This, according to the automaker’s Managing Director for the United Kingdom, Rob Lindley, who told blog site, Car Throttle, at the recent Geneva Motor Show that the company has moved on from different “positionings, whether it’s been Spacestar style vehicles or sports car derivatives, Evo” to concentrate on not only off-roaders, but also four-wheel drive and alternative fuel technology.

“As a business that sells 1.2 million cars worldwide, in a global sense, it’s not a big business. If you try and be in all the different segments of the market and follow trends, like sports cars, it would be difficult to be economically viable,” Lindley said.

Rebuking claims that the brand is going against its heritage of not offering sports cars in the same vain as the Lancer Evolution and the 3000 GT (GTO), Lindley stated that, “having any kind of fan base that has a huge following for a brand is always a massive asset because those type of customers drive other vehicles as well. They may love the historical Evos and sports cars, but there’s a good chance they have other kinds of vehicles in the garage. I don’t know how many people focus in on that [performance cars] now. I don’t think it’s a large segment of today’s car market”.

Along with the revival of the Eclipse name two years ago for its new compact SUV, the Eclipse Cross, the Evo name is also set to make a comeback in 2023, albeit as an SUV previewed by the e-Evolution concept in Tokyo two years ago, with the crossover treatment reportedly also looming for the Lancer and the returning Mirage.