Mitsubishi Teases New Outlander, Schedules Arrival for February

by Matt Posky

Published: December 11th, 2020

mitsubishi teases new outlander schedules arrival for february

Mitsubishi released a teaser image of the new Outlander on Thursday, making good on the summer promise that it would actually continue designing new vehicles. Unlike the recently refreshed Eclipse Cross, the 2022 Outlander will be an entirely new model.

The brand is promising refined, on-brand exterior styling and some modest changes in the vehicle’s overall dimensions. Outlander is supposed to herald in a new design strategy without looking out of place in the existing lineup. While the teaser was too shadowy to offer much help, some light image manipulation on our part has given us a better sense of what the crossover will look like when its global debut takes place in February.

Following its tragic fall from grace in the early 2000s, Mitsubishi has actually been clawing its way back toward relevance in the United States. The brand has seen stable, but modest, growth since 2013 and may be able to continue that trend if it manages to deliver the kind of products that customers respond to. Traditionally that has been competent, sometimes downright enjoyable, automobiles at an impressively low price. However, its current lineup is a rather bland affair, benefiting mostly from playing the odds of being heavy with crossovers.

The series of new products it has planned is supposed to help change that and make Mitsubishi more competitive across the board. While most of these will be revamping of existing models, the company has hinted that it might be ready to test the waters on entirely new vehicles in a year or two. That would seem to indicate it has something secret in development but it isn’t making a peep on what that might be right now.

Yours truly has his fingers crossed for something akin to the Lancer Evolution or perhaps a more fitting successor to the Eclipse coupe. Stranger things have happened — though it remains unlikely, as neither have much of a chance of becoming high-volume products. At the very least, we should get a sense on the brand’s general trajectory with the 2022 Outlander.

“The Outlander is an iconic SUV for the company, so when we developed the next generation model, we took inspirations from our rich SUV heritage to realize a bold and confident styling with a solid stance that excites our customers,” said Mitsubishi Motor Corp. Division General Manager of Design Seiji Watanabe. “The all-new Outlander is the first model epitomizing the new generation of Mitsubishi design and the frontrunner of our design strategy.”

[Image: Mitsubishi Motor Corp.]

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Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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3 of 24 comments

ToolGuy on Dec 12, 2020

I think I just saw the Telluride tremble in fear. No wait, that was a giggle.

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- Teddyc73 on Dec 14, 2020
  
  Then the Telluride looks nervously around wondering how long it will be before people realize it's just another boring crossover.
  
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Teddyc73 on Dec 14, 2020

"The Outlander is an iconic SUV for the company" Iconic? Really? That poor word is so overused and misused it's lost its true meaning.

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