1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse Gst Hatchback 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is fourth plug-in to reach 100,000 sales

After what seems like a lifetime of delays, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will finally arrive in this US in " late summer, early fall." What's taken so long? Well, Mitsubishi had to sell 100,000 of the big plug-in hybrids in Europe and Japan first, apparently. You could see the milestone coming, since sales have been strong in the markets where the Outlander PHEV was available, with around two-thirds of its sales coming from Europe, Hybrid Cars says. When we spoke with Don Swearingen, executive vice president of Mitsubishi Motors North America (MMNA) earlier this year, he said that sales of around 200-400 Outlander PHEVS a month (10-20 percent of the Outlander's total US monthly sales) would be, " a very good number." Inside EVs says that the Okazaki Plant where the Outlander PHEV is made, " is running at full swing." As Hybrid Cars points out, the Outlander PHEV is only the fourth plug-in car ever to sell 100,000 units. The others are the Nissan Leaf (roughly 218,000 sales worldwide), the Tesla Model S (120,000), and the Chevy Volt (110,000). The next likely candidate to cross this threshold is the Prius Plug In – it has around 75,000 sales – if we count the upcoming Prius Prime updates as the same vehicle. Related Video:

nuTonomy beats Uber to launch first self-driving taxi

In the cutthroat world of technology, if you're not first, you're last. With this in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise to see tech companies and automakers clawing to be first in line to release self-driving cars. Uber recently partnered with Volvo in a $300-million project that should result in a self-driving fleet as early as next month. But amazingly, a 3-year-old company called nuTonomy has beat Uber to the punch by launching the world's first self-driving taxi in Singapore. Cambridge, MA,-based nuTonomy has been privately testing self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April and is now allowing select residents in the city's one-north business district to be driven around in its self-driving taxis for free. Customers will be able to summon one of nuTonomy's self-driving taxis through the company's app and will be picked up in a Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car modified for autonomous driving. While the taxi will drive itself, an engineer from nuTonomy will ride in the vehicle to ensure that the car is operating properly and will take over if needed. There's no word on how many self-driving taxis nuTonomy put on the road, but the trials take the company one step closer to launching its fully autonomous fleet by 2018. The Wall Street Journal's Jake Watts managed to get a ride in one of nuTonomy's self-driving taxis and, while it went well, he claims human cabdrivers may not go extinct any time soon. According to Watts, the self-driving Mitsubishi lacked Tesla's polish and was overly cautious. The car did a fine job of avoiding jaywalkers, parked cars, and pedestrians on the short drive, but hesitated often, which could gives riders motion sickness, Watts said. nuTonomy CEO Karl Iagnemma will be speaking at Autoblog's UPSHIFT 2016 conference on transportation technology on October 6 in Detroit. Related Video: News Source: The Wall Street Journal, nuTonomyImage Credit: nuTonomy Green Mitsubishi Renault Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles Electric Uber driverless singapore nutonomy

L200 Absolute Concept is the off-road truck we want from Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi took the wraps off a concept off-road truck called the L200 Absolute at the Bangkok International Motor Show, and we completely approve. The truck isn't just a normal L200 with an appearance package. No, Mitsubishi went in and modified the suspension, added a ton of body cladding and even some carbon fiber. We don't think about Mitsubishi as much ever since the Evo was discontinued here, but this truck provides a bit of hope that one day the Japanese brand could be cool again in America. To begin, Mitsubishi widened the truck's track to make room for the beefy Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires wrapping the black off-road wheels. Then the suspension was modified to give the truck a two-inch lift — it was also given a new shock and spring setup for off-road use, providing more suspension travel. Sadly, Mitsubishi does not say more about it, but we're happy that this truck will be much more capable when the trails get rough. Large and obvious red-accented skid plates are placed in the front and rear to offer some stylish protection. Then check out all the carbon fiber parts on this truck. Mitsubishi uses the material on the tailgate and fender flares. This is not the norm for trucks, nor is it typical of Mitsubishi as of late, but we're totally for it. A big LED lighting package is the last bit that is largely different from the normal L200/Triton pickup truck made in Thailand. We'll hand it to Mitsubishi for this one. The "Absolute" name is even an improvement over the last off-road concept it made called the Engelberg Tourer. Midsize trucks are hot now. This truck in production form could definitely raise some eyebrows in the U.S. with its off-road nature similar to the Colorado ZR2 and Jeep Gladiator. We definitely need something to get excited about Mitsubishi again, especially now with the Evo long in the rearview mirror.