2019 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEVChris Balcerak / Driving OVERVIEW A truly frugal SUV PROSFuel economy, fuel economy, and fuel economy CONSDated infotainment system, poor Bluetooth call quality VALUE FOR MONEYExcellent WHAT TO CHANGE?I could always use more battery range, and an updated infotainment system wouldnt go remiss HOW TO SPEC IT?As is Mitsubishi would seem to be an unlikely choice for plug-in poster child of the year, what with Tesla grabbing headlines, Nissan having long deemed the Leaf its corporate future, and even Volvo — newcomer to environmentally-conscious set — fitting the word “electrified” into seemingly every public relations missive it releases. All have long-standing reputations for technological innovation, and RD budgets that Mitsubishi engineers can only dream about. And yet Mitsubishi’s Outlander PHEV is not only the most popular plug-in hybrid SUV in Canada, but also the most popular plug-in hybrid of any kind in the land. Nor is this some sort of localized anomaly, we Canadians adopting an otherwise shunned ugly duckling that the rest of the world ignores. The Outlander PHEV is also the most popular plug-in hybrid in Europe, selling more than 100,000 units since its introduction in 2013, and in Britain — which we’ll have to start delineating as a result of Brexit — it’s been the best selling plug-in, hybrid, or electric of any kind for the last three years running. Mitsubishi has moved over 200,000 Outlander PHEVs in the last five years, making it the most popular plug-in hybrid in the world. Why has the Outlander PHEV become the third best-selling — 432 units last month — Mitsubishi in the land? It resides, after all, in a segment — plug-in hybrids — that hasn’t, unlike EVs and conventional hybrids, captured the imagination of North American consumers. Chevrolet, for instance, has abandoned the Volt. Toyota, king of the hybrid segment, struggles to move the plug-in version of its otherwise popular Prius. Plug-in hybrids from other manufacturers are more easily counted on fingers than computers. Why is Mitsubishi — whose only other foray into the electrified world, the i-MiEV, was (at the very kindest) a bit player in the EV segment — sitting atop the plug-in world? Well, the most obvious answer is it’s a plug-in SUV, the trendiest body style du jour. It’s also, at least by plug-in standards, the cheapest SUV in the land; its $43,498 slots less than the Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai Kona Electric, both of which are econoboxes with, depending on your intended use, range issues. More importantly, the Outlander is a trendy, (relatively) inexpensive plug-in SUV that delivers. To wit: I’ve now driven the Outlander twice, for a total of two months, in winter and summer. For all the kilometres I’ve driven — probably 5,000 so far — Mitsubishi’s PHEV has exceeded expectations. For instance, in my first foray during the dog days of last summer, I spent most of my time prowling downtown Toronto, the Outlander’s 35 kilometres of electric-only range enough that the PHEV’s little 2.0-litre inline-four had only consumed one bar — about four litres — of gasoline in the first week of commuting. That required a little dedication — regularly seeking out charging stations being the most troublesome — but the reward was a dashboard blinking 1.5 L/100 kilometres as my overall fuel economy. If that doesn’t grab your attention, then consider this: I had barely used one-tenth of the 43 litres of fossil fuel the Outlander carries on board. If I had restricted my commute to the gym with occasional forays to the office — where we at Driving have charging stations! — I could’ve gone almost 2,500 kilometres between gas station visits. Eventually, I did have to venture beyond the Mitsu’s 35-kilometre EV range, and here again, the electrified Outlander surprised me. Cruising down the highway, cruise control set at a steady 130 km/h — i.e. very little regenerative braking to replenish the battery — the PHEV still managed an entirely creditable 7.2 L/100 kilometres, largely the result one presumes of the efficiency of its Atkinson-cycle engine. Relying almost exclusively on electricity in town, and then delivering better-than-average fuel economy when venturing beyond EV mode, is very much the PHEV promise delivered. The fact that it’s all accomplished with the utility of an SUV is just what popularizes the message. More recently, I put a 2019 Outlander PHEV through its paces during this past spring (that turned back to winter, on some days). A tad chilly it was, and as everyone who’s ever driven anything battery-powered knows, lithium-ion and sub-zero temperatures are not the best of friends. Battery range is reduced, heating cabin and occupants depleting free electrons faster than Elon Musk can delete an (unverified) tweet. In fact, so much energy does heating the cabin require that Mitsubishi, like many hybrid manufacturers, has determined that firing up the gasoline
Origin: SUV Review: 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV