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Mitsubishi Design Boss Says Production Models are Finally Coming

If you’ve kept up with Mitsubishi news at all in the last year, you’ve no doubt seen that its recent history is full of concept vehicles and mostly devoid of actual new production models.

Most notably, there was the XR-PHEV Concept shown at the 2014 Tokyo Motor Show, the GC-PHEV Concept at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show, the XR-PHEV II Concept at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, the eX Concept at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, and most recently the GT-PHEV Concept at the 2016 Paris Motor Show. And we haven’t even named all of them.

The journey has been a bit of a tease, exacerbated by the fact that all of these concepts have been crossover SUVs and seem to hint at a similar model that never quite seems to be arriving to showrooms for our enjoyment. Fortunately, that’s soon about to change. According to Automotive News, Mitsubishi’s debuts will stop being concepts and will finally become production models next year.

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Tsunehiro Kunimoto, the automaker’s new design boss, says we can expect a production compact crossover at next year’s Geneva Motor Show. He worked for four years at Nissan and played a major part in designing the Juke. At Mitsubishi, his priority is to rebuild the brand with designs that showcase its “Mitsubishi-ness.” If you’re not sure what that entails, just listen to his own description of this:

“Mitsubishi can challenge [rivals] because of our heritage, our history,” he explained. “That’s what the customer expects of a Mitsubishi—very tough, reliable, solid—that’s what I want to maintain and improve that image.”

It’s about time Mitsubishi got back to making new models again. It’s too bad the Evo won’t be one of them.

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News Source: Automotive News