Mitsubishi Sees Opportunity for Electric Performance Vehicles

Mitsubishi has set its sights on an electrified future as part of the Renault- Nissan Alliance and said the future could include performance vehicles.

Don Swearington, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Mitsubishi Motors North America, told Digital Trends in an interview published on Tuesday that the future is wide open for electrified cars. He made it clear that Mitsubishi will look at both plug-in and pure battery-electric vehicles.

On the topic of electrified performance vehicles, Swearington specifically said, “there’s a great opportunity.”

“I think our engineers in Japan would love to develop something like that,” he added.

Performance will ultimately depend on advances in battery technology and electric motors at Mitsubishi, but as part of the alliance, the Japanese automaker now has greater synergies than ever before.

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“With the alliance now being over 10 million vehicles [a year], that adds a lot more that we can spread those costs over, and now get it very economical not only for us but the consumer,” Swearington said.

Mitsubishi hinted at such a future with the e-Evolution concept. The SUV concept showed a radically different take on the storied Evolution nameplate as an all-electric performance vehicle. However, the brand has not confirmed the vehicle for production and has remained quiet on the Evo’s future since.

Future Mitsubishis will have a lot in common with Renault and Nissan cars, as 80 percent of all vehicles from the alliance will share common underpinnings. And things are looking up for the embattled brand. More plug-in hybrids will come, and Swearington even suggested a battery-electric car may come to fruition based on Nissan’s extensive EV knowledge.

A version of this story originally appeared on HybridCars

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