With the influence of Mitsubishi cars in Malaysia, it is no surprise that many are keeping tabs on what the Japanese car giant is up to lately. If you have noticed, the B-Segment Mitsubishi Colt has been ‘away’ for a while not because there has not been any updates but because we see more of the Satrias than ever. But the Colt really has taken a back seat for a while with news of its replacement model surfacing every now and then.
So Mitsubishi did what they have to and unveiled a new B-Segment concept widely speculated to be the seventh-generation Mitsubishi Colt named the Global Small Concept. Naturally, this car is compact, which is why it is codenamed ‘e-compact’ and will be going into launched at the end of the year and production to start early next year through its Thailand plant. That means, it might be channelled onto our roads then.
They will be positioning the ‘e-compact’ as an entry-level model as well as a fuel efficient car particularly for the emerging markets like China and around Asean. On top of that, a compact car like this would also be ideal for the matured markets like Japan and Europe as demand for more fuel efficient models are increasing.
So what does this ‘e’ represent? For starters, it represents ‘efficiency’ which makes it an easy to manoeuvre vehicle, sitting 5 passengers and sufficient boot space. It also stands for ‘engineering’ where it is designed and developed for ALL world markets as per their requirements.
Powered up by the new 1.0 liter and 1.2 liter MiVEC engines with Auto Stop and Go and Brake Energy Regenerative System, it is an ‘environment’ friendly car. Very importantly, it will also be an “electric vehicle” with plans for a fully electrically powered engine coming up. “Export” is the next word associated with the acronym where they are targeting to roll out 150,000 units annually with a possible increase of 50,000 more through its Laem Chabang Industrial Estate plant in Thailand, catering for the markets in the Asean region. Finally, ‘e’ stands for ‘effective design’ which at its size is an ideal solution to the emerging markets that require more city cars, small in size, easy to drive yet efficient in all areas.
