Mitsubishi Outlander 2023 review: Plug-In Hybrid EV

At the start of this I said the Outlander PHEV came at a price, and by that I mean you'll pay about $16,000 more than the petrol version. I think it's worth it... just.

There are four grades in the Outlander PHEV line-up: the ES which lists for $54,590; the Aspire for $60,990, then the Exceed at $65,990, and the Exceed Tourer for $68,490.

Mitsubishi reckons the ES is aimed at fleet buyers, but far from being the bargain basement grade with not much to offer it's actually well equipped with 18-inch alloys, all-wheel drive, LED headlights and DRLS, push button start, dual-zone climate control, fabric seats, a 12.3-inch instrument cluster, a 9.0-inch media display, Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay.

The Outlander PHEV has different suspension to the petrol version. (Aspire variant pictured)

The Aspire is the best value in the range, so along with all the ES's features it adds 20-inch alloys, privacy glass, heated front seats (the driver's is power adjustable), a proximity key, wireless phone charger and a power tailgate.

The Exceed is getting up there at almost $66K before on roads, but it does give you a third row of seats, making it a seven seater, and there's three-zone climate control, quilted leather seats, power-adjustable front passenger seat, a Bose sound system and a panoramic sunroof.

The Exceed Tourer lets you have a different roof colour (relative to the body's main shade). Inside there's the two-tone leather upholstery and massaging front seats.

Fev. That's how you say it. Not Peehev. Not P-H-E-V, either. Fev. Actually say PHEV anyway you like because it's how the Outlander PHEV works that matters.

Which ever way you say it PHEV stands for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

As the name suggests this type of hybrid can be plugged into a power supply to charge the battery. That's quite different to the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid which doesn't use a cable to charge. Plug-in hybrids like the Outlander use less petrol than the RAV4 hybrid - more on that in the Efficiency section below.

Which ever way you say it PHEV stands for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. (Exceed Tourer variant pictured)

The Outlander PHEV has two electric motors - one at the front in the engine bay and the other at the rear axle - along with 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine.

Altogether the motors and engine have a combined output of 185kW/450Nm, a lot more than the 135kW/245Nm petrol Outlander.

Sending drive to the wheels is a single-speed hybrid transmission.

A 20kWh lithium-ion battery pack runs along the base of the car between the wheels. When the battery is fully charged there's 84km of electric driving range according to Mitsubishi and the Outlander will use the motors to drive the wheels as often as possible, using the engine sparingly.

Altogether the motors and engine have a combined output of 185kW/450Nm. (Aspire variant pictured)

So, at speeds under about 70km/h, provided there's enough charge in the battery, the Outlander PHEV will just use the motors. At higher speeds and on steep hills the engine will kick in to assist.

One of the beautiful things about this system is that if the battery runs out of charge the engine will power an onboard generator to recharge it. Along with that this SUV can recharge its battery pack using the captured energy from when it brakes. This regenerative braking can be increased or decreased using the paddles on the steering column.

In the next section we'll talk about how to charge it using the cable and the fuel economy you can expect to see - that's what it's all about right? Well, mostly.

I've just come out of a long-term relationship with the petrol version of the Outlander Exceed. Yep, it was our family car for four months and more than 3000km. It's long-term tests like this that reveal a car's strengths and weaknesses more clearly.

A weakness of the petrol Outlander is its pretty heavy fuel consumption. The best mileage I achieved was 10.2L/100km, measured at the petrol pump and on that occasion I managed to get about 670km out of a full tank. Generally I couldn't get more than 550km from a full tank and the fuel consumption could be as high as 15L/100km.

There's a lot contributing to this high consumption. The Outlander Exceed is all-wheel drive, it's carrying quite a bit of weight and my driving was nearly always on city roads in short bursts doing school drop offs, work commutes and grocery shopping trips.

The Outlander PHEV would be much better suited to this type of use and although I couldn't properly test the fuel consumption at the launch of this new SUV I made some good findings.

A weakness of the petrol Outlander is its pretty heavy fuel consumption. (Aspire variant pictured)

I did a small 25.8km city loop of the Adelaide CBD and suburbs. My speed was almost always less than 60km/h and the Outlander was under electric power nearly the entire time. At the end of the loop the trip computer told me I had averaged 0.7L/100km. That's 18ml of petrol used for 26km of driving.

Then I took it over a combination of country roads and motorways (where I hit 110km/h). I had my foot to the floor going up steep hills, and yes, this used more petrol.

The trip computer said I'd averaged 2.0L/100km. Still extremely fuel efficient.

I then dived into the Outlander PHEV's fuel history and discovered that somebody had set the another trip computer from almost the day it hit the road for the first time and over the 1336.9km of almost its entire life (odo was at 1352) the average fuel consumption was 4.9L/100km.

That's not quite the 1.5L/100km Mitsubishi quotes as the official combined fuel economy, but compared to the 15L/100km I was getting in the petrol version of the Outlander at times it is much better.

There's a catch, though. You'll have to plug the Outlander PHEV into a power supply to keep the battery topped up if you want this great fuel economy.

You’ll have to plug the Outlander PHEV into a power supply to keep the battery topped up if you want this great fuel economy. (Exceed Tourer variant pictured)

You don't need to have a fast charger wall unit installed in your house, the Outlander's cable will plug into a regular household power point, although it will take 9.5 hours to go from zero to 100 per cent full. Put the Outlander on the charger at night before you go to bed and in the morning you'll have a full charge - like a phone.

A public fast charger using a CHAdeMO plug such as one you'd find at a service station or supermarket car park can take you from zero to 80 percent in 38 minutes.

Remember, this Outlander is a hybrid and uses petrol, too, so there's not the range anxiety that goes with a battery electric vehicle like a Tesla Model 3. That means the need to charge is only necessary to achieve good fuel consumption and not vital to making it to your destination.

Mitsubishi says the range of the Outlander PHEV is 850km+. We'll test that claim ourselves once we have one in the CarsGuide garage.

If you don't charge your Outlander PHEV then you can expect to see high petrol usage, so you'll need access to a power point or you'll be visiting charging stations often.

The Outlander Plug-in Hybrid has the same chunky and prestigious good looks as the petrol version.

I love the kooky styling of the Outlander's big, fat face with the blade-like LED running lights and chrome-like twirly moustache.

The tailgate is far more conservative but still pleasing.

Seriously, it's as though the stylists designed the Outlander's front on a Friday and it's back on a Monday morning.

Really, the only way to tell the hybrid from the petrol is by the charging port and the badging, of course.

The grade we're in here is the Aspire and it looks different from the entry-grade ES thanks to bigger alloy wheels also found on Exceed and Exceed Tourer.

The Aspire has the silver front and rear skid plates, silver fog light surrounds, and silver roof rails. I've since learnt it's not actual silver - that's a bit disappointing - but people would steal those bits.

The Exceed Tourer is the big daddy or momma of the range and it looks so much like the Exceed that even I have mistaken it for one.

It doesn't help that the badge says Exceed even on the Exceed Tourer. The best way to tell them apart is that the Exceed Tourer comes with a different coloured roof to the rest of the car.

The Outlander's insides are a bit plain, but still appear premium with plenty of shiny black surfaces and metallic looking dials and trims.

Of course, as you head up to the higher grades the interior becomes more lux in the Aspire, then on to the quilted leather of the Exceed and two-tone upholstery of the Exceed Tourer.

The Outlander PHEV has the same good practicality as the petrol version. There's more than enough legroom in the second row for even me at 191cm tall to sit behind my driving position, there are big door pockets and four cupholders.

All grades have directional air vents in the second row, and also in there are loads of seat-back pockets to look after your bits and pieces.

The Aspire is even more practical with a wireless phone charger, two USB ports in the second row and two AC power outlets (1500W, 240V, three-pin) which can be used for appliances while camping with electricity supplied from the hybrid battery.

The Exceed and Exceed Tourer add a third row of seats. That's right the ES and Aspire are five seater SUVs and the Exceed and Exceed Tourer have seven seats.

Those two seats in the very back are cramped for me, but then most third rows aren't comfortable for me.

These top two grades also have sun shades for the rear side windows which is great, but the sunroof they also have eats into second row headroom.

Remarkably, the Outlander PHEV's boot is the same size as the petrol version. The Outlander PHEV's chief engineer Kentaro Honda (yes that is his last name, and no Mitsubishi didn't ask him to change it) told me the thing he's most proud of is that he managed to keep the boot size the same as the petrol version even though he had to contend with a large battery and electric motor encroaching on available space. And he also managed to fit the third row in.

So, with five seats in place the ES and Aspire have 485 litres of space while the Exceed and Exceed Tourer, with their third row seats folded, have 478 litres of cargo capacity.

With the Exceed and Exceed Tourer's third row seats in place the little area behind them is just 163L.

The Outlander PHEV has the same 2022 five star ANCAP test safety rating as the petrol version.

Coming standard across the range is AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection with junction assist, there's adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance and blind-spot warning.

The Aspire, Exceed and Exceed Tourer come with rear cross-traffic alert and rear AEB.

All Outlanders have front and rear parking sensors.

The Outlander has really affordable service pricing and it's capped at $299 per service over five years, but the warranty coverage is five years/100,000km, rather than unlimited kays like most mainstream brands.

There's also 10-year/200,000km warranty provided you get your servicing done by Mitsubishi.

The hybrid battery is covered by an eight-year, 160,000km warranty.

The lower score in this section is down to the warranty kilometre duration. We encourage Mitsubishi to match its competitors in offering a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

There was one thing that really bugged me about the way the petrol version of the Outlander drove. And that was how uncomfortable it was over bumps and potholes.

The Outlander PHEV has different suspension to the petrol version. The extra weight of the batteries meant engineers had to revise the shock absorbers and springs.

I'm happy to say the ride is far more comfortable over speed bumps, potholes and our not-so-smooth Aussie roads in this Outlander PHEV. Now they just have to do the same for the petrol version.

I’m happy to say the ride is far more comfortable over speed bumps, potholes and our not-so-smooth Aussie roads. (Exceed Tourer variant pictured)

The Outlander PHEV is the most electric-vehicle feeling hybrid I've driven, in that if you have enough charge in the battery pack the SUV will run on its electric motors the entire time unless you exceed about 70km/h or throw it at a steep hill.

For city driving you could almost never use the engine, but for longer trips you don't have the range anxiety you'd have with a pure EV as the engine is always there, provided you have petrol in the tank.

As with the petrol version there are drive modes for Tarmac, Mud, Gravel (all Outlander PHEV are all-wheel drive) but there's also a 'Power' mode on the dial and this combines the engine and motors to provide maximum oomph.

If you have enough charge in the battery pack the SUV will run on its electric motors the entire time unless you exceed about 70km/h or throw it at a steep hill. (Exceed Tourer variant pictured)

The acceleration in power mode isn't outrageous but it's impressive for this type of family SUV with 0-100km/h coming in 8.2 seconds. The petrol version's 0-100km/h time is 10.5 seconds.

I found the petrol version easy to drive, even if at first this SUV feels large from the driver's seat, and this PHEV version is even easier to pilot being serenely silent most of the time and with a special hybrid transmission which makes driving even smoother.

Finally, the regenerative braking which captures the energy when you slow down and turns it into electricity for the battery pack can be increased to the point where you barely have to touch the brakes. Taking your foot off the accelerator will slow the SUV down to walking pace.

The Outlander PHEV is the most electric-vehicle feeling hybrid I’ve driven. (Exceed Tourer variant pictured)