Evo X to be the last?

[Nuliaj]

i'm pretty new around here but i'm going to call BS on that article from the UK. (and also i DONT want to believe it )

we would be expecting an EVO 11 in 2013, and if were going on the many previous years of Mitsubishi history it will be a vehicle based on the same chassis as the current CJ's. This is the case with Evo 4,5,6 | 7,8,9 | and we can expect 10,11,12.

i can't see that they would have done RnD for a new model Lancer (CJ) and throw it all out the door in a push to go all electric by 2015.

it would make no business sense at all.

Actually it does make sense, the Evo is not very profitable for one very good reason - economies of scale. The Evo while using a similar body actually has a different chassis as well as AWD, turbo (and associated parts) and because they're not buying/making them in bulk each Evo costs more to make relative to a normal NA/RA. The RAs are actually an upgraded NA so they can use alot more of the same parts which make it cheaper to make. you've got to remember, they might only sell a few hundred Evos a year in Aus compared to tens of thousands of NAs, so unless you charge like Lamborghini or Ferrari, it begins to make more sense to put your money and time into improving the profit of higher selling vehicles. If you can cut costs by $1000 on an Evo vs cut costs on an NA by $100, guess which is going to make you more money.

I just can't stand companies doing all this green rubbish, I see it as all politics & money, pure greed.!!

It's called profitability when you're talking about a business

[R4LLI4RT]

His kinda got a point
Evos havent really done much in WRC lately and they will probably pull out soon and that would coinside with the Ralliart Brand being shut down.

You may find that they will stop making evo's and just have ralliarts being sold as their 'performance' car since it simply is a beefed up lancer, which in essence is what the original cars were all about.

In anycase this may add some value to my car.

[nixonx]

Kinda sad.... My dream car has been the Evo...

Was hoping in a year or two i would have my own....

[McCoy]

Every brand needs a Hero car in my opinion, and how many FWD Lancers do you see done up to look like Evo's.

Hell, alot of Lancers are sold based on that alone.

I think everyone is missing the point, it's not as much as there will be no more Evo or something like it, it's more they are moving away from Motorsport and going down a greener path.

[PYLee]

im keen to see what they could do to rival the honda CRZ , much interesting things are progressing in the aftermarket world for crz

[JaCe]

Well.. that just raised the value of my car

My first thoughts too!

[Red EVOX]

Every brand needs a Hero car in my opinion, and how many FWD Lancers do you see done up to look like Evo's.

Hell, alot of Lancers are sold based on that alone.

I think everyone is missing the point, it's not as much as there will be no more Evo or something like it, it's more they are moving away from Motorsport and going down a greener path.

I agree to certain parts with you Dan

Take Ford Australia for example when they dropped the V8 in the mid 80's.... they left the performance aussie car market wide open for Holden to gather up all the young "bogans"..... Even though ford now has a great Turbo 6 and a new supercharged V8 it still hasnt got its cult following back, due to there cop out in the 80's.

There wont ever be another performace mitsubishi vehicle on my shooping list when it comes time to sell my EVO X.

Its all well and good going "green" with a list of there cars but as you have quite rightly said they still need a "halo" car that appeals to the performance minded person not just a green city car that appeals to the tree huggers and of course the electricity companies who rub there hands together when they see all these reports of so called "green" electric cars.

Try doing a trip from Adelaide to Melbourne in a full electric mitsubishi I-Miev.... Having to stop every 160kms to do a so called "quick" 30min 80% recharge and with no space for 4 people and full luggage, you'd quickly see that electric cars are only really suited to capatial cities and place that are crammed with people or as a little runabout car.

[Nuliaj]

I disagree totally. You do not need to appeal to the performance minded people to succeed in the car industry nor do you need a halo car. Case in point - the most successful (in terms of number of cars sold) car company these days (and in recent history) is Toyota and they don't currently have anything that you could consider is performance orientated or special. What's the sportiest car they sell today in Australia? The Aurion, which is hardly a competitor to the Aussie V8s performance wise or special in any meaningful way.

This is my whole point - the people who buy Evos are not the market Mitsubishi want because there's just not enough margin in it. The majority of car buyers are not on any forums, and don't care if their Nissan Leaf or Micra comes from the same company as the GTR. It in no way affects them when it comes time to buy a car. The majority of people will look at cost (purchase + ongoing), reputation, looks and features. Sad as it may be, but the guys who keep saying Mitsubishi are making a bad move by dropping the Evo are in the minority of car buyers.

You also cannot compare the performance of electric cars which are still in their infancy today to combustion engines which have been around for over 100 years. I mean when the combustion engines first came around, they could barely generate enough power to go up a small incline. Obviously you wouldn't buy a pure electric car if you have any plans for long distances hauls but there are plenty of hybrids or diesels around that will provide more than enough mileage. The petrol powered engine is not dead yet, but given current trends, its only logical for car companies to start preparing for the inevitable lest they get left behind.

Having said all this, I'm still awaiting delivery of my Evo X and you can bet when I get it I will be making the most of it.

[Red EVOX]

Well i disgree with you to a certain point

Mate i worked in the car industry for over 10 years (at MMAL) and most non car minded people buy on brand perception.... to which the evo adds to mitsubishi credibility.
Mitsubishi Australia died locally because even though the 1996 onwards magna was a damn fine car, it just couldnt shake the perception that mitsubishi had from the very first TM-TP magnas and the older rebadged sigmas....

Toyota only survives because of its perception of toughness and quality... both of which have taken a major hammering the past year with millions of cars recalled world wide. The Aurion is hardly a seller for toyota here in Australia BUT they have it in the range to try and steal/appeal the occasional falcon/commodore driver or the previous magna/380 owners.

If you dont have a car in every section of the market then that is the potential loss of a sale... this is where the evo comes into it, much like the GTR.
Nissan makes SFA from them BUT it has lifted there brand to the new generation of "supercar/performance" owners who want/crave something different to a porsche etc. Just remember that the GTR, EVO, porsche etc etc are targetting a niche market BUT it is a market that is there stronger than ever and if ya aint got a car in that section of the market then that is a sale missed.

As i said electric cars have there place but until they can get a hell of alot better range out of the batteries and recharge times down to 5mins they wont be big sellers here in a country as wide open as ours.

Just remember batteries have been around for a hell of a longtime as well, so the advancements should be greater and there size for use in cars much much much smaller, then there is the issue of there "worklife span" and what happens when they eventually die.... There is nothing called a free lunch in life and battery powered cars are going to face similar albeit different issues to what the combustion engine is now facing but of course later on down the development track (especially waste and the use of rare earth resources)

[Dire]

So much bull in this thread lol. My turn

Theres no reason they won't change their mind back again, we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Also, there is F-all market for electric cars currently. Plus, electric cars are a gimmick to some extent, they don't solve any global problems, only slow them down, and they create more of their own. Unless electric cars become the new craze (which they wont in many places because of how far people need to drive) Mitsu will be shooting itself in the foot. They will be thinking long and hard about their company's direction, and I don't presume to know the outcome. I would not be suprised either way.

Also, Red EVOX, your opinions seem to be based largely on experience in the Australian market. Australia is quite different to other countries (we like our flagship models, particularly with ford and holden) and we're also a small part of their global sales. Nevertheless though, most lancers are driven by parents and grandparents, only a small part of the sales would be 'I love lancers!' type people.

The evo is their flagship. The ralliart is relatively unknown. Its entirely possible they'll rename the evo a ralliart, thereby losing the performance/non-green image but not losing the car for the true fans, but thats just one of so many possibilities.

All I KNOW is I bought my car because it was the best I could afford. It is my second lancer but that isn't why I bought it. I like evos but that isn't why I bought it.
If you're so uninterested in cars that you need the evo to make you realise lancers exist (lancers are everywhere after all), you won't care about the evo in the first place.

[Nuliaj]

Red Evox - I agree with your point there, but the questions then becomes:
1) How much margin do they make per Evo?
2) How much does having an Evo improve their overall sales?
3) Would they make more money by dropping all R&D/time/effort/marketing/money etc spent on the Evo if they spent it on something else?

You can bet they've done the market research as well as have the sales data to backup their decision. There's 2 reasons for Mitsubishi to keep building the Evo - passion and profit. They've obviously lost the passion for motorsports so comes down to profit - if the Evo made financial sense to build they'd keep building.

Jake - you're right that Australia is a tiny portion of the global market. I'm sure we'd find that most decisions made by car companies are primarily governed by 3 markets - Japan, Europe and North America.

[Lethal_1]

This keeps getting stuck in my head ...
Like " Apple " bringing out a phone for eg that doesn't have a :

1. Front facing camera (when everyone else does),
2. Bluetooth to anyone (when everyone else can do it)
3. External Memory Slot (where most other Co.'s do) etc ,

So they make another 1 or 2 iPhones 'eventually' , that do ...
Sooo .. they get another couple of bites of the pie etc etc etc ...
I get it ... " Profit " blah blah, same thing going on with the iPad ...
It's just Money to them & all they think of is 'Profit', so good on emm ...

I see the same crap here happening with these 'Green Cars' ...

We have enough technology today to do something right, first go, surely.?

WHY do we need to plug them in to charge them, when we can have a 'Self Charging System' ?
While the car is moving, have the wheels motion (like a generator) charge the car, when U brake, it charges the car etc etc.
We would never have to plug the car in for a charge.! We could literally go for a very long way.! I'd imagine it is possible, surely.?
We CAN do this right now, but no, they pussy foot around, wait for 2 or 3 series b4 they get it right because " they want another bite of the pie ... "

As a customer ... when I was looking for a car, I wanted performance, in a tight package, for a good price.!
I took too long to decide when buying (thank goodness) when @ the time, the Evo X came out, followed by the Ralliart. I thought " Whoa.? What's this.? "
I already looked @ the other car manufacturers before I accidently came across these 2 makes.? THIS is what grabbed Me as a customer, " a 4Cyl, Turbo, AWD.? Whoa.? "

I maybe of the small minority ..
I'm not that old, nor am I that young .. But I don't drive like a 'grandma', the Evo X & Ralliart grabbed my attention, more than the other Co.'s, I can't be the only one.?

My apologies for the rant ...
I'm just sad for the possible loss of an awesome car, with awesome technology, I just can't believe they put all that R&D into the Lancer Family, to throw some of it, away.?

[Red EVOX]

You know we can all sit here and argue this till the cows come home....

We have all raised good valid points

Julian, mitsubishi market research has always left a bit to be desired they seem to either drag there feet and let others "get" the market sown up before coming in to play or they jump in head first and then wonder why they failed to get the sales they thought theyd get....

A good company can sell anything if they: A) Get there marketing right. B) Get there perception of being the best across to the people and C) Build/make what people really want.

At the end of the day im happy i bought my EVO X, its the only Mitsubishi vehicle that grabbed my attention and even got me to go into a dealership to talk some deals etc...

Why did i buy a EVO X you may ask? Well i bought it cos i always wanted one (after driving pre release TME 6.5 evo's at MMAL back in 2000/1) and the group of people I associate with are all performance car minded.
At the end of the day did i really need a evo... Well not really but hey its damn nice to have one though and after all it is only my "weekend toy car" not my everyday drive car

[spunkybob]

I might be missing the point here... but all I got out of that is Mitsubishi is turning into a bunch of fairies and wants to start making cars for friutcakes?????

Meh evo 6.5 is still the best I rkn.

[PsyTrix]

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/93ftl0

"Production of the current Lancer Evolution continues as planned.
As for its successor, regulations and market feedback will dictate its engineering package & architecture.

MMC has kept the Lancer Evolution sedan evolving as the brand's highest performing model in the global market. However, as the market's needs and demands change, MMC is considering not advancing the Lancer Evolution concept in the same way as before, but to find a different direction for the Lancer Evolution model to evolve. The new direction, the technologies involved, and corresponding products will be disclosed in due course."