The New Mitsubishi Eclipse Is Actually a Nissan Leaf.

Mitsubishi unveiled an all-new version of the Eclipse. And it is just one more step into the destruction of the old name. It is now a Nissan Leaf with a new face.

The Eclipse was, for decades, a good-looking sporty 4-seater car. One that was competing against the Toyota Celica and Honda Prelude. At least Honda didn’t use the name Prelude on a small SUV. And Toyota has, so far, kept the Celica name from being used on a truck.

It seems Mitsubishi doesn’t care. Instead of finding a new name, which isn’t that hard, they keep using the name Eclipse for their new stuff. It was used starting in 2017 on a pretty crappy and forgettable small SUV called the Eclipse Cross. Which was bad enough. Now, the “just” Eclipse is a small 4-door EV. One that is actually a clone of the Nissan Leaf. Although technically, it’s called the “Eclipse Sportback EV.”

In a surprising move, this new model will be sold in the US. As you can tell from the photos above, which are showing the North American version. Specs are expected to be the exact same as the Nissan version. And I really don’t think we will see anything new inside either.

The Nissan Leaf is a very nice car indeed. But selling a clone of it under another name really sounds like a desperate move. I guess someone in the US who wants a Nissan Leaf lives closer to a Mitsubishi dealer?

I think the designers did a good job with what they had, making the Leaf look a bit more aggressive. It’s not a bad-looking car.

However, since Subaru now sells 4 Toyota EVs with mostly redesigned front ends, why not? If it works for them, it might also help Mitsubishi sell a few more cars. And maybe it’ll be even cheaper than the Leaf?

I haven’t seen any sales numbers, but remember, Nissan is now selling a Mitsubishi as the Nissan Rogue Hybrid. And they didn’t even bother redesigning the front end…