Quid Pro
June 16, 2026
Alex KiersteinTwo automakers facing challenges exchange technology and models. What’s the problem, other than the name?
The Mitsubishi Eclipse hasn’t been a real sports car for a quarter of a century. It had four generations; only two of those arguably adhered to the brief. The others were cloud car coupes, basically. So set aside the name for a second. I can think of a lot of worse outcomes for Mitsubishi than getting a mature, relatively handsome EV in the midst of a coincidental oil crisis.
For one, Mitsubishi didn’t have to start from scratch. The i-MiEV didn’t exactly lay the groundwork for a lasting EV platform; it was sort of a one-off compliance thing. After that, there was nothing, which is probably better than beefed-up i-MiEV tech getting crammed into a Mirage.
Instead, Mitsubishi focused on what seemed like a weird niche at the time—a compact, three-row plug-in crossover. The Outlander PHEV was intriguing to a subset of Americans but it sold gangbusters in Europe, enough that Mitsubishi was able to continue to invest in the tech. So much so that Nissan came knocking when it was time to give the Outlander a hybrid option.
That deal was, in my mind, brilliant. Nissan got some mature and well-regarded PHEV tech without spending the R&D dollars, and Mitsubishi got the new Nissan Rogue to build the Outlander on. And while this is badge engineering to some degree, the styling was reasonably different, the drivetrain calibration was reasonably different, and the Mitsubishi exclusively got a third row. Nissan, meanwhile, got to move some units.
I don’t know the numbers involved here, financial or otherwise, but all things being equal this is a deal I’d ink all day, every day if I were an exec at either company. I’d also gladly throw in a few thousand Leafs for rebadging, to sweeten the deal.
I’m going to get even more subjective here: if no one’s ego gets in the way, there’s an opportunity here for a nice partnership. Let’s say Mitsubishi further tapers down production of its own platforms, especially for this market. (Mitsubishi’s light truck, the Triton, does great in Southeast Asia, and the company has a robust commercial truck business, so elsewhere it’s not as grim-seeming as here.) What if it becomes, essentially, a PHEV and hybrid specialist, trading its technical expertise and manufacturing for already-engineered vehicle platforms?
Imagine, say, Nissan selling the Sentra E-Power here (a series hybrid) and letting Mitsubishi sell a PHEV version as a new Mirage. Imagine the two collaborating on a PHEV variant of the Frontier that Mitsubishi could sell as the Raider (or, imagine, the Mighty Max!).
Mitsubishi has generally been good about differentiating the vehicles just enough that we’re not in that oft-derided place General Motors was in for much of its existence. And the bad thing about badge engineering is how often it didn’t provide much of value to the customer, being instead something that provided value to the dealership networks. I don’t really see that going on here. I see Nissan in a longstanding cash and volume crunch, and I see Mitsubishi trying to stave off winking out of existence. Not that Mitsubishi’s current sales picture is untenable in the now, it’s just that when you get to a certain low volume you lose the ability to innovate and compete with the big players. Symbiosis with a larger player prevents this sort of evaporation.
So, I can’t hate the Mitsubishi Eclipse Sportback. I can’t hate the name. I can’t hate the strategy behind it. I can’t hate giving the Nissan Leaf a little bit of an economy of scale bump to get it through the current wobbly EV market, because it’s the sort of mass-market, lower-cost EV that should be on the market. I can’t hate a deal that results in a car, even a non-enthusiast car, expanding its reach.
I might have picked a different name to revive than Eclipse, but it’s not bad. Maybe Lancer would’ve been better. Just be glad they didn’t give the name-choosing job
One response to “Quid Pro”
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I give my wife a little bit of side eye because she hates the Mustang Mach-E. She grew up driving Mustangs. Her first two or three cars were Mustangs. An electric crossover Mustang annoys her unreasonably.
I -who bought a 2nd Gen, GS-T as my first car with my own money – now understand. Really, in the US, Mitsubishi has only ever had three performance names and they just keep debasing the Eclipse. Im not even mad that they’re using them on crossovers or EVs. I’m mad that they’re all slow.
EclipseCross GSX with STI fighting drivetrain would have had my money even if it needed aftermarket coil overs.
This is just…sub 3rd Gen Eclipse meh in the Eclipse rankings.
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