About Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi started in 1870 by Yataro Iwasaki, a descendant of Samurais, began as a shipping business. However, it quickly diversified into mining
and ship repair. In 1917 the Mitsubishi Model A was revealed, Mitsubishi's first series production passenger vehicle. However, during World War II
Mitsubishi focused mainly on producing ships and vehicles for the war effort including aircraft. In 1960 Mitsubishi finally began producing passenger
vehicles on a large scale. The Mitsubishi 500 was the first compact they launched. In the 1970s the automobile production division of Mitsubishi
officially formed its own company, the Mitsubishi Motor Corporation.
Their first car was exported to the U.S. in 1971 but was not sold under the Mitsubishi name; the Colt was sold under the Dodge Marque. It wasn't until
1982 when Mitsubishi began selling cars in the U.S. under its own name. Throughout the '90s Mitsubishi continued to expand and with the introduction of
the Eclipse and 3000GT in the U.S. they began producing millions of cars per year. Currently Mitsubishi has production facilities in 5 countries and sells
worldwide. In 2010 Mitsubishi had net revenues $10.7 billion and sold over 1.1 million vehicles.
The Prototype-S, the newest member of the Lancer sport-sedan family is a compact sports hatchback. The full-time all-wheel drive system features
Mitsubishi Motors' Active Center Differential (ACD), which uses an electronically controlled hydraulic clutch to optimize front and rear drive torque
to deliver the best driving experience in different driving conditions. As of now there are no plans for this vehicle to into mass production, but with
the current success of the Lancer line-up there's no reason to believe this won't make it to the Mitsubishi line-up.