Mitsubishi eK

The Mitsubishi eK is a 5-door hatchback from Mitsubishi, built from 2001, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. Under the bonnet: 658&nbsp.

The background

The Mitsubishi eK (Japanese: 三菱・イーケイ, Hepburn: Mitsubishi Ē Kei) is a kei car series from Mitsubishi Motors and Nissan, based on the long-running Minica, and first introduced on 11 October 2001. The "eK" name is an abbreviation for "excellent keijidōsha" (or "excellent minicar") and is meant to be pronounced "ee kay", a pun which sounds like the Japanese いい軽, meaning "good kei [car]". Since 8 June 2005, Nissan received 36,000 eK Wagons annually from Mitsubishi, to be sold within the domestic market as the Nissan Otti.

The Otti was replaced by the Nissan Dayz on 6 June 2013, although the Otti was still sold alongside the Dayz until being discontinued on 28 June 2013. A tall-height minivan version with rear sliding doors called the eK Space appeared in 2014. It, too has a Nissan version, called the Nissan Dayz Roox from 2014 to 2020 and as the Nissan Roox from 2020.

The engineering

Power comes from 658  other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 790 –. It shifts through a 5-speed Manual transmission / manual / 3/4-speed Automatic transmission / automatic. The wheelbase is 2340 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Where it sits

Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Mitsubishi Minica / Mitsubishi i; assembly was at Kurashiki, Okayama (Mizushima plant), Japan. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Honda Fit, the Citroën C3, the Mazda Mazda6 — show what else the money bought that year. Its Mitsubishi stablemates include the Mitsubishi Lancer and the Mitsubishi 360.