Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Motors is a Japanese carmaker and a member of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, in which Nissan holds a controlling stake. That relationship increasingly shapes Mitsubishi’s line-up: rather than developing every model from scratch, the company badges and restyles vehicles engineered by its alliance partners, particularly Nissan.

Its core strengths are SUVs and crossovers - the Outlander and ASX among them - and plug-in hybrid powertrains, an area where Mitsubishi was an early mover with the Outlander PHEV. In some regions it also sells pickups such as the Triton.

The Eclipse Sportback marks the brand’s return to a familiar tactic: it is a rebadged, restyled version of the third-generation Nissan Leaf, built for North America. The Eclipse name itself is a revival - once a sporty coupe, more recently a crossover - now applied to an electric model aimed at buyers Mitsubishi hopes to win on brand and price.