1984 Mitsubishi Mighty Max Turbo Diesel Pickup (same As Dodge D50 Turbo Diesel) on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Nissan and Renault shelve merger plans, will repair their alliance

Renault and Nissan have shelved plans to push towards the full merger former leader Carlos Ghosn craved and will instead fix their troubled alliance to try to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, five senior sources told Reuters. Nissan has long resisted Renault's proposals for a full-blown merger as executives felt the French carmaker was not paying its fair share for the engineering work it did in Japan, sowing discord that some feared could wreck the partnership. Now, with carmakers around the world reeling from the pandemic, the partners are planning to overhaul an alliance that largely failed to convert its global scale into a competitive advantage beyond the joint procurement of parts. Both struggling carmakers are set to announce mid-term restructuring plans this week that will serve as a peace treaty designed to resolve the long-standing tensions, five people familiar with the overhaul told Reuters. "After the rain, the earth hardens," said one senior Nissan source, citing a popular Japanese proverb that means relationships become stronger after a period of strife. All five sources within the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi, declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak with media. Nissan and Renault are each planning substantial restructuring and cost cuts that could affect tens of thousands of jobs, with the Japanese company to announce its measures on May 28 and its French partner likely to follow the next day. Before that, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault are holding a joint news conference on May 27 during which they are expected to outline the philosophy behind their new "leader-follower" approach to the alliance. The sources said the companies were unlikely to disclose many details at the events this week of how the new approach will be used to share costs as the companies were still working on specific projects. However, the crisis at both carmakers has accelerated efforts to resolve the disagreements that have stymied collaboration and cost-sharing in technology and product development for five years, the sources said. Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault all declined to comment officially about alliance plans. 'Leader-follower' The alliance has steadily ramped up output over the years, delivering over 10 million vehicles for the first time in 2017, the first full year after Mitsubishi joined the partnership.

2022 Mitsubishi Outlander teased, drifted, muddied

If you've been eagerly awaiting the fourth-generation Mitsubishi Outlander, today is your lucky day. Mitsubishi finally has a debut date for the 2022 edition: February 16, 2021, and the venue will be an online video on the Mitsubishi Motors North America's YouTube channel. That's still three weeks from now, but that channel has a teaser video of the the new SUV in action. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In it, a camouflaged Outlander does its best Lancer Evolution impression, drifting along in gravel and snow. It also does some light mud bogging and fording of some pretty shallow water. A Montero this is not. In fact, it's not even all Mitsubishi. As part of Nissan's majority stake ownership in Mitsubishi Motors, the Outlander is expected to share a platform and many major components with the latest Nissan Rogue. That even includes Nissan's 181-horsepower, 2.5-liter inline-four mated to a CVT for entry-level models. Of course, the Outlander is also known for its plug-in hybrid variants, and the PHEV might use a 2.4-liter mill with Mitsubishi's own plug-in system. That could see a near doubling of the battery-only range, from 22 to 43 miles. Mitsubishi claims that the new vehicle will combine "everything we know about on and off-road driving put into a single Outlander. Its lead engineer, Kentaro Honda, expands on that, saying, "We took everything we know about on- and off-road driving from the rally experiences to apply the latest Super All-Wheel Control technology in our newly developed platform." If we were to guess, PHEV models will use Mitsubishi's dual-motor Super All-Wheel Control system. The latter will also feature the Evo's yaw control, which can split torque between the front and rear wheels, or between the front wheels alone. One thing that's clear from the videos is that the Outlander will maintain the look of the Engelberg Tourer concept shown in 2019. While the naked Outlander was leaked last month, this camouflaged version confirms the bold design. If you would like to see the live reveal online, tune in to on the 16th at 3:00pm.

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.