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Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV US launch delayed over battery shortage

Mitsubishi resumed full-scale battery production in August after a five-month shutdown due to a safety investigation. Supplier Lithium Energy Japan has been delivering 4,000 battery packs each month since September, but that's apparently still not enough to fill the overseas inventory pipeline for the Outlander PHEV and i subcompact EV while launching the Outlander PHEV here in the US. So instead of the previous tentative launch date of Fall 2014, the plug-in hybrid's Stateside on-sale date has been pushed back until 2015.
That's according to Automotive News, which also notes that Mitsubishi has sold 11,300 plug-in Outlanders this year, though that number reflects the production stoppage over the battery issues. As of April, battery supplier LEJ will be able to supply 5,000 packs per month just for the Outlander, but company president Osamu Masuko has gone on record saying that production will have to rise above that in order to make the US launch.
Every Mitsubishi dealer (and hopefully a fair number of consumers) will be looking forward to a crossover that, for the moment, doesn't really have natural rivals. The Outlander PHEV can drive 32 miles on electricity alone, has a top speed of 75 miles per hour in EV mode and offers all-wheel drive with a towing capacity of over 3,000 pounds. The model should get an impressive MPGe rating from the EPA when it finally arrives and it figures to be a bellwether for the plug-in Outlander Sport and Pajero utility vehicles that are expected to arrive after it. Hopefully 2015 will be its year.

Our best look yet at the 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander

Mitsubishi's has been busily clawing its way back from the brink of irrelevancy in the US market for several years. One of its most important models in that mission is the Outlander CUV, and as we can see from these spy photos, it's upcoming refresh is coming along nicely.
The Outlander was last redesigned for model year 2014, so it does feel a smidge early for a refresh. That said, thanks to a rather polarizing front fascia, we aren't totally surprised that Mitsu has gone to work so soon. Based on these spy shots, we wouldn't be totally surprised if the new Outlander borrowed the more attractive face of Outlander PHEV Concept-S, which was shown back in September during the Paris Motor Show.
It's impossible to tell if the rear of the car will borrow the huge, vehicle-spanning taillights of the Concept-S, but like the front end, we'd expect a fairly significant change to the back of the new Outlander. Our spies also captured a few shots of the cabin, although we don't see any dramatic differences from the current vehicle, aside from some different trim pieces.

This Mitsubishi dealer's rap ad is so bad it's awesome

Sometimes you stumble upon something online that is so incredibly, bad that there is actually something great about. With that in mind, Southside Mitsubishi in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, might have created one of the worst/best automotive raps we've ever seen.
While there is no way the dealership went into this video thinking it would actually be good, it's hard to imagine it could have ended up so incredibly cheesy. Whether it's the frontman who looks like Vladimir Putin on his worst day ever, the extras who clearly don't want to be there or the inexplicable reference to that Baha Men classic, "Who Let The Dogs Out?" this video is a black hole of suffering - there is no escape. We knew things were bad at Mitsubishi, and man, this isn't helping.
Scroll down to inflict this awful awesomeness on yourself, and remind yourself of the infamous Swagger Wagon from Toyota to see that not all ironic automotive rapping has to be painful.