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Mitsubishi Is Getting Rid Of Sedans, Will Favor SUVs In the Future

Bad news for fans of the iconic Mitsubishi Lancer as the Japanese company will overlook sedans in the near future only to turn its head to a more profitable segment. In other words, Mitsubishi will focus on SUVs.
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 1 photo
Photo: DutaAV on deviantart.com
The competition has always been stiff in the sedan segment and in recent times, Mitsubishi lost a lot of ground. This and other factors forced company officials to pledge the future of the popular Mitsubishi Lancer and its Evo version, which is rumored to see its production axed later this year.

In an attempt to avoid that, Mitsubishi wanted to partnership with Renault, a move that would have helped them derive new Mitsubishi sedans from Renault designs assembled in Korea. It all went down the drain and now Mitsubishi announced plans to focus solely on SUV, thus halting work altogether on the next-gen Lancer compact saloon.

To compensate for that loss, they are looking to adapt by focusing only on SUV, which are going to be delivered in various shapes and sizes.

“Unfortunately, for a while we are not planning any development of sedan. There are two reasons for that. One of the reasons is because, concerning the investment on development, we’d like to concentrate on SUVs, PHEVs and EVs. [...] The second reason is because for sedans, in the world, is a very high competition at the moment and it’s very difficult to come up with a profit,” explained Mitsubishi Motors president and COO Tetsuro Aikawa, cited by CarAdvice.

In this case, the current Mitsubishi Lancer will just struggle for a year or so, maybe more, due to minor updates. But it will be the fall of an icon, nonetheless. Looking to the future, we’re going to see the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid at the 2015 New York Auto Show in April.
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