The Mitsubishi Colt has returned to the European market as a rebadged Renault Clio, following the brand’s recent launch in the region of the new ASX - itself a Renault Captur clone.
Identical to the recently updated French hatch aft of its bespoke front grille and bumper, the seventh-generation Colt is the first to offer hybrid power, launching with the Clio’s full-hybrid powertrain - comprising a 1.6-litre petrol engine mated to a pair of electric motors and a 1.2kWh battery.
It also gets an entry-level 1.0-litre pure-petrol option, which is no longer an option for the UK version of the Renault Clio.
The Colt will be built at Renault’s plant in Bursa, Turkey, where the Clio is produced for certain markets, and enter dealerships around Europe – not including the UK – from October.
Mitsubishi stopped selling cars in the UK in 2020 as part of a wide-reaching global cost-cutting strategy. It originally planned to leave Europe entirely but has remained in 17 markets in the region - with a view to ultimately regrow sales to around 150,000 units per year.
The brand recently told Autocar it would only consider re-entering the UK when it has “more than one” electric car to offer.
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Trying to post a comment about production of said car but keep getting rejected due to spam control. Yet I see someone else has posted spam on how to make a fortune. Nice one Autocar.
Brits buy Japanese cars for their reliability. Who will buy my sweet red Mitsubishi if it is a French Renault?
Not sure why Nissan/Renualt are bothering bringing Mitsubishi back,the marque has been dying for the past couple of decades it once had a decent product line with the Lancer, L200, Outlander & Shogun which were decent rugged vehicles sold at a fair price. Then one by one each were dropped,manufacturing in Australia,Europe & the USA ceased and the company exited Europe a couple of years ago, so who's going to buy rebadged Captur's & Clio's as the ASX & Colt. We should count ourselves lucky that here in Blighty that we've been spared this French farce as Renualt have had difficulties enough selling their own cars here over the last decade or so.