Mitsubishi Eclipse Sportback Revealed as Electric SUV Coming to the US in Late 2026

One of the most recognizable badges in Mitsubishi history is coming back, and this time it sits on the tailgate of an electric SUV. The company has released the first images of the 2027 Mitsubishi Eclipse Sportback, an all-electric model that goes on sale in the United States in late summer or early fall 2026. For American buyers who remember the Eclipse as a turbocharged sports coupe, the new direction will take some getting used to, but the practical takeaway is simpler: Mitsubishi is about to add a compact electric crossover to a showroom that badly needs more variety.

The reveal is a teaser rather than a full launch. Mitsubishi has shown the exterior and confirmed the name, the body style and the rough timing, but it is holding back the figures that shoppers care about most. Range, horsepower, battery size, charging speed and price are all listed as coming later. What the company has confirmed is enough to place the car, and to explain where it came from.

A Familiar Name on a New Kind of Mitsubishi

The Eclipse name first reached American roads in 1990 as a front-drive and all-wheel-drive sport coupe, and it stayed in the lineup for three generations before being retired. Mitsubishi later revived it for the Eclipse Cross, a small gas SUV that still sells today. The Eclipse Sportback continues that shift away from two-door performance and toward the kind of high-riding hatch-meets-crossover shape that now dominates the market.

From the images, the Eclipse Sportback is a compact electric SUV with a steeply raked roofline that tapers into a coupe-style tail, which is where the Sportback part of the name comes from. The front wears a closed-off panel in place of a grille, slim running lights and Mitsubishi’s signature stacked headlight arrangement. At the rear, a full-width light bar stretches across the tailgate above the Mitsubishi lettering. The brand’s Triple Diamond logo appears front and back, and the car rides on multi-spoke alloy wheels finished in a dark tone. Painted in a deep metallic blue for the launch photos, it looks more grown up and more aerodynamic than the boxy Eclipse Cross it will sit alongside.

Mitsubishi is keen to point out that an electric Eclipse is not a sudden change of heart. The company built its first electric vehicles in Japan back in the 1970s, and the tiny i-MiEV that went on sale in 2009 was one of the first mass-produced EVs anywhere in the world. It reached the United States and Canada in late 2011. The Outlander Plug-in Hybrid that followed in 2012 was the first plug-in hybrid SUV sold globally, and it remains one of the brand’s most important models in North America today. The Eclipse Sportback is the first time Mitsubishi has put all of that experience into a fully electric SUV aimed squarely at American driveways.

Built on the New Nissan LEAF

The most useful clue about how the Eclipse Sportback will drive comes from its underpinnings. Mitsubishi has confirmed the car is built in partnership with Nissan, its longtime Alliance partner, and is based on the new-generation Nissan LEAF. That is a meaningful detail, because the latest LEAF is a complete reinvention of the car that helped start the modern EV era. Gone is the old upright hatchback shape, replaced by a sloping crossover body, a larger battery and a faster charging system than the original LEAF ever managed.

Sharing a platform with the new LEAF means the Eclipse Sportback should arrive with a usable real-world range, a modern infotainment setup and the kind of fast-charging capability that buyers now expect from an electric car in this price bracket. Mitsubishi says it will give the car its own identity through unique front and rear fascias, distinct lights and lighting signatures, different wheels and that Triple Diamond branding, so the two cars will look clearly different even though they share major hardware underneath. For shoppers, the upside of this approach is reassurance: the engineering comes from a company that has sold electric cars for more than a decade, while the styling and showroom experience come from Mitsubishi.

Badge-engineering between Alliance brands is nothing new. Mitsubishi already sells the Outlander as a close relative of the Nissan Rogue, and that car has been a steady seller in the United States. Applying the same playbook to an electric model lets Mitsubishi reach the EV market quickly without spending years developing a battery platform from scratch.

Where It Fits in the US Electric SUV Market

A compact electric SUV is exactly the kind of car American buyers are shopping for right now, and the segment is filling up fast. The Eclipse Sportback will line up against the Chevrolet Equinox EV, the Hyundai Kona Electric, the Kia Niro EV and the Subaru and Toyota electric twins, as well as the Nissan LEAF it shares so much with. Pricing will decide how well it does, and Mitsubishi has a history of undercutting rivals on the sticker and then layering on a long warranty to seal the deal.

Value has always been the brand’s main pitch. Mitsubishi backs its gas cars with a 10-year or 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, one of the longest in the business, and a similar promise on the electric Eclipse Sportback would help it stand out in a crowded field. Buyers cross-shopping affordable family SUVs are already weighing options like the gas-powered 2027 Kia Seltos, and an electric Mitsubishi with aggressive pricing would give that group a new reason to consider going battery powered. You can read our look at the 2027 Kia Seltos and its $24,990 starting price for a sense of where the budget end of the small-SUV market now sits.

The timing helps too. Mitsubishi sells through roughly 300 dealers across the country, and its current lineup is small, built around the Outlander, Outlander Sport, Outlander Plug-in Hybrid and Eclipse Cross. Adding a fully electric model gives those dealers something new to show, and it gives loyal Mitsubishi owners a path into an EV without leaving the brand.

What We Still Do Not Know

The gaps in the announcement are large, and they are the parts that will determine whether the Eclipse Sportback is a hit. Mitsubishi has not released the battery capacity, the driving range, the power output, the charging speed or the price, promising only that those details are coming in the near future. Until they arrive, the new LEAF is the best yardstick for what to expect, but the final numbers could differ once Mitsubishi finishes its own tuning.

The reveal is part of a wider plan the company calls Momentum 2030, which commits Mitsubishi to launching at least one new or heavily updated model every year through its 2030 fiscal year and to nearly doubling its US lineup. The Eclipse Sportback is the first electric piece of that plan, and it will be followed in early 2027 by a rugged, off-road version of the Outlander. For anyone who has watched Mitsubishi run a thin lineup in recent years, the return of the Eclipse name on an electric SUV is the clearest sign yet that the brand intends to grow again. The full specifications, and the price that will make or break it, are the next thing to watch for.