Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the New Car For Extrem Outlander

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the New Car For Extrem Outlander

Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid you have a lot of questions about this we'll get to that and more let's go for a spin right we're off quiet that is and the Outlander phev this is an all new model it's the second generation what's under the hood of this thing a 2.4 liter Atkinson cycle gas engine with a twin motor phev system with a combined 248 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque it has standard super all-wheel control the battery is 20 kilowatt hours and it gets 61 kilometers or 38 miles of EV range and has a full range of 687 kilometers or 420 miles combined Gas and Electric the twin motor all-wheel drive powertrain consists of a gasoline engine and front electric motor driving the front wheels and a stand-alone rear mounted motor driving the rear axle so in just a momen.

We'll explain how all of that works and how this vehicle is quite different than all of its competitors but right now we're going to get into the key standard features the base trim comes with an 8 inch touchscreen wired Apple carplay and Android auto a 12.3 inch digital driver display a six-speaker audio system seven passenger seating cloth upholstery a manual driver and passenger seat a heat pump a 1500 watt power supply and a tire repair kit.

The gas engine at the front and the front electric motor and another one at the back this is different because they have a large electric motor at the back that really provides a lot of power some brands have just one electric motor like Hyundai and Kia now when you're driving along at a speed we're doing now which is around 50 kilometers an hour 30 miles an hour and you put your foot into it and the gas engine comes on it's not actually driving the wheels it's generating electricity to provide more power for the battery and the Electric System so even at low speeds when the gas engine comes on it's got nothing to do with driving the wheels no and what's impressive about this is it feels like you're driving a pure EV it's really impressive that Mitsubishi has mastered this okay then you have when you get to higher speeds well a gasoline engine is efficient at higher speeds so what happens is a clutch engages and then the gasoline engine is now powering the front wheels.

So that's when you're cruising on the highway but even then at certain speeds it will decouple the gasoline engine you can sail along when it speeds up to 130 kilometers 100 130 kilometers an hour just pure on EV range and then you add in the standard super all-wheel control system Mitsubishi has been working on this technology since 1987 and it is a great all-wheel drive system this has got different terrain management modes from snow mud gravel and tarmac and then you get into the whole EV management system where you have normal mode which is basically hybrid you can save your EV charge for later you can charge the vehicle while you are using the gas engine and then of course you can drive it in pure electric EV mode my favorite is when you put it into Power okay so same thing again even when you kick it at low speed remember that engine is not creating direct drive it's just pure battery.

But it creates more electricity with the gasoline engine on and that my friend is a game changer again and for Mitsubishi because remember I mentioned it has that big electric motor at the back when you put it in power it acts more like a rear-wheel drive vehicle I love it and I think the best time to use that would be on the highway when you're accelerating quickly when you're trying to pass I used it when I was taking some pretty sharp corners and I really didn't need the power I mean it really felt like it was almost too much I used it all the time Andrea if I own this I have it stuck in power this handles really well the steering is pretty light so it's easy to maneuver and the cabin is very quiet.

In fact Mitsubishi with this model really worked hard on noise vibration and harshness and also just to make the ride a little bit more comfortable than the outgoing model it feels upscale that's one way to describe it because when you add electrification you take some things and make it better like it's smoother it's quieter the acceleration is more linear so those all build on the fact it's quieter to make it feel more upscale I think that's the best way to describe it especially on this top trim when you're driving this is pretty nice this looks a lot like the new gas model that came out this is now a seven passenger SUV the previous phev was five passengers and I think it looks good I mean it certainly has a unique look to it it has a bold presence on the road with the dynamic Shield Grille.

Yeah the thing is that they wanted it to look like it was more substantial and it's 60 millimeters wider okay that's quite a bit and it has the big grill it's a bit polarizing we hear from people they love it they think it looks cool futuristic and certainly definitely looks imposing and then there's others that just say is not for me at all I have warmed what I think it was actually a good looking vehicle this comes standard with LED headlights it's got body colored side mirrors and door handles you've got some Chrome accents standard 18 inch wheels but available 20 inch wheels were riding on 20 inch wheels on this top trim the only way to know that this is the phev is the badging on it other than that it looks right just like the regular gas model this gets seven point ground clearance so that's nice for deeper snow but also easy to get in and out of the vehicle.

It comes with some great standard driver Assist Technology from blind spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert forward Collision warning Lane keep assist rear parking sensors and adaptive cruise control and just like the outside you wouldn't really know this is a phev except for there's two buttons here in the center console one is EV that's where you can manage say save or peer review and next to that is the one pedal driving we're going to talk about that coming up in questions coffee and cars this interior is a winner it's one Awards and I think it's one of the highlights of the vehicle overall I like the seating position in here you sit up and over the dash the visibility is really good as is the Comfort level this top trim is up massaging seats now it's a light massage feature but even the passenger gets it passenger even on this top trim gets memory seats come on height adjustment this is stuff you.

Typically get in premium vehicles but the interior is very well designed it's nicely laid out and you notice that extra width we talked about 60 millimeters wider you feel that on the inside this center console is really well organized everything is at your fingertips from the traditional shifter to all of the buttons and knobs your heated steering wheel and your heated front seats they told us that they wanted it to be like the regular gasoline model because this for many people will be their first foray into electrification and they want it to be familiar but I like the fact that they left it very close to the gasoline model I said it was a game changer and it has brought in a bunch of different buyers to the Mitsubishi brand that maybe wouldn't have considered it before yeah the little details like the Quilted stitching on the doors and even the vinyl wrap Dash and on some of the lower trims it doesn't go to hard plastic there is also a material that's used I highly recommend in Canada going up one from the base model it opens you up to many more features you get an ultra suede interior it's faux Suede and you get the larger nine inch touchscreen with Wireless Apple carplay wired Android auto navigation is also included in that trim a panoramic sunroof.

Power driver seat heated steering wheel power tailgate and then the power folding exterior mirrors and a multi-view camera going up one more trim to the SEL gets you a larger 20 inch wheels heated rear seats a power passenger seat driver seat memory and quilted leather appointed seats the top GT model gets a wireless charger the Bose sound system a head-up display and then the hands-free power tailgate and our test model has the massage seats and of course the semi-anna line seats in the United States the model we suggest is moving up to the SE trim you get the bigger Wheels leatherette power driver seat heated front seats and the larger nine inch touchscreen plus you get a wireless charger and a power tailgate you want the panoramic roof you got to go to the SC Tech trim it also adds the Bose sound system if you go to the higher trims above that it's similar to what we get here in Canada you get features like leather seats power passenger seat and a heated steering wheel alright here's me getting into the second row the nice thing about the second row is the outboard seats closest to the window are also heated and you get three levels of heating the seats slide four and a half they also recline and they need to slide four and a half in order to make room to get into the third row.

This is quite a unique vehicle because it is a seven passenger so there really isn't a lot of competition but comparing it to something like the Sorrento it offers about the same front row leg room second and third row legroom as well as overall cargo capacity and space behind the third row goes to the Sorrento it is just generally bigger but if you compare it to a five passenger like the RAV4 Prime for example it actually has more front and second row legroom but overall cargo capacity and space behind the second row goes to the RAV4 third row seats this is just for kids little kids to take them for short trips an extra kid to soccer practice or to ballet or football or whatever it's not the Mother-in-law seat you don't want to put your mother in law back definitely not she wouldn't be able to fit in there but the good news is it's back for phev they actually because the vehicle is bigger than the previous model were able to fit two things the third row of seats and a larger rear electric motor.

So it's a win-win so you have questions about the one pedal driving and more let's get into it time now for questions coffee and cars your questions from Instagram one of the features Outlander has while charging or still connected to the charging port is the owner can precondition the cabin the question is would the vehicle use for that purpose power from the Grid or internal battery engine from the grid so we should probably explain what happens you have an app on your phone and you can set a timer that say you leave the house every morning at 7 30 you can pre-condition the car to be warm or cold depending on the time of year so when you get in it's perfect you know 72 Fahrenheit 20 degrees Celsius and Away you go that's getting power from what Andrea it's getting it from the grid so the other thing is that's great about this is that you are not affecting any of the battery so you can leave with a full battery EV range it's right up to where you want it seat heaters on or the air conditioning is on it's good stuff it will be awesome if you can post real world numbers on Eevee range and also fuel economy on hybrid mode only well this is tricky because this is a one-day test drive.

For us usually we have the car for a week we're at the launch here in Canada so we're not getting it for a long period of time but we do have some kind of basic information for you in hybrid mode we're actually getting some pretty good range 6.6 liters per 100 kilometers which is 35 miles per gallon I mean I'm pretty happy with that yeah the interesting thing is these cars all have to be what are called mild up so we don't just get in them with zero on the odometer they put miles on them to make sure they're running properly yeah so one of the people that was doing all of the miling out or miling up was getting around 6.2 liters per hundred kilometers and that works out to about 30 something five miles per gallon and from the dealership uh somebody's been driving one of these regularly back and forth and he's getting anywhere from six to eight liters but it all depends on the temperature it is cold here today it's zero degrees Celsius so right at freezing I mean we've got the heat on we have the heat warmers on the seats on so that will make a difference whether you're doing highway driving City combined you know it's really tough yeah you can't just generalize and say this is the fuel economy you're getting because it depends if you live in a hilly area a not hilly area flat you drive fast you drive slow listen those are the official numbers results May Vary.

Yeah that's what you have to keep in mind you're averaging down your fuel costs over the lifespan of the vehicle always just keep that in mind we put out a lot of content each week on the motor mouth and it's super easy to find all you do is go to the type in motor mouth the name of the channel then the brand you're looking for in this case it's Mitsubishi and all our it's that easy please review the one pedal driving and also the charge mode well first off I want to say that the way that Mitsubishi has set this up with the different Drive modes that are available it is just so intuitive to use that you can figure out the best way to get the best fuel economy on different road conditions that you're dealing with so one pedal driving isn't new it's mostly kept for exclusive exclusively for Pure EVS this is the first phev that offers this so it's a button here next to the EV button and when you press that when you lift off the throttle the brake automatically starts to apply so you can modulate accelerating and decelerating with just one pedal however it will not bring you to a full stop but it's similar to whatever you get in other brands with one pedal driving that are pure.

EVS Mitsubishi also recommends if you're dealing with snowy conditions that use that one petal drive because some people don't know how much braking to do and that this will just do the work for you there's also the paddle shifters for regen brake King and there's six different levels including zero and Mitsubishi recommends that if you're going up or down Hills that that would be a good option instead of the one pedal drive and now it's time for our Hot Topic what's this one Andrea what did you like the most about the Outlander compared to other phevs like the Tucson Sportage and RAV4 also do you recommend Outlander as a reliable car given their good powertrain warranty so I think some of the differentiators with the Korean twins the Tucson and the Sportage or Sportage phevs they don't have a heat pump this does this has an electric motor at the back they do not they have one electric motor at the front and it's connected mechanically to the rear wheels so those are some differences and this just feels much more performance oriented it does it just feels faster it has more power it feels smoother.

The gas engine just doesn't come on as much as in the Korean vehicles of all all of the phevs that I've driven non-luxury Brands this one clearly in my opinion is the Driver's Choice that power button I talked about earlier with that rear bias electric motor giving you that instant torque this feels excellent they did a very good job the original Outlander that came out about a year and a half ago Game Changer this changes the game again in range this does really well 61 kilometers 38 miles but it doesn't beat the leader 68 kilometers 42 miles for the RAV4 Prime I think the RAV4 Prime would be the closest to this the RAV4 the gas engine doesn't come on as often you can drive it in that pure EV mode that people really like and then the Koreans they just don't have as much range as this 50 to 53 kilometers depending on which vehicle you choose so you'll want to know what is the official range you want to know the towing capacity charging and all that inner vital stats let's start with pricing in Canada the base trim is just over 46 and a half thousand dollars and the top GT premium is just over fifty seven thousand dollars in the U.S the base trim starts at just under forty thousand dollars and the top 40th anniversary edition is just under fifty thousand dollars here's the official fuel economy.

The Outlander phev is rated at 3.6 liters equivalent per 100 kilometers that's 64 miles per gallon equivalent when the batteries depleted the official range is 9 liters per 100 kilometers combined that's 26 miles per gallon combined The Outlander comes with a 3.3 kilowatt hour onboard charger with a level one charger we'll charge from zero to a hundred percent in 16 hours with a level two charger six and a half hours and with a DC fast charger it takes 38 minutes to charge up to 80 percent the new Outlander phev is the only non-luxury plug-in hybrid to offer fast charging this plug-in hybrid qualifies for the Canadian Federal EV rebate of five thousand dollars plus any participating provinces The Outlander are no longer qualifies for a tax credit in the United States.

The Outlander phev can tow 1500 pounds and Mitsubishi offers a warranty of five years or a hundred thousand kilometers sixty Thousand Miles well this was the originator this was the very first plug-in SUV that we had in North America there's more options now let's see what else you can buy for your consideration four vehicles for you to consider up first is the Kia Sorrento plug-in hybrid it is a 1.6 liter turbocharged four-cylinder with an electric motor a combined 261 horsepower and 51 kilometers 32 miles of EV range it has a starting price just under 46 thousand dollars the Toyota RAV4 Prime with a two and a half liter four-cylinder engine.

Three electric motors a combined 302 horsepower 68 kilometers or 42 miles of EV range the starting price is just over forty nine thousand dollars the Hyundai Tucson phev with a 1.6 liter turbocharged four-cylinder and electric motor a combined 261 horsepower and 53 kilometers 33 miles of EV range it has a starting price just over forty seven thousand dollars here's our Used Car alternative from Canada drives.ca we chose a 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid with just twenty one thousand kilometers on the clock for 44 990 dollars click on the tab or the link in the description below to find more vehicles in this category from Canada drives dot CA so there are four plug-in hybrid SUVs for you to consider lightning round two things we like two things we like to see improve love how smooth and quiet this is this is my favorite plug-in hybrid period I'd love to see ventilated front seats that's one feature this Outlander plug-in hybrid doesn't get the heat pump can be a little noisy it's surprising Mitsubishi you nailed it a plug-in hybrid that feels more like a pure EV.