Mitusbishi’s North American dealers have been trudging along with an aging, badge-engineered model line for years – but overseas? It’s a different story, and the 459 hp all-wheel drive ASX VR-e electric hot hatch shown here is plug-in proof.
Let’s get the technicalities out of the way: the Mitsubishi ASX VR-e isn’t built by Mitsubishi. It’s built in Taiwan by phone and TV manufacturing giant Foxconn under its Foxtron automotive brand. If you’re a cynic, you might argue that the ASX VR-e is just another example of a badge-engineered product meant to fill dealer showrooms.
To a romantic, though? Someone whose idea of Mitsubishi has more to do with turbocharged rally monsters and slick, high-tech GTs? That person might argue that Magna Steyr builds the iconic G-Wagen for Mercedes-Benz, and that doesn’t make it any less of a Mercedes. Similarly, Porsche built Harley-Davidson’s V-Rod and neither Mitsubishi or Chrysler built the OG Eclipse or Talon models – Diamond Star Motors did. Through those rosy lenses then, I tell you that this all-electric, ultra-fast, Foxtron-built Taiwanese hot hatch is well-equipped to be the spiritual successor to the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4/Lancer EVO.
As such, that’s my story.
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Packing a relatively small and, as a consequence, relatively light weight 57.7 kWh li-ion battery sending power to a pair of electric motors delivering a combined 459 hp (342 kW) and ~516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque – good enough to launch the new EVO ASX VR-e from naught to sixty in less than 4.0 seconds. (!)
For those of you keeping score, that’s significantly more power than the most powerful combustion-engined Lancer EVO ever built, the UK-only Evo X FQ-440 MR with “just” 440 hp and more than 100 fewer lb-ft of torque.
Currently for sale in the Taiwanese and Australian markets, the ASX VR-e, like the Lancers before it, comes in slower, more pedestrian versions with less performance and more range. But since we probably won’t get any of those here, either, let’s focus on the one we really, really, really want and hope someone (Santa? Krampus? Bezos?) decides to park one under a tree this year.
You can check it out for yourself in Mitsubishi’s official reveal video, below, then let us know what you think of the ASX VR-e in the comments.
Mitsubishi ASX VR-e Reveal
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