Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV review
Very common indeed, is what it is. Mitsubishi’s Outlander PHEV (the brand’s flagship, now European emissions regulations have killed the aging, massive Shogun) is the best-selling plug-in hybrid in all of Europe, with over 100,000 sold here as of January 2018. In Britain it’s been the best-selling plug-in – hybrid or full-electric – for the last three years running, comfortably outselling the likes of the BMW 330e, Mercedes C350e, VW Passat GTE, Nissan Leaf and so-on. It does the numbers. And then some. There are three reasons for this. First, it’s an SUV, and everybody loves an SUV. It’s the bodystyle du jour. You’ve probably got one. And if you don’t, science says you will soon. Second, it’s a plug-in hybrid, which means massive tax breaks and that warm, gooey feeling of having done A Good Thing for the environment. And lastly – there’s nothing else quite like it on sale. At least not for this kind of money — £40K or thereabouts. All the German SUV PHEVs are much bigger and more expensive. Same with Land Rover – its only PHEV is a Range Rover. Volvo does a few too, but the closest size-wise to the Outlander – the XC60 – is £60K.
You could say the Outlander PHEV has been ‘facelifted’ for 2019 – but that would be inaccurate because, save for a new pair of LED headlights and different alloy wheels, it looks exactly the same as the car it replaces. It’s the same story inside, too. Identical to the old car, for all its strengths and all its flaws. Mitsubishi says its customers are fine with this, so fair enough. The newness is in fact buried deep within. A 2.4-litre Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder engine replaces the old 2.0-litre, giving incremental economy and power gains, the e-motor mounted on the rear-axle is new and more powerful than the one it replaces, generator and battery capacities are up, and the steering, brakes, suspension, all-wheel drive and hybrid control systems have all been retuned/upgraded/made generally better. There is substantially more newness here than meets the eye.
But while all those upgrades are welcome, read on and you’ll learn that none are especially transformative. Read the long term review by clicking these blue words.
Mitsubishi Outlander review
Given the huge sales success of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (almost 35,000 were shifted in Europe alone in 2019), we could forgive anyone for forgetting that an internal combustion-only variant of the company’s flagship SUV still existed. Alas, it does, and this is it – although if you parked the two side-by-side it’d be a struggle to tell them apart. The most noticeable difference is the black plastic cladding that adorns the lower portion of ICE cars, whereas the PHEV gets colour-matched bumpers to smarten up its looks — oh, and a hefty amount of blue badging to let everyone know you picked the right Outlander.
Yep, whilst the PHEV gets a 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine and an electric motor on each axle (providing a maximum of 224bhp), the ICE Outlander makes do with a 2.0-litre petrol four-pot and just 148bhp and 144lb ft of torque to drive all four wheels through a *sigh* CVT automatic gearbox. That’s your only choice of engine too – don’t expect any diesels around here. Plus, with its 13.8kWh battery the plug-in hybrid can travel for up to 28 miles on electric power alone, which means Mitsubishi can claim the (admittedly unachievable) figure of 141mpg on the WLTP cycle. Equipped with just an internal combustion engine, the ICE Outlander only manages 32.5mpg on the same test.
The ICE Outlander does win a couple of battles over its greener sibling, though. The first is financial, with prices starting at just over £29,000 for the ICE compared to almost £36,000 for the base-spec PHEV. The second is a big victory – practicality. This is a proper seven-seat family SUV. Yep, unlike the PHEV which uses space under the boot floor for batteries and other electronic gubbins – making for a 463-litre boot, the ICE Outlander comes with a third row of seats. When in use those seats leave little more than space for a few shopping bags, but when they’re folded flat there’s 781-litres of room. Cavernous.
Mitsubishi Outlander review
In fairness to Mitsubishi, it has bucked the trend in avoiding any claims that the Outlander has sporting credentials or car-like characteristics. The soft suspension and high-sidewalled tyres mean it rides surprisingly well, and you sit high over the road with three separate 4WD options at your disposal; ECO for – you guessed it – maximum economy, AUTO for normal conditions and LOCK for tougher terrain. It feels like an old-school 4×4. The payoff for that though is an almost disconnected feel to the steering (although it’s well weighted for town driving) and plenty of body roll in corners.
That might not sound too bad at all, but it’s the drivetrain that really lets the side down. That 2.0-litre engine grumbles away noisily and fails to provide any real sense of urgency, and the traditional CVT experience of rising revs that fail to correlate with rising speed is present and correct, especially when trying to get a move on. For reference, 0-62mph takes 13.3 seconds (over 2 seconds slower than the old diesel Outlander) and it’ll top out at 118mph.
There is a ‘manual’ mode for the CVT ‘box, meaning you can change gear with the plastic paddles behind the wheel, but you’d never use this around town and a proper manual gearbox would be far more welcome. It’s not the most refined among its class either, with plenty of wind and tyre noise at motorway speeds.
Mitsubishi Outlander review
Not exactly the prettiest cockpit, is it? If you think about some of the Outlander’s rivals, like the Peugeot 5008 complete with its spaceship-style Year 3000 setup, buyers are hardly going to be wowed by the interior of the Mitsubishi. The plastics are woefully cheap and the eight-inch infotainment system feels dated both to use and look at. Not a good start.
But then again, if you look at it from a practical point of view it starts to make more sense. Those plastics suddenly become hard-wearing and durable, and you notice just how much space there is both in the front, above your head and in the back. There’s a decent amount of kit with the boggo-spec ‘Design’ trim too. All cars get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a Bluetooth-enabled six-speaker DAB radio, a rear-view camera, dual-zone climate control and an impressive amount of cupholders. No, seriously – even those in the third row of seats get a designated place for their beverages.
Upgrading to the top-level ‘Exceed’ trim for an extra £1,000 or so brings a 360-degree parking camera, TomTom navigation, some extra USB ports for rear passengers and leather seats all round – although we’d actually recommend the standard cloth ones. Oh, and we mentioned that boot space earlier, but what we didn’t tell you was that with the second and third row of seats folded down, the Outlander can swallow a hefty 1,608-litres of luggage.
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV — long-term review
As TG’s newly designated plug-in hybrid correspondent (secret power: sniffing out any vacant public charge point within a five-mile radius), I’m moving up in the world. Quite literally: from the hatch-height Hyundai Ioniq, to a seating position a foot or so higher in the Outlander PHEV.
Yes, Britain’s best-selling plug-in hybrid – over 40,000 shifted at last count – has joined the TG fleet. On paper, at least, it seems a slightly more confusing proposition than the Ioniq, which, after all, is an unabashed suburbanite. But a proper muddy-wellies SUV – don’t be fooled by the facelift, there’s still far more farmyard in the Outlander’s DNA than you’ll find in that of a Tiguan or Kodiaq – that’ll haul you down a winter farm track but also saunter through Knightsbridge on electric power alone. well, that’s quite the schizophrenic sell, no?
That said, if the Outlander can make the Jekyll-and-Hyde act stick, it could be a winner: two cars for the price of one. Zero-emissions urban commuting by day, extreme greenlaning by night. Motoring, solved. As, you might argue, it should be, for nearly forty grand.
First impression: when did the Outlander get good-looking? I’d always had it pegged as a bit of a frumpy old goose, but the 2019 update takes those utilitarian lines so familiar from Evos of old, and garnishes them with some rather pleasing modern details. Nice wheels, too.
On the inside, the farm ’n’ fashion mash-up is perhaps a fraction less effective. I’m a big fan of the chunky heater switches – operable, no doubt, while wearing Everest-spec woolly mitts – but the info-screens and hybridity displays do look a generation behind those of, say, that Ioniq. Might not seem like a big deal, but in a plug-in, you want to feel you’re at the cutting edge of touchscreen tech and all that. The Outlander’s tech feels a little… first-gen iPhone.
The charge cables and sockets, too, aren’t quite so swishily assembled as the Hyundai’s. But again, perhaps that’s excusable in a car that’s as likely to be found parked in an actual river as outside the River Cafe. And hey, if it all works a treat, I couldn’t care less.