Mitsubishi Mirage delivers kei-car rivaling fuel economy with more space and size

Mitsubishi Motors’ new global car, the Mirage, will achieve 27.2 km/L (63.9 mpg US, 3.7 L/100km)) on the JC08 cycle.

This Mirage is not a kei car. It’s a regular compact car with a 3-pot 1 liter engine, not the 660 CC motors found in kei cars. And even though it’s 40 cm longer—giving a much more roomy interior—the use of high-performance steel in the engine bay keeps its weight down to just 830 kg, only 100 kg more than the Daihatsu e:S.

...The exact figure is still all hush-hush, but Mitsubishi says that the 1 liter Mirage will come in at under 1 million Yen [US$12,655] in Japan. It beats the keis on size. It equals the best of them on fuel economy. It’s 1 liter engine is likely to be more powerful. (No figures yet, but it’s got a 30% higher capacity.) And it’s cheaper than all but the cheapest of these kei cars. They plan on selling 30,000 a year in Japan. I think they may be wrong. In a good way.

—Stephen Munday