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2017 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV arrives in the US after a long wait

After years of delays, the 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will finally go on sale in the US this fall, and the plug-in hybrid crossover will make its debut to the US public at the New York Auto Show. The model was originally supposed to arrive here in 2014, but various problems kept pushing back the date. The Outlander PHEV uses a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and an electric motor at each axle. A 12-kWh lithium-ion battery stores the energy. Depending on what the driver demands, the system can operate in three modes: full EV, series hybrid where the combustion engine acts as a generator for the battery, and parallel hybrid where the engine and motors work together. Mitsubishi isn't discussing US output or economy yet. Compared to the version in Europe and Japan, the company plans to tweak the Outlander PHEV for this market. The changes include things like removing support for CHAdeMO charging to due a lack of support here. When Mitsubishi showed the PHEV to journalists earlier this year, the styling was nearly identical to the standard Outlander. The only minor changes were the addition of the charging port and different badges. The Outlander PHEV will also be available with an array of safety and infotainment tech. For example, customers will be able to order a multi-camera system, Forward Collision Mitigation with pedestrian detection capability, Blind Spot Monitoring with Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and an infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER PHEV MAKES U.S. DEBUT AT THE 2016 NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW • 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV to go on sale in United States in fall 2016 • Already the top-selling PHEV in Europe, Outlander PHEV is the world's first plug-in hybrid SUV • Outlander PHEV delivers SUV capabilities and EV fuel economy NEW YORK, NY March 24, 2016 – Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) today showed the much-anticipated production model of the all-new 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) at the 2016 New York International Auto Show. The Outlander PHEV is a perfect culmination of Mitsubishi's history of automotive excellence: 50 years of electromobility and decades of four-wheel drive technology honed on the international rally circuit. Featuring a highly efficient 2.0-liter gas engine and two high-performance electric motors, and Mitsubishi's superior Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) system, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is a very capable PHEV.

2013 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, Practice Day 4

The fourth and final practice day of the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is complete. Tomorrow everyone will make any last-minute adjustments and get their cars, their bits and bobs lined up in the pits for Sunday morning's this-time-it-counts run.
The Unlimited runners took on the top section of the course today, Sébastien Loeb and his big-mouth Peugeot acing the practice test again with a time of 2:11. Rhys Millen's team proved its got the engine issues of two days ago in the Hyundai PM580T sorted out, posting the next-best time at 2:27.16. The reason we had to dip all the way into the hundredths for his time is because he nipped Romain Dumas by just .31 of them, the Frenchman in the Norma M20FC PP running the course in 2:27.47. In fourth came the Frenchman in the monster Mini, Jean-Philippe Dayraut six seconds back at 2:33.
Time Attack competitors, also on the upper section, were led by Paul Dallenbach in the Hyundai Genesis Coupe with a time of 2:36, Porsche pilot Jeff Zwart crossing the line six seconds later at 2:42, fellow Porsche driver David Donner coming in another six seconds back at 2:48. Dallenbach has topped three of the four practice-day sessions, sliding into the second spot behind Donner only on Practice Day 2.

Weekly Recap: Toyota wants cars to be your 'close friends' around 2020

Toyota confirmed plans this week to launch autonomous technology in its production cars around 2020. The automaker's version is called Highway Teammate, and it's one element of a broader mobility strategy that includes vehicles communicating with each other and the grid. "Toyota believes that interactions between drivers and cars should mirror those between close friends who share a common purpose, sometimes watching over each other and sometimes helping each other out," the company said in a statement. That sounds utopian, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but it's an acknowledgment that autonomous driving requires more than technology developed in a vacuum. Toyota is looking at its research in a broader context, and dubs its overall strategy the Mobility Teammate Concept. Highway Teammate is the first step. Its test vehicle is a modified Lexus GS, which uses road-mapping data and external sensors to merge or exit highways, change lanes, and maintain safe distances during driving. It's operated on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo. Toyota has been working on autonomous tech since the 1990s, with the goal of providing mobility for older people and the disabled, as well as lowering the frequency of traffic accidents. Toyota's push comes as an early adopter, Nissan, is hedging on its own deadline to implement the autonomous tech by 2020 due to a lack of firm laws governing self-driving cars around the world. Conversely, Volvo took the landmark step of being the first automaker to accept liability for when its cars will operate in autonomous mode, and urged the US government to set federal guidelines to regulate the technology. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 BMW M4 GTS: Your water-injected, turbo-boosted demon BMW is unleashing its most powerful M4 ever, a 493-horsepower special edition that's road legal yet bred for the track. The company is making 700 copies for sale around the world, and 300 of them will come to the United States. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder revs to 7,600 rpm and uses a water-injection technology to cool the intake air and lower the compression temperature. BMW says this allows it to wring more power out of the inline six. The car also uses carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for the roof, hood, engine compartment strut brace, drive shaft, and rear spoiler to reduce weight. The M4 features BMW's organic light-emitting diode taillights, which are said to be an industry first.