Conferma per la seconda generazione del fortunato (?) ASX: arriverà nel 2016!

Mitsubishi has decided to stop making its own compact cars and focus on the booming SUV market, Masuko confirmed. He said the ASX compact SUV will be replaced in Europe in 2016

europe.autonews

Il futuro ASX trarrà spunto dal concept XR-PHEV che ormai gira da 3 anni per i vari saloni e la cui ultima evoluzione è stata presentata a Ginevra:

Mitsubishi’s Evo badge is being lined up for a return on a high-performance version of the upcoming second-generation ASX - provided the new car proves popular enough.Tetsuro Aikawa, boss of Mitsubishi, told Autocar: “In the future, we would like to launch such a vehicle with Evo characteristics. In Japanese, when you pronounce ‘Oh’ [in Evo], it means ‘king’. So we would like to launch this type of car, featuring EV and PHEV technology, which is the ultimate of its kind. ‘EV’ for electric vehicle, ‘O’ for king - Evo.”

This ‘ultimate vehicle’ is understood to be based on the next-gen ASX crossover, which was previewed by the XR-PHEV II concept at the Geneva motor show last month. A high-performance version would be four-wheel drive, in line with past Evos, and not front drive like the concept.

Aikawa said: “It has to be light and fast - something performance-oriented. That’s what we want.”

Lessons learned from the Pikes Peak racer, the MiEV Evolution, could aid the development of a hybrid high-performance SUV. However, Mitsubishi would not be drawn on when the new model may come to market, stating only that it would be “far in the future”, after the planned 2016 launch of the next ASX.

Aikawa said: “To develop these kind of vehicles, we have to sell a lot of the base models, so we can cover the research and development costs.”

Product boss Kanenori Okamoto has also previously said that the Evo will be “replaced in spirit by an SUV with high performance”.

A high-performance model that made use of Mitsubishi’s hybrid technologies would additionally further promote the brand’s efficiency-minded offerings, such as the popular Outlander PHEV.

The XR-PHEV II concept, in standard form, features a plug-in hybrid petrol-electric system with a claimed 160bhp output.

autocar.co.uk

Confermata la futura presenza di una EVO sottoforma di SUV sportivo PHEV... e molto probabilmente sarà proprio il futuro ASX a ricoprirne il ruolo.

Futuro ASX previsto addirittura per il 2019.

Speaking of the latter two models, a redesigned Outlander will arrive sometime after 2017 while a new Outlander Sport is slated to be introduced around 2019.

All three models will be offered with petrol engines but the Outlander Sport will also be offered as an electric vehicle. The Outlander and crossover coupe, on the other hand, will have plug-in hybrid variants.

WCF