement. It also hired three former prosecutors to figure out why this happened for so long. At this time, Mitsubishi only confirms the incorrect figures for some of the company's minicars, but this investigation could discover more transgressions. This fiasco started when Nissan discovered fuel economy discrepancies in some of its Mitsubishi-made tiny kei-class cars in Japan. Mitsubishi came clean and admitted the problem affected about 625,000 vehicles in the country. Japanese media have alleged more vehicles have incorrect mileage, including the Outlander. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US has also requested data from the Japanese automaker to confirm similar deceptions didn't happen for vehicles here. Related Video: Regarding the Report to MLIT Concerning Improper Conduct in Fuel Consumption Testing of Vehicles Manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation Tokyo, April 26, 2016 The following is a summary of the report submitted by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) today, pursuant to instructions received from MLIT on April 20 to investigate improper conduct in fuel consumption testing of vehicles manufactured by MMC. Report Summary 1.