Mitsubishi's Clean Diesel Concept
Makuhari Messe, Japan
One of the largest companies in the world, as well as Japan, Mitsubishi's car and light truck divisions create vehicles which are quite popular in their home market, but have never quite caught-on here in the US. Maybe it's because Mitsubishi's dealer advertising always seems to be yelling about "the deal of the month", and they don't tell US consumers enough about their actual product. This "Concept-ZT" boasts a 2.2 liter clean diesel engine, a technology which every major car-builder in Japan showed-off to the public, in form or another, at this year's show. Diesels are already super-popular in Europe, with some 60% of all vehicles sold there diesel-powered. Diesels are one of the next logical steps for "cleaning up" the vehicles and the air in the US, though it is going to take some strong convincing by those companies offering diesels to convince the US public that diesels are a quiet, reliable, fun to drive, clean and fuel-miserly engines worth a chance.