2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Gts Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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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

New Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV coming before the end of the year

Mitsubishi was the first automaker to market with an all-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid crossover, the Outlander PHEV, which went on sale in some parts of the world as long ago as 2013. It hit the U.S. market in 2016 as a 2017 model and was just updated for 2021 with a more powerful electrified drivetrain and a bigger battery pack. But it was still based on the old Outlander architecture instead of the completely new non-PHEV Outlander that launched as a 2022 model and shared a lot of its underpinnings with the Nissan Rogue. Now Mitsubishi says an all-new Outlander PHEV will hit its home market of Japan before the calendar closes on 2021 and will debut in the States in the middle of 2022. As expected, it will be built on the automaker's latest crossover chassis, a vastly improved platform that benefits greatly from the automaker's partnerships with Nissan and Renault. We don't have any specific details, but Mitsubishi says we can expect "improved motor output and increased battery capacity over the current model." That means "more powerful road performance and greater driving range." As competent as the current Outlander PHEV is, more power, greater range and improved driving dynamics courtesy of a new chassis are all excellent benefits, which is good since the Outlander PHEV faces awfully tough competition, particularly in the form of the Toyota RAV4 Prime. Plus, the new Outlander PHEV has an ace up its sleeve: Mitsubishi says this of its upcoming PHEV: "integrated components and an optimized layout allow the new model to accommodate seven passengers in three rows." That's all we know so far. But as soon as we have more details, so will you. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Practice Day 3

The third practice day of the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is done. While the other classes got running time on the middle and top sections of the course, qualifying times were set on the bottom section of the course for the Open, Open Wheel, Electric, Exhibition and Vintage classes.
Everyone managed to keep it on the black stuff today, Greg Tracy setting the fastest time ahead of Hiroshi Masuoka, both men driving the Mitsubishi MiEV Evolution II four-wheel-drive prototype. Not even half a second behind Masuoka came Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima in his Monster Sport E-Runner, who has taken about 18 seconds off his time since the first practice day. Rod Millen was the fourth fastest on the day in his Toyota TMG EV POO2.
Topping the Open Wheel class was Clint Vahsholtz, followed by Donner Billingsley, Andy Figueroa and Rodney O'Maley. The only driver in that class not to be given a time today was Dan Novembre. Kenshiro Gushi took the Exhibition class today as his Lexus IS F CCS-R made it up the mountain in 4:27.248, followed by Sage Marie in the Honda CR-Z at 5:19.591. Simon Pagenaud and his Honda Odyssey weren't classified.