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.
Evos don’t understeer, though.
The Evo name was on the Lancer, but the Rally Mitsu was Galant, and before that there were the Starion and probably some others I do not even know of. They could pull a Subaru and make a standalone Evo model, but apparently Subaru does not sell much of those anymore.
While I still am against SUVs and especially sporty SUVs that are just fast and not much else, my brain and my heart could be tamed with an heavily modded Eclipse Cross, the same way the Lan-Evo was kind of not a Lancer anymore. It would make sense since SUVs outsell everything else and they would not have to engineer a complete vehicle, just heavily rework an existing model.
Something something Eclipse Evolution? A wide knuckle-dragging, ground-hugging AWD little monster, I would not even be pissed if they lightened the driveline of the weight complications of traditional AWD by making it hybrid or plug-in hybrid with the rear wheels being all electric if they put the batteries super low to give it a lower center of gravity than usual SUVs.
A turbo engine aimed at peak power with the MPGs of an hybrid and a storied name, what is not to like? (apart from it being an SUV…)
If it isn’t ICE then it isn’t worth doing.