Back in the 1990s, Mitsubishi was one of the coolest Japanese automakers. It was the heyday for high-performance Japanese sports cars like the Mitsubishi 3000GT, Toyota Supra, Nissan 300ZX, and Mazda RX-7. The latter three still build sports car, but Mitsubishi has long been out of that game. In fact, Mitsubishi's irrelevance really took place over the past few years, culminating in the Evo being put out to pasture. Hopefully that'll change very soon, as Mitsubishi executives have just told their American dealers about their plan: turbocharged engines.

Previously, the automaker wanted to be a leader in EV technology, but the now discontinued i-MiEV proved that wasn't going to happen. Turbocharging, on the other hand, makes much more sense. Though an official announcement hasn't been made, according to Automotive News the idea is to have a turbo 1.5-liter make its debut in a new midsize crossover in 2018. Another possible engine is a turbo 1.1-liter for the next generation Mirage and Mirage G4. The next Outlander, due in 2019, will also benefit from a new turbo powerplant, and we predict a plug-in hybrid version will remain. So, no new Evo but at least Mitsubishi is going back to turbocharging instead of more EVs (for now).