Mitsubishi ASX VR-e Confirmed for Australia Q4 2026: First Mitsubishi EV Since the i-MiEV, Four Grades, Foxtron-Built

Image: CarSorted (no Mitsubishi Australia press photography of the local ASX VR-e has been released yet).

For anyone who has been waiting for Mitsubishi to plug back into the Australian EV race, the wait is nearly over. Mitsubishi Motors Australia has confirmed the ASX VR-e, a battery-electric small SUV, for a Q4 2026 local launch. It is the first fully electric Mitsubishi sold new in Australia since the tiny i-MiEV disappeared from local showrooms back in 2015, and it lands into a segment that has been reshaped by the BYD Atto 3, the BYD Atto 2, the MG S5 EV and the GWM ORA 5.

This one is a genuinely new kind of Mitsubishi. The ASX VR-e is built by Foxtron Vehicle Technologies, the automotive joint venture between iPhone maker Foxconn and Taiwanese carmaker Yulon, on the same Pininfarina-designed platform as the Foxtron Bria. Mitsubishi is styling it, kitting it, warranting it and (importantly) tuning it locally, but it is not building it. What buyers should care about is what actually reaches Australian showrooms. Below is a plain read of what Mitsubishi Australia has confirmed, what has been described by the manufacturer but not officially specified for Australia, and where it sits against every other affordable EV in the CarSorted database.

Australian Launch: What Mitsubishi Has Confirmed

Mitsubishi Australia CEO Shunichi Kihara framed the ASX VR-e as a milestone piece for the local range: "ASX VR-e marks a significant milestone in our refreshed Mitsubishi range as the first BEV since the i-MiEV, Australia's first mass-produced electric vehicle." That is the piece worth holding onto. Mitsubishi Australia is not just importing a small EV, it is planting a flag: the local arm is back in the battery-electric conversation after a decade away.

Why the VR-e Name Matters (a Little)

VR-e is a lift from the Galant VR-4, the 1990 turbocharged all-wheel drive four-door Mitsubishi built when it still cared about the World Rally Championship. The Galant VR-4 was the direct ancestor of the Lancer Evolution, and the name has real weight for Australian buyers of a certain age. Slapping it on an electric small SUV built by a Foxconn joint venture is a bold call. It also tells you where Mitsubishi wants the ASX VR-e's marketing to sit: closer to "sporty electric hatch" than "silent commuter". The GSR flagship on the four-grade line-up is the obvious performance halo, and the platform can carry a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup that would let Mitsubishi genuinely lean on the badge.

Whether the punchier grade actually gets the dual-motor tune in Australia is one of the few pieces of real news Mitsubishi is still holding back. Mitsubishi has said single- and dual-motor variants "should be" on offer across grades. That is not the same as saying every grade will get a choice.

Powertrain and Range: What the Foxtron Bria Runs, and What It Means for Australia

Because Mitsubishi has held Australian numbers back, the only technical figures anyone has to work with come from the Foxtron Bria the VR-e is based on. Overseas, the Bria uses a 57.7kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack with two motor layouts:

Two important caveats. First, those range numbers are on NEDC, the loosest of the standard test cycles. NEDC comfortably overstates real-world range compared with the WLTP test Australians actually see on window stickers. As a rule of thumb, WLTP tends to land around 15 to 20 per cent below NEDC on a given car, so a 516km NEDC claim would realistically translate to somewhere in the 420 to 440km WLTP zone. Second, Mitsubishi has said the Australian ASX VR-e gets its own tune, its own wheels and its own equipment split. Local kerb weight can shift, tyre choice can shift, and any of those changes moves the range figure. Nothing you read here is an ADR number.

What we can take to the bank is the general shape. This is a genuinely quick small electric SUV in dual-motor form, particularly at the price the platform is expected to land, and DC charging in the low-hundreds-of-kW is now the entry-level benchmark for anything trying to fight the Atto 3 or the Kia EV3 on charging speed.

Pricing: The One Number Buyers Actually Want

Mitsubishi Motors Australia has explicitly declined to publish local pricing at this stage. What we have to work with instead are two anchors: the Bria's overseas entry price of roughly A$39,500 in Taiwan, and the current Mitsubishi ASX petrol range. Australia's petrol ASX now runs $37,740 (LS), $42,690 (Aspire) and $46,490 (Exceed) before on-road costs after this year's Renault-based reset, a lift of $7,250 to $11,250 over the previous ASX depending on grade. Slotting a battery-electric ASX cleanly into that ladder would land the base LS VR-e in a $39,000 to $42,000 before on-roads window, with the GSR performance flagship likely somewhere between $52,000 and $58,000.

Treat those numbers as a bracket, not a quote. What is more useful is the target zone: the VR-e is being built and positioned to fight the BYD Atto 2 at $31,990 driveaway, the BYD Atto 3 Premium at $44,990 driveaway, the GWM ORA 5 Lux at $33,990 driveaway, and the MG S5 EV. If Mitsubishi drops the base LS above the Atto 3, the VR-e is dead on price and has to sell on badge, warranty and local tuning alone.

Image: CarSorted (Mitsubishi Australia has not released local press photography for the ASX VR-e yet).

Equipment: Follow the Grade Names, Not the Kit List

Mitsubishi Australia has not published a grade-by-grade equipment list for the ASX VR-e, but the LS, Aspire, Exceed, GSR ladder is not new. On the current Mitsubishi range those names have very consistent behaviour. LS is the fleet-friendly entry with cloth trim, halogen or basic LED lighting and a standard infotainment head unit. Aspire adds keyless entry, upgraded interior trim, larger wheels and the more useful safety pack. Exceed brings synthetic or real leather, panoramic roof options, better audio, adaptive lighting and heated front seats. GSR sits at the top and traditionally carries the sport-tuned suspension, unique wheels, red interior stitching and the loudest exterior treatment.

Applied to an EV, that structure would put a single-motor RWD car under LS and Aspire, and open the possibility of the dual-motor AWD Bria drivetrain under Exceed and GSR. Mitsubishi has not officially confirmed that split, but it lines up with how the brand has walked the ASX and Outlander ladders in Australia previously. If you are cross-shopping, the honest thing to do is wait for the local kit list before locking in a grade.

Safety and ANCAP

The ASX VR-e is not yet ANCAP rated. ANCAP has not tested the model, has not published a testing timeline, and Mitsubishi Australia has not committed to a target star result. The Foxtron Bria has not yet been assessed under any equivalent European or ASEAN protocol either, so there is no adjacent result to lean on. Standard active safety kit will be locked down at the Australian launch. In the meantime the honest read is: unrated. If a five-star result is important to you, wait for the ANCAP release before signing on the dotted line.

How It Compares Against What Is Already on Sale

This is the segment the ASX VR-e is walking into. Every one of these is already in the CarSorted database, so you can cross-shop the specs the moment Mitsubishi publishes local ADR numbers.

The competitive read is straightforward. Anything above about $42,000 driveaway on the base LS pushes the VR-e straight into Atto 3 territory. Anything below $38,000 driveaway makes it a genuine threat to the GWM ORA 5. And the GSR flagship, if it actually gets the 299kW dual-motor tune from the platform, would be the fastest small EV under $60,000 in the country by a considerable margin, quicker than the Hyundai and Kia EV performance halos can manage in this segment.

Warranty and Servicing

Mitsubishi Australia has not confirmed the ASX VR-e's warranty terms, but the brand's standing Diamond Advantage promise is 10 years or 200,000km of vehicle warranty and up to 10 years of capped-price servicing, conditional on servicing at a Mitsubishi dealer. The high-voltage battery is normally covered under a separate 8-year warranty on Mitsubishi's other electrified models. Assuming both carry across, the VR-e would arrive with one of the longest warranties in the affordable EV segment, only really rivalled by the MG S5 EV's 10-year cover.

The CarSorted View

This is the piece of the story that changes the buying decision. Right now, if you have $40,000 driveaway to spend on a small electric SUV in Australia, the shortlist on CarSorted looks like this: the GWM ORA 5 at $33,990, the Geely EX5 Complete at $41,990, the MG S5 EV Excite 49 at $40,490 driveaway, the BYD Atto 2 at $31,990 driveaway, and the BYD Atto 3 at $44,990 driveaway. Every one of them is a Chinese EV. None of them is backed by a manufacturer with the dealer footprint Mitsubishi still runs in regional Australia.

The ASX VR-e's real value is not that it undercuts anyone on paper. It probably won't. It is that it is the first electric small SUV on our shortlist backed by a legacy brand with metropolitan and regional Mitsubishi dealers, Mitsubishi's 10-year Diamond Advantage warranty, and Mitsubishi-tuned Australian ride and handling. For a segment that is 60% new-to-Australia brands, that matters a lot to a slice of the market. Cross-shop the ASX VR-e against the Atto 3 versus S5 EV comparison the moment Mitsubishi publishes ADR numbers, and use the CarSorted directory to score by ownership cost, not just sticker.

What This Means for Buyers

If you are shopping the affordable electric SUV segment right now and Mitsubishi is on your emotional shortlist, you have a legitimate reason to hold off from signing on an Atto 3 or an ORA 5 for another two to three months, no longer than that. Q4 2026 is close. Mitsubishi Australia will publish local pricing, battery, range and equipment splits at launch, and the honest read at that point is a straight cross-shop against the incumbents on the CarSorted database using ADR figures, not the overseas NEDC claims quoted in this piece.

If you are actually shopping the Outlander PHEV because you need a family plug-in with seven seats, the ASX VR-e does not replace it. It is a five-seat small SUV. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV at $59,990 with 86km of WLTP electric range and 1,500kg braked towing is still the Mitsubishi Australia offer in that space, and nothing in the ASX VR-e brief is going to change that.

If you are shopping small performance EVs on a $50,000 to $60,000 budget, the piece to watch is the ASX VR-e GSR. If Mitsubishi launches it with the dual-motor 299kW powertrain and the Diamond Advantage warranty, that grade alone will reset a class that has quietly been all-Chinese for two years.

More reading: Best Electric Cars Australia 2026 | EV vs Hybrid: Which Saves More? | Best SUVs Under $50k 2026