Yes, its called basic microeconomics - demand pricing. Mitsubishi, as a profit maximizing firm (all businesses are profit maximizing) looks at its target market, the demand curve, consumer perceived utility (utility curves), the price of alternative competitor offerings, the substitution rate, and price elasticity of demand (as the price goes up, how many customers will they lose?).
With all that data, they build a profit curve based on how many cars they think they will sell at each price point versus the cost of production and distribution (including marketing costs) for the volume of cars at that price point (and administrative overheads). The various curves intersect at a sweet spot were the profit margin is largest, and that's the price they will set for the car.
So what's the reason for the delay? Mitsubishi's production capabilities and target volume is to sell 4,000 Evos a month worldwide. According to Mitsubishi's own press releases, as reported in Auto Week, half those cars will be sold into Japan to what Mitsubishi knows to be a dedicated and loyal customer base (i.e., that customer base would never buy a substitution and as its their home market its easy for them to price to this market).
Why the delay for North America? Mainly, they don't have a price for their major substitution (the Subie STI), therefore making it difficult for them to determine how much profit they can gouge out of the American car consumer.
They are in a game of price chicken with Subaru. As in all games of chicken, someone is going to blink first.
Cheers,
