Thanks for the link. Buried in that story, you'll see evidence of the way in which they are committed to the plug-in hybrid lineup. At this point in time, their battery production can't match the demands for their products. Not being able to keep up with demand is a good place to be in business.

I believe they recently sold 8,000 PHEV Outlanders for the Netherlands alone. That is more than all the PHEVs sold by all the manufacturers in the U.S. combined last month.

 

Yepp...

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/01/22...n-netherlands/

 

Think about it...you never have to refill or recharge and you have limitless power. Not a bad idea huh?

 

He was asked about the Evo and he said "we have other priorities" or did I read that wrong?

 

Maybe? I would think that he meant that in the sense of, "We have to walk before we run." Right now, the Outlander PHEV has the potential to have much more demand than a hybrid EVO, and Mitsubishi can barely keep up with the battery demands for Outlander production.

If Mitsubishi is serious about this transition, they are going to need to do something about their battery suppliers. GS Yuasa/Panasonic supply batteries to a number of different companies, so in that regard, Mitsubishi is nothing but another customer. GM would have had a similar problem with LG if the Chevy Volt had been a higher demand vehicle right out of the gate, but regardless, the creation of a dedicated battery manufacturing plant stateside (a short drive from the Volt manufacturing plant) helped GM cut the Volt's price by $4,000.

Basically, everything comes down to batteries right now. Many people believe that the Toyota has it right with the Prius model (very small battery, so easier to keep up with demand); however, the Prius is THE reason most people believe electric/hybrid vehicles have anemic performance. The Volt is nearly 800 lbs heavier than the Prius (most of that coming from battery weight), yet the Volt's purely electric 0-60 time is nearly 3 seconds faster than the Prius (despite the Prius also using the gas engine to accelerate). Why? Because the Volt's battery is over double the size of even the plug-in Prius's battery and can supply the current necessary to accelerate that quickly. Then there is the Tesla Model S, with a 4 second 0-60 time. Again, it is only able to do so because the battery can supply enough current.

Mitsubishi knows all of that, which is why the are attempting to "right size" their batteries. Personally, I think it is the correct approach. The transition from gas to hybrid, and from hybrid to electric should be very seamless and smooth. You should experience the same (or better) performance in a hybrid as you do in the gas version of the vehicle. The only difference that should be obvious is the decreased fueling costs. The difficulty they will have is in sourcing a 10-12 kWh battery pack for every vehicle, while Toyota only needs to source a 1.4 kWh battery pack for each Prius.

 

I'm not in any way opposed to what you're saying. Nevertheless, he was asked about the company lineup's evolution (no pun intended), which was in my opinion the exact right place to mention that the performance model hasn't been left outside the company's short/mid/long (pick any) -term planning. He could even spin the performance+environment angle. My thinking is, if the the next Evo IS in development he could easily have thrown a morsel of information.

 

Bad news:

For germany, the Mitsubishi Germany Dealers were informed that the last Production run of the Evo Series will be May 2014...
Last orders will be friday 31st this month.

In the letter its clear:
in German:
"Diese Ära geht nun zu Ende. Die finale Evolutionsstufe, der Lancer Evolution wird im Mai diesen Jahres zum letzten Mal produziert."

in English:
"This era ends now. The Final Evolution, the Lancer Evolution will be produced the last time in May of this year"

Its possible that the Last production run for the USDM market is a bit later, since Mitsubishi always did the runs by Market.

 

Were we suprised we knew this coming.
Now lets hope the next EVOLUTION is just that.
better then before.
if not so many option to buy from other companies and keep my 9 as a weekend cruise missile.

 

Goodbye Evo.

 

who did not see it coming? daimlerbenz bought mitsubishi then studied the 2.0L and sold it back for cheap. now they are making 2.0L turbo versions in all their lineup. poor Evo history.

 

I was unaware that DaimlerBenz bought Mitsubishi. I knew they had bought controlling interest in Chrysler at one time ( spun as a 'merger of equals' ), and they plundered the engine lineup there. Then I think Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Marketing Group. Then to Fiat.

Are you sure Mitsu was bought by anyone?

Also, I don't see Mitsu getting rid of the Evo. I think it will be a different form, though.

 

Yeah, that says the Lancer Evo will be no more. It could still have a successor under a different platform/name. I would rather the hybrid Evo have a different badge anyway.

 

if mbz thought the 4g63/4b11t was their 2L benchmark, it seems that they could have bought a bunch of each and reverse engineered them for a lot less money and hassle than buying/reselling mitsu. buying/reselling does presumably provide access to design drawings and performance data... interesting to ponder what that's worth these days when 3d models can be assembled by scanning and serial slicing.

 

Huh? Are you talking about DSM years? Mitsubishi has some ties to Renault, Nissan, and Peugeot now, but nothing left with the DCZ days. They are their own company.

There is nothing about the Mercedes M133 that is remotely similar to the 4G63 or 4B11. It's DI and very, very German.

http://www.mercedes-amg.com/engineer...?section=20l4c

 

the reason they purchased mitsubishi was to corner the small car market worldwide according to the DBZ pres. I was surprised when he sold it back a few months or a year later.