What's the news?
You might be thinking that Mtisubishi's e-Yi concept car, which will be shown off at the Shanghai motor show, looks familiar. And you'd be right - this is basically the same Engelberg Tourer concept which Mitsubishi brought to the Geneva motor show last month, but repackaged and re-named for China.
According to Mitsubishi, the "e" in the name points to electric, explore, experience and engage, while the "Yi" is the pronunciation for two Chinese characters - one means strong, robust, durable, and the other beautiful. Also, we guess people in China are even less likely to have heard of an obscure Swiss Alpine resort called Engelberg than we were, so there wasn't much point in repeating that name.
Otherwise, this is all the same as before. The e-Yi gets a plug-in hybrid powertrain very similar to that used by the current Outlander PHEV - a 2.4-litre petrol engine, and two electric motors, one for each axle so that it can still have four-wheel drive when running in pure electric mode. Mitsubishi claims that the Engelberg-Yi can go for 70km on just the batteries, and has an overall touring range of 700km if you have a fully charged battery and a full fuel tank.
Apparently, it also gets a development of the old Active Yaw Control system, taken from the classic Evo series of rally cars, which makes for sharper, safer handling. There's a partially-automated driving system that includes radar cruise control and lane keeping steering, and a smartphone connection system that includes information from various services on the weather, temperature, topography, traffic information and road conditions.
Style-wise, the e-Yi-Engelberg gets a massive, quite dramatic face which uses a variation on Mitsubishi's current 'Dynamic Shield' face, which chrome sections that light up blue when the car is charging. It's also a seven-seater, which means Mitsubishi has improved the packaging compared to the current Outlander, which sacrifices the folding third row because that's where the batteries and rear electric motor go.