Like it or not, 4X4 Utes are hot stuff right now. Gone are the days where the mighty solid axle LandCruisers and Patrols would duke it out for top spot. These days, unless you’ve got four doors and a tub you’ll barely get a look in. As a nation, we’re obsessed with them. The top 10 selling new vehicles every month always being headed up by the Ranger and HiLux. The D-Max, Triton, and NP300 not far behind. It’s no surprise then that with a reinvigorated lineup, Mitsubishi are taking the new Triton very seriously.
What it’ll look like
Rumours have been circulating around the internet for a while about what we can expect from the updated platform next year. Recent spy photos have given us our best look yet though. It’s immediately obvious that this is no mid-life overhaul and will feature and entirely new body and chassis. Up front, the aggressive styling of previous generations has been left behind. A more rounded design more akin to the Outlander looks to be optioned up.
Along the flanks, previous test mules have given us some pretty detailed information on what we can expect. The most obvious change is just how much bigger the new chassis looks under the old body. The front axle in the new Triton has been pushed forward, much the same as the new Ranger. But the rear axle has been drastically pushed back too indicating a much larger overall length in the new Triton. Wheel track appears to be bumped out too giving more credence to the entire new chassis rumours. Unfortunately, drum brakes and leaf springs look like they’re sticking around for another generation yet.
What’s under the bonnet?
This is the million dollar question. While there’s no news yet on wether the new Triton will feature updated diesel donks, there is plenty to say it’ll have a hybrid option. It’s not surprising. Mitsubishi’s wildly successful Outlander plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV for short) sounds like an ideal combination already. An 85kW motor up front. 100kW motor in the back. A 20kW battery pack and a 2.4 petrol donk to keep it charged. The result is 84km of range before the motor kicks in and a combined fuel economy of just 1.5L/100km. That’s with 185kW and 450Nm of power too. For comparisons sake the current Triton gets 133kW and 430Nm with 8.6L/100km.
If you ask us, more power and a quarter of the fuel consumption sounds like a fair deal.
Still too much overhang behind the rear axle. Mitsu will need to have really strengthend that “new Chassis” to overcome this critical weakness of the Triton.
Skinned Navara isn’t it?
Got the ‘21 Triton and can’t get better than 10.6 so I might be updating soon
what tyre pressures do you run on, ? it makes a difference, also any thing that catch,s the wind really drags or catchs the wind, hard on fuel, my santa fe goes from around 7.5, depends, up to 10 or 12 even with a trailer & canopy that is light enough to pull round yard
Why does it look like the current Nissan Navara?
Just another rebadged Nissan Navara, both under the Stelantis umbrella. Will probably go the same way as the Mercedes/ Nissan ute.