1995 Mitsubishi 3000gt Base Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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No one wants to buy Mitsubishi's only US plant

Mitsubishi Motors will very likely close its factory in Normal, IL, later this year after failing to find another company in the auto market to take over its only manufacturing site in the US. "We have given up looking for an automaker to buy the plant, but we are looking for possible buyers from other industries," a Mitsubishi spokesperson told Reuters. Mitsubishi announced plans to leave the site in 2015 to shift its business strategy toward Asia. The factory started as a joint venture with Chrysler in 1988 and was the only plant from a Japanese automaker in the US with a UAW-represented workforce. This was allegedly a sticking point when finding a buyer because other companies in the industry didn't want to take on the union employees' contract. The Normal factory ended assembly of the Outlander Sport in November 2015 and laid off 1,000 workers at that time. The site will continue to make car parts until May, and then Mitsubishi will let go of the remaining 250 employees. The costs of shutting down the factory could be as high as 30 billion yen ($255 million), but a company spokesperson wouldn't confirm that figure to Reuters. Mitsubishi's fortunes seem on the upswing in the US as of late. The company's deliveries jumped 22.8 percent in 2015 to a total of 95,342 vehicles, and the last fiscal year brought the automaker's first operating profit in this region in seven years. Related Video:

Japan readying first stealth fighter for 2016 test

This post is appearing on Autoblog Military, Autoblog's sub-site dedicated to the vehicles, aircraft and ships of the world's armed forces. The nation of Japan is somewhat unique in terms of the world's militaries. Following its loss in World War II, the country was stripped of its ability to wage war, and its military was reestablished nearly a decade later not as an aggressive force but as a self-defense force. Today, the Japanese constitution forbids the country from maintaining anything but its Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces. Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe first took office in September 2006 and continuing in his second term, which began in late 2012, Japan's military has seen something of a renaissance. Earlier this year, the country's legislature officially approved a new law that allowed Japan to use its military in international conflicts, even if there's no direct threat to the Home Islands. And even earlier still, Japan announced a desire to increase its drone capability. Now, like the US, Russia, and China, the country is preparing its own stealth fighter. Slated to take to the skies for its maiden flight in early 2016, the Advanced Technology Demonstrator X is a Mitsubishi-built plane that looks like the lovechild of an F-22 Raptor, an F-16 Falcon, and an F/A-18 Hornet. According to the attached video from Bloomberg, the ATD-X carries all the stealth fighter hallmarks. Its shape is designed to minimize its radar cross-section, while the body is coated in radar-absorbent material. And of course, the weapons systems are stored within underbelly bays. But why is Japan even testing it, especially when you consider the company placed an order for 42 F-35 Lightning IIs way back in 2011? Well, for one, it's going to be a lot more affordable than the F-35, which is the single most expensive weapons platform in human history. Where individual F-35s cost around $100 million, depending on what source you're looking at, Bloomberg reports that the ATD-X could be developed for just $324 million. Even if there are some utterly absurd cost overruns and the per-unit cost is closer to astronomical than affordable, putting together a fleet of production ATD-X's is probably going to be cheaper overall. You can hear more about why Japan is considering the ATD-X in the video down below. Check it out.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV delayed until early 2016 in US

The Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid has been a noteworthy success for the Japanese brand with over 33,000 sales sold worldwide as of the summer of 2014. Unfortunately, the electrified crossover has seen continual delays for its planned North American debut. The latest news about the model pushes back its launch even more. The Outlander PHEV now isn't slated to go on sale in the US until roughly April 2016, according to Mitsubishi North America Executive Vice President Don Swearingen in Automotive News. Dealers are clamoring for the plug-in hybrid crossover, though. "That is going to be a vehicle that really sets us apart from the competition," said Ryan Gremore, 2015 chairman of the Mitsubishi National Advisory Board, to AN. Multiple postponements have plagued the Outlander PHEV in arriving to the US. It was once rumored to launch here in the fall of 2014, but a battery shortage pushed the date to 2015. Subsequently, a California mandate to fit a sensor to monitor degradation of the lithium-ion batteries caused another delay until late 2015 or early 2016. In foreign markets, the Mitsubishi CUV plug-in offers a 12-kWh battery and electric driving range of about 30 miles. However once sales actually begin, the US version is supposed to be completely different with a retuned hybrid system, which could alter these figures. The styling and interior are also supposed to see a change, possibly like the attractively reskinned PHEV Concept-S from the 2014 Paris Motor Show.