At the Japan Mobility Show Mitsubishi’s stand was filled with mostly kei cars, vans, and SUVs. It was a sad state for the once great purveyor of performance. However one executive, Kaoru Sawase, said that the dream of the Lancer Evolution is still alive at the company.
Sawase is referred to as the “godfather” of the company’s S-AWC, or Super All-Wheel-Control technology, which debuted on the Evo X. The system integrated the car’s ABS, active center diff, active yaw control, and active stability control in order to distribute torque to each corner of the chassis.
“We have a dream, of course, for Lancer Evolution,” Sawase told Australia’s Drive, adding, “It’s my personal dream.” He also told the publication that “We have a variety, a range of technologies on-hand.” This hints at S-AWC, which has been updated for the plug-in hybrid system of the current Outlander.
Sawase indicated that if greenlit, the next Evo would be electrified in some way. “Naturally, considering the global [environment], the times, that will be the direction that we will be going,” he said.
The question of which platform the Evo would be based on remains. Traditionally, it has been based on the Lancer, but Mitsubishi no longer builds the Lancer model, Production ended in 2016, but Taiwan’s China Motor Corporation continued to build a version of it until 2024. Does the Evo require a base Lancer, or a rally-bred heritage, for that matter, to warrant a revival?
I always thought they should’ve put the engine from the last Evo in the Mirage. Not the AWD system or anything fancy like that, just fast, light and cheap.