1991 Mitsubishi 3000gt Vr-4 on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: vehicle electrification future, Indonesia biodiesel growth

Navigant Research expects electrified vehicles (including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles) to reach 6 million sales in 2024. That's up from 2.6 million sales in 2015. About half of those sales will be plug-in vehicles in 2024, up from 19 percent in 2015. To make its predictions, Navigant took into account automaker strategies, concept vehicles, regulations and incentives, electricity and oil prices, and charging infrastructure expectations over the 10-year timetable. Navigant also says that despite the massive changes in the last five years, the next five years will be "even more impactful to the global automotive and energy industries." Read more from Navigant Research, or at Green Car Congress. Indonesia's biodiesel consumption is expected to rise dramatically over the next year. While the nation used 291 to 317 million gallons in 2015, consumption levels for 2016 could surpass 2 billion gallons, depending on blending regulation enforcement. Indonesia raised the minimum biodiesel content in diesel fuel from 10 to 15 percent in 2015 while increasing biofuel subsidies. It will raise the blend minimum to 20 percent for 2016, and plans to increase it to 30 percent in 2020. Read more at Business Recorder. Scotland's national newspaper, The Scotsman, has awarded the title of Plug-In Vehicle of the Year to the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. The paper praised the car for its ability to live up to its "ecocredentials," as well as its all-around practicality. During its long-term test, Scotsman staff enjoyed using the 32.5 miles of electric driving range to commute to and from work. The Scotsman's Steven Chisholm called the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, "an exciting prospect for anyone looking for an SUV that's easy on the wallet as well as the environment." Read more at Inside EVs. Featured Gallery Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Concept-S: Paris 2014 View 12 Photos News Source: Navigant Research, Green Car Congress, Business Recorder, Inside EVsImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Government/Legal Green Mitsubishi Alternative Fuels Biodiesel Electric recharge wrapup

Nissan, Renault in talks to merge as one company

Nissan and Renault have been tied together as an alliance for nearly 20 years, but now the Japanese and French automakers are discussing whether to merge. Bloomberg, citing unidentified sources familiar with the confidential talks, reports that the idea is to form a larger, single publicly traded company to better compete against giants like Toyota and Volkswagen. It would also mark the end of the alliance that first began in 1999 and also includes Mitsubishi, in which Nissan acquired a controlling interest in 2016. A full merger would help the companies pool resources to develop electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and car-sharing services. It would involve Nissan giving Renault shareholders stock in the new company, with Nissan shareholders also gaining shares in the new company, Bloomberg reports. The new company would be run by Carlos Ghosn, the current chairman of both companies. But any such merger, as you might expect, would be complicated, in part by geopolitics. The French government owns a 15-percent stake in Renault, and both the French and Japanese governments might be reluctant to let go of their respective home-grown brands. Currently, Renault owns a 43-percent stake in Nissan, while Nissan owns 15 percent of its French partner. Reuters reported recently that Ghosn proposed buying most of the French government's stake in Renault as part of plans for a closer tie-up. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance already has been working to establish a $200 million mobility tech fund to invest in startups, a reflection of how seismic changes in the auto industry have left many legacy companies scrambling to stay current. Nissan in 2016 paid a reported $2.3 billion to acquire 34 percent of Mitsubishi in order to share platforms, technology, manufacturing and other resources. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Image Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg Earnings/Financials Government/Legal Green Mitsubishi Nissan Renault car sharing merger

Scrapyard Gem: 2008 Mitsubishi i

YORK, England — The mainstream EV is still a bit too young to be easy to find in the car graveyards I frequent (though I have documented a few, including Toyota's RAV4-based competitor to the GM EV1), but I remain hopeful that I'll run across a discarded Mitsubishi i-MiEV during my junkyard travels. This might be difficult, since Mitsubishi sold just over 2,000 examples of the short-range electrified kei car in the United States before discontinuing its sale here in 2016. However, I managed to find one of the i-MiEV's gasoline-fueled brethren in a knacker's yard across the Atlantic: a Mitsubishi i. Yes, I traveled to Northern England in January with the primary goal of visiting one of only two American-style self-service scrapyards in Great Britain (that's what they call them over here): the U-Pull-It in York, which is owned by Dallas-based Copart. You'll be seeing many interesting discarded vehicles from that all-too-brief trip, so be sure to check in here regularly. The i (there ought to be an international treaty forbidding the use of a single lower-case letter as the designation for a vehicle model, as well as vehicles with punctuation marks in their names) was built from the 2006 through 2013 model years. Supposedly its name refers to the pronunciation for the Japanese word for "love." In order to meet kei standards in its homeland, it was fitted with a rear-mounted engine displacing just 0.659 liters. It appears that the internal-combustion-powered i was built only in right-hand-drive configuration, so Mitsubishi limited exports to drive-on-the-left places such as Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The MSRP for a new 2008 i in the UK was GBP9,084, or about GBP14,173 after inflation (that's about $17,992 in 2024 dollars). It seems that the i was just too weird-looking and too slow to appeal to many British car shoppers. Today's Junkyard Scrapyard Gem was one of a mere 303 examples of the Mitsubishi i exported to Europe. The i was available only with a four-speed automatic transmission. The engine compartment refused to open, and I grew tired of beating up my frozen fingers trying to force it open in the 29°F chill of North Yorkshire on a January morning Â… so here's the best shot of the turbocharged DOHC three-banger I was able to get.