A fresh report out of the United Kingdom reveals that Mitsubishi is considering “radically” reinventing its Lancer as a “new type of hatchback vehicle”.
According to Auto Express, the Lancer badge may end up being worn by a crossover of sorts, perhaps previewed by the e-Evolution concept (pictured above) revealed at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show.
Trevor Mann, chief operating officer at Mitsubishi, told the British publication that the new Lancer could find itself playing in the C-segment hatchback segment.
“We have a long-range product plan that’s pretty solid until 2025, and a dotted line beyond that,” Mann told Auto Express.
“Within that what we’ve said is: ‘which vehicles do we want? What are we going to work on?’. We’re going to replace ASX, Outlander and Triton. Then we have these two boxes: Pajero and Lancer.
“Lancer’s probably the easiest one. We believe we’ve got a solution that could fit the segment. Because if you look globally, the C-segment hatchback market is not shrinking. It’s down a bit in the US and Europe, but its numbers are still expanding in China. So there is appeal. And I think because the segment is so large globally, we’ve got to take a look at it,” Mann revealed.
Tsunehiro Kunimoto, Mitsubishi chief designer, added that “just because it’s C-segment doesn’t mean it has to be a very conventional hatchback”.
“Maybe we can create a new type of hatchback vehicle. We’re thinking quite radically. Originality is as much a part of the Mitsubishi design philosophy now as consistency,” Kunimoto said.
Mitsubishi is, of course, part of the Renault-Nissan alliance, with the latter in 2016 completing its acquisition of a 34% equity stake in Mitsubishi Motors to became its largest shareholder.
