2004 Mitsubishi Montero Sport Xls on 2040-cars

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The Tesla Model S was the best-selling EV of 2015

According to numbers crunched over at Hybrid Cars, the Tesla Model S was the best selling pure electric vehicle last year with 50,366 deliveries. These numbers might not tell the whole story, since Tesla reports deliveries made in 2015 that might have been sold in a different calendar year, while other makers are tallying sales. However, it's inarguable that the Model S ended up in more worldwide driveways than the second-place Nissan Leaf, which did about 43,000 sales. In the US alone, Leaf sales were down 42.8 percent year-on-year, from 30,200 in 2014 to 17,269 last year, and that decline also increased throughout the year. That marks a great finish to a great start to 2015, when Tesla took the lead in EV sales in the US for the first quarter. On top of that, as of last year the Model S becomes the second-best selling EV ever, with 107,148 deliveries since the middle of 2012. It trails the Nissan Leaf, with well over 200,000 worldwide sales. The Chevrolet Volt/Opel Ampera combo takes a close third, with about 106,000 sales. The Nissan and Chevy rivals both launched at the end of 2010, a 16-month head start on the Tesla. Down the charts, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which continues to be forbidden fruit for our market notched 39,000 sales. The BYD Qin PHEV sold 31,898 examples in China, and BYD would take the overall victory from Tesla with 58,728 deliveries if you counted all of its EV and PHEV production, such as its electric buses. The BMW i3 nabbed fourth place with 24,057 global sales. In 2011 the Munich automaker said it wanted to sell 30,000 i3s annually by 2014, but by the time the car launched the company considered 15,000 annual sales 'great for now,' so the 2015 number seems a fine place to wind up. Related Video: News Source: Hybrid Cars Green BMW Chevrolet Mitsubishi Nissan Tesla

Even Ferrari swept up in latest Takata recall expansion

The scope of Takata's deadly airbag problems continues to widen. Eight manufacturers announced recalls Friday that affect more than 12 million vehicles, according to documents filed with federal regulators. The automakers include Honda, which is recalling 4.5 million units, Fiat Chrysler with 4.3 million, Toyota with 1.65 million, and Subaru, which is recalling almost 400,000. Some of these cars include the Saab 9-2x and Pontiac Vibe that Toyota and Subaru made for General Motors. Mazda will recall 730,000 vehicles and Nissan has 400,000 affected units. The smallest numbers were posted by Mitsubishi, with 38,000 Lancers manufactured from 2006 to 2007, and as a noteworthy high-end manufacturer, Ferrari is calling back 2,800 vehicles. These are all US-market cars. Beyond America, the Japanese Transport Ministry has announced seven million additional vehicles will be recalled, which means 19.6 million vehicles across the globe are affected by recalls announced. The defects have been traced to an insufficiently manufactured airbag inflator, which lacks a drying agent that would prevent the inflators from deteriorating over time. Thirteen deaths have been linked to the faulty airbags, which have become unstable and are prone to exploding and showering vehicle occupants with lethal amounts of metal shrapnel. A private equity firm, KKR & Co., has been named in a possible buyout of the struggling Takata. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Shutterstock Government/Legal Recalls Ferrari Honda Mazda Automakers Mitsubishi Nissan Pontiac Subaru Toyota Saab Safety

New, never-sold 2006 Mitsubishi Evo draws $100K bid on eBay

Today, in the "OK, guess it must be worth that to somebody" department, we note that a California car dealer has an eBay listing for a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, still brand new and never titled, with nine miles on the odometer. Just another day on eBay, right, and just another car that didn't sell, was hoarded, or somehow forgotten in a barn? Not exactly. The top bid as of Wednesday morning was $100,100. The Evo was a popular car (for a Mitsubishi) in its day, in a cult-of-personality way. And though its run ended with the 2015 model year, a quick inventory search shows there are still around 30 of them sitting brand-new on dealer lots, including the #0001-of-1,600 Lancer Evolution Final Edition, a $70,000 MSRP limited-edition car in Rally Red that a Brooklyn dealer is trying to move for $87,888. Most of the remainders are listed in the $30,000s, however. The 2006 eBay car is listed by South Coast Mitsubishi in Orange County, a dealer who by one Redditer's account laid up a bunch of Evos like bottles of fine wine and sold them off at higher prices. If so, is this the last one in the cellar? And why did the dealership set a car aside in 2006, when they were plentiful and long before the model's demise? For whatever reason, this 2006 car has time-traveled to 2017, with seats still wrapped in plastic and an engine bay you could perform surgery in. It's an Evo IX MR in Graphite Gray with black trim. Base MSRP was a bit more than $35K. It's optioned with the MR package that includes some aluminum and carbon-fiber bits and boost-gauge kit, the Zero Lift aero kit, and it has a six-speed manual. Bottom line on the sticker was $37,094. Specs for that year: The Evo had a 2.0-liter, 16-value inline four making 286 horsepower with 289 pound-feet of torque. The car's curb weight was 3,300 pounds, and its 0-to-60 time was a highly impressive 4.4 seconds. Yet, for $100K or a little more or a lot less, think of all the amazing 2017 new cars, equipped with the latest technology, that would dominate it - Tesla Model S, Lexus LC 500, BMW M2, Mercedes C63 AMG, Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio, Camaro ZL1, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Dodge Demon, Dodge Hellcat, Corvette ZL1. Even a Mustang GT350 could edge it out, and if you drove a hard bargain you might be able to afford two. So, can a Mitsubishi triple its value by sitting around for a decade undriven? Is this in any way a collectible, to keep undriven as an investment?