Japan's small brands hatch EV plans

It's been a slow road to the electric age for Japan's second-tier automakers, Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi Motors offers only one electrified model in the United States and Canada — a plug-in hybrid variant of its bestselling Outlander crossover.

Subaru has just one electric vehicle — the Solterra — on the market, while Mazda will ditch its only zero-emission offering — the low-volume MX-30 crossover — after the 2023 model year.

But the three carmakers are picking up the pace.

Mitsubishi said it will introduce nine new electrified models over the next five years. While it hasn't said which models will come to North America, chatter points to at least a compact electric crossover plan-ned for 2026.

Farther out, Mitsubishi could bring an electric pickup to North America, and the United States in particular — if it can figure out a way around the 25-per-cent tariff levied on imported light trucks there.

"There is demand for environmentally friendly pickups with shorter driving range," Mitsubishi CEO Takao Kato said in March.

Meanwhile, Subaru will lean on Toyota to build its second EV for the North American market, a three-row electric crossover, in Kentucky.

"Our main electrification strategy centers on strong hybrids and electric vehicles and introducing such models in the U.S. by 2025," Tomoaki Emori, Subaru corporate planning division senior vice president, said this year.

Mazda, meanwhile, just launched its three-row CX-90 with an optional plug-in hybrid variant and a price tag just north of $60,000 at the top end. The large crossover replaces the CX-9 and could be the first step in the automaker's quest to move upmarket. Two electric crossovers could come stateside in the decade's second half.