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Mitsubishi is about to revive one of the most evocative names in rallying history with a car that will never see a special stage.
Instead the Renault-Nissan alliance’s recent Japanese acquisition will attach the name to a sleek new concept coupe at the Tokyo motor show next month.
Instead of being a traditional motor show coupe concept, the new e-Evolution will nod to recent trends and has been turned into a crossover coupe, with a slightly high-rise stance.
The electrified e-Evolution will be built to give hints about Mitsubishi’s future design and powertrain strategies, and is also said to deliver its latest artificial intelligence platform.
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Mitsubishi was one of the earliest developers of “fuzzy logic” for automatic transmission shifting, but the new AI platform hints at a major step forward in autonomy (though, with no production Mitsubishi even at the mid-stages of Level 2, that is low-hanging fruit).
The all-wheel drive concept is set to be a flagship, if it ever enters production, marking out very different territory to the last Lancer Evolution Final Edition in 2015.