Takao Kato will likely be Mitsubishi Motors' next CEO, pending the approval at an upcoming shareholders' meeting. Under his watch, the company won't abandon its the North American market, according to Kato's recent statements.

"Sales are being continued. North America is one of the biggest markets. Therefore, exiting from the sales market would probably not be an option," he said during a press conference, according to Automotive News.

While Mitsubishi won't stop selling cars in America, he'll likely rework the brand's product line to fit the automaker's "small but beautiful" strategy that will aim for tiny, yet steady profit growth.

"If you are a big-scale OEM, of course you will be able to secure a profit. But will that be appropriate for us too, at MMC?" Kato said, according to Automotive News. "This is something we believe we should deliberate on going forward."

After taking the helm, Kato will release a mid-term business plan for Mitsubishi Motors sometime before the fiscal year ends in April 2020. It'll provide a better idea of what to expect from the company with him as the boss.

Part of Mitsubishi's future in the United States reportedly includes bringing a pickup back to its American lineup. Rumors suggest that as part of the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance, the three automakers might create a shared platform for the future trucks.

Kato's most recent position within Mitsubishi was running the automaker's business in Indonesia. He has a past working in the United States, too, by helping to establish the automaker's Diamond Star Motors factory with Chrysler in Normal, Illinois, in the 1980s.

The highly unexpected second renaissance of the polarizing Mitsubishi Mirage is one of the few heartwarming stories of an otherwise very mixed bag in the year of the great microchip shortage. If the used car market drying up all its available reliable vehicle reserves helped anyone even slightly, it was Mitsubishi Motors and their underappreciated only remaining non SUV passenger car.
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Meanwhile, the Chevy Spark, the only cheap new car to be less well-received than the Mirage, saw a unit delivery sales decrease by 55 percent last month compared to the year before, losing its spot as the number one new Subcompact in America and formally seeing its thrown taken over by the struggling Mitsubishi Motors, a much-needed win for a company once thought to be on the verge of death.

What's even more notable about the Mirage vs. the Spark is the kind of ambitions the two models had when they were first launched. The Spark was supposed to be General Motor's modern-day answer to the Volkswagen Bug and the Ford Model T., i.e., affordable, high-tech transportation (for their respective periods) for the masses. But software bugs and recalls galore have seen its cutesy but reliable reputation permanently tarnished.

Meanwhile, the Mirage did no better to prove it was built to world-class quality standards. The difference is Mitsubishi never claimed the Mirage was any of those things. Sticking to marketing its class-leading non-hybrid fuel economy and world-class warranty as the Mirage's main selling points.

In the desperate chip-shortage-driven used-car shortage, these are qualities that made the Mirage a more sensible choice than a used car at the same price point, and even some that are cheaper. The prospects of not having to worry about a used car with a broken transmission become a dealbreaker when the only used cars left are mid-2000s American and Pacific rim trash that's bound to fall apart soon after you buy.

Everything online car critics have said about the Mirage, including Doug DeMuro's infamous thrashing of one a few years ago, is still as true as ever. But in a slowly emerging post-health crisis economy, it might be papa Doug that finds himself on the wrong side of history, assuming this unlikely comeback can sustain itself. At least for Q3 of 2021, it's Mitsubishi thats chalks up a badly needed win.

Mitsubishi’s been a bit quiet for a while now. No Evo. No fresh run of Dakar success, either. No more new cars for sale, at least in the UK. Really, it’s the kind of quiet that, if it were a family member, you’d panic-check if they were still breathing.

If there’s one way to show a bit of life, then, it’s to make some noise. And the noisiest (and best) Mitsubishis have always been from Ralliart. Which, as the headline rather succinctly puts it, is coming back. Ish.

We’ll explain. If you look at the picture of the Outlander PHEV (among these gratuitous shots of Ralliart goodness), you’ll notice... er, not a great deal, to be honest. However, underneath this not-a-great-deal-to-notice lurks a familiar friend: Mitsubishi’s Super All-Wheel-Control AWD system. Remember all the initialisms? ACD for Active Centre Differential, AYC for Active Yaw Control, OMFG for what you’d say after somehow making it through a corner that physics and common sense would suggest you never could. For the Outlander (OK, it’s not just us that thinks of Children of the Corn every time you read it, right?), it uses a twin-motor hybrid setup, which will be getting more power for the 2023 model. And, perhaps not coincidentally, a Ralliart edition.

But before anyone gets too excited, we should point out the Outlander Ralliart will get “unique body effects, graphics and other rally-inspired touches”, as well as “White Diamond paint with a contrasting black roof".

You might imagine, then, that an Outlander with a trim package has a much to do with an oversteering Evo as it does with an ostrich in rural Ontario. But it’s worth remembering that a) we’re talking about a twin-motor four-wheel-drive system, which feels as far up Ralliart’s street as you can get before it becomes Lancia Boulevarde, and b) that’s where Ralliart’s return is starting.

The Ralliart spec will sit at the top of Mitsubishi’s entire range in America. And that’s actually still pretty big, given Mitsu still does surprisingly well over there. So you’ll see Ralliart versions of the Eclipse Cross, Outlander Sport, regular petrol Outlander and the Mirage.

Nissan might have picked Mitsubishi up for a song a few years back – even if the band’s flight cases took a detour via Istanbul – but no one at Nissan would have given the go-ahead if there wasn’t the chance to make a profit there. And with Mitsubishi being particularly quiet for a good while now, surely the best way back is a technical tour de force. Is Mitsubishi testing the waters with the Ralliart name to gauge the response? Unlikely, but that’s not to say everything’s set in stone.

So come on, Americans, make this happen. Help bring back tech-fests and rally success. We’ll owe you one.

For people on a strict budget who just want a new car to travel from point A to point B, the Mitsubishi Mirage has been the go-to model. However, its days are apparently numbered as Automotive News cites insiders claiming the cheap, no-frills small hatchback and sedan will both be discontinued. The five-door Mirage and four-door Mirage G4 will allegedly be dropped from the US lineup by the middle of the decade.

If true, the Mirage will be one of the many cars to get the axe in recent years while people continue to flock to crossovers and SUVs. Research conducted by Cox Automotive has revealed Mitsubishi's aging car is the only model that transacted for less than $20,000 last month. The hatch retails from $16,245 while the sedan begins at $17,245, before destination and handling fees.

Contacted by Automotive News, Mitsubishi Motors North America spokesperson Jeremy Barnes said the Mirage is not going anywhere for the time being: "It's a vehicle that we still see as having a role in our portfolio at this time. It fulfills the role of an entry-level vehicle." But sales numbers are showing the entry-level car is on a downward trend as deliveries to customers in the first half of 2023 plummeted by 44 percent. For the full 2022, demand declined by 31 percent compared to the previous year.

While a direct replacement is not planned, the report states the Outlander Sport will apparently be superseded by the recently unveiled Xforce. The small crossover will serve as the entry point into the company’s lineup in the US following the Mirage's demise, although an official announcement has yet to be made.

Rumor has it Mitsubishi also intends to launch a fully electric coupe-styled crossover in 2026 molded after the Leaf replacement launching a year before. A zero-emission pickup truck for the US market is also in the works, according to the same report.