We?ve known it was coming for quite some time now, but at the Paris motor show, Mitsubishi finally gonged the aging Lancer Evolution off the stage. Or rather, quietly, in an aside to the U.K.?s Autocar: ?It will not exist as we know it. It will be replaced in spirit by an SUV with high performance.?
It was probably about time. The car was thirsty and rickety compared to the Subaru WRX STI, a longtime rival that has seen continual updates since the Evo X bowed what seems like a lifetime ago now.
The big hullabaloo at the Mitsu stand had to do with the Outlander PHEV Concept-S. If we?re to be honest, we strolled by while the car was on display, and it was not mobbed like the Lamborghini Asterion. But the white SUV concept does presage a new upscale model that likely will be built in larger numbers than Lambo?s stab at a modern hybrid. The Concept-S features the same 204-hp, gas-engine/twin-electric-motor powertrain as the Outlander PHEV currently sold elsewhere in the world. It also very likely gives a strong hint as to what the U.S.-market Outlander PHEV, due next year, will look like.
What?s more?Mirage aside?Mitsubishi is largely putting its eggs in the Outlander?s basket. The company?s next performance model will be some manner of steroidal ute featuring the company?s most advanced Super All-Wheel Control system, which they proudly note is developed from the very quick AWD EVOs the company has been running up Pikes Peak the past few years.
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Still, replacing the Evo with a crossover strikes us as replacing one?s favorite hole-in-the-wall record store with yet another bright, airy froyo joint. People may buy the creamy delight, but frozen yogurt never changed anybody?s life, man.
Farewell, sweet gravel-spitting, wastegate-poppin? prince.
