Mitsubishi has resurrected the Airtrek name for a new SUV that should be in showrooms by the end of this year. The Airtrek badge was previously used in the early 2000s on the first generation of an SUV that would morph into the Outlander, the car that pioneered the idea of a plug-in SUV. Allegedly created exclusively for the Chinese market, the Airtrek is designed as an “e-cruising SUV”, says Mitsubishi. Which presumably means it’s intended for gentle highway use, and not for tackling the Rubicon Trail, or whatever the Chinese equivalent is. When sales kick off at the end of 2021 it will be Mitsubishi’s fourth model for the Chinese market.
The carmaker has also given us three words
that it says help explain the vehicle: electric, expressive and expanding. The
electric bit is obvious, and expansion refers to Mitsubishi’s keenness to grow
sales in China. That must be the mean-looking headlight
treatment, where the headlights and DRLs are split by a chrome strip, as on the
whacky 2019 Mi-Tech beach buggy jeep concept. The company claims the Airtrek
gives off “an image of advanced sophistication”. Well, it would say that,
wouldn’t it, but from what we can see, it has the makings of a fairly handsome
SUV.
Mitsubishi’s announcement was lighter on
technical detail than an octuple-motor 7400 kW hydrogen supercar proposal on
Kickstarter, but we know the Airtrek will be made in China. And given
Mitsubishi’s ties with Renault-Nissan, it seems very likely it will share a
platform with something like the Nissan Ariya. If it does share the Ariya’s
technical makeup, the Airtrek could deliver as much as 389 hp and reach 100 km/h in
close to 5 seconds in its most potent form. Less powerful Ariyas are rated at
7.5 seconds to 62mph and have a range of well over 300 miles.
The Airtrek will be Mitsubishi’s first
electric SUV, but not its first electrified SUV. Having beaten most car companies
to the market with an electric car in the form of the i-MiEV in the 2000s, it
then developed the Outlander PHEV, the world’s first plug-in SUV.
