2020 Mitsubishi Outlander vs Toyota RAV4

What's the difference?

When you think about it, plug-in hybrids really are something of a best of both worlds proposition - an electric motor for your weekday commute, and a petrol engine for your weekend adventures. It also means you can almost always plug in at home, so there's no need to queue for a public charger or worry much about how long it takes to recharge. 

If you're looking for a plug-in hybrid with space for the family and more of an adventurous spirit than most, the Outlander PHEV is worthy of investigating.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel and meals provided.

My feelings of hope for improvements from Toyota have given way to expectation. Traditionally its cars have been safe, well-built, and high quality, just boring to drive and imbued with a bit much of a "just enough" attitude. The RAV4 GX Hybrid might be nearly forty grand on the road but it has an excellent safety package, genuine fuel-saving hybrid technology and plenty of room for you and your stuff.

Fun to drive SUVs don't always have the blue halo of electrification. Somehow Toyota has injected (a sensible amount of) fun into the RAV4 which is kind of funny given how much money the brand has spent pretending it's fun. But it's happened and that's a good thing.

It’s business as usual for the Outlander PHEV, with the exterior design largely unchanged for this 2020 update.

Now whether that’s a bad thing obviously depends on whether you like the outgoing vehicle, but one thing is certain - this Outlander offers no Tesla Cybertruck style, erm, challenging design features. In fact, it looks an awful lot like a Mitsubishi SUV.

This is no rolling billboard advertising your eco credentials, then. And for a lot of people - myself included - that counts as a positive. 

The front-end view is easily the most powerful, with Mitsubishi’s shiny black-and-silver grille treatment looming large in any rear-view mirror it's spotted in, but we also like the swollen shoulder lines that run beneath the side windows, as well as the arch-filling alloys.

All up, they give the Outlander a vaguely premium look from the outside - a feeling only enhanced in the bright Red Diamond of our test car. On colours for a moment, there are only four available; the red, as well as Ruby Black, Titanium Grey and Starlight (white).

Inside, the new 8.0-inch screen takes pride of place in the dash, and the air-con controls have been given a more modern-feeling tickle, but elsewhere it’s largely more of the same for Mitsubishi’s electrified SUV.

And that means a simple and unfussy design theme front and back, interspersed with a combination of hard plastics and soft-touch materials. How much of each, though, depends on how much you spend.

I do like the new RAV4 more than the old one. A few angles are a little too... um, angly, and from the rear seems to have pinched its look from the VW Tiguan. Sometimes in traffic I double take because the badges and tail-lights don't match. I doubt it's completely deliberate, but the resemblance is there.

Further similarity to the competition is evident in the nose, with a distinct whiff of Forester. Either way, the RAV4 is more interesting and much sharper than its flabby predecessor.

I really dig the interior, though. Not so much for its beauty - its left-field competitor, the Peugeot 3008 wins that race hands down - but for, again, how much better it is than the old car, and how clever it is.

Everything looks and feels much better, with nicer materials and some lovely touches like the industrial motif in the rubber bits that line things like the the cupholder, boot floor and the tray cut into the dash. The rubberised climate control dials are a nice touch, adding a halo of ruggedness and practicality. I prefer the cloth interior, too.

Mitsubishi makes a big deal out of the Outlander’s practicality perks, and with good reason; here’s an electrified vehicle that can carry five people, tow 1.5 tonnes, and even tackle some off-road stuff without breaking much of a sweat.

Let’s start with the key stuff. The Outlander PHEV measures in at 4695mm in length, 1800mm in width and 1710mm in height, which is about bang-on the conventional fuel-powered models. 

As a result, you can expect similar space inside the cabin, with enough room for up-front riders, and a spacious rear seat that provided enough head and legroom for my 175cm frame to ride in comfort. 

In the boot, you’ll find 463 litres of luggage room, with an extra 35 litres hidden in an under-floor cargo box. And unlike some hybrids, the Outlander PHEV won’t shy away from some light-duty towing either, with Mitsubishi claiming a 1500kg (braked) towing capacity. 

Finally, you can expect two ISOFIX attachment points, one in each window seat in the back, as well as two new USB connections points, so there's device charging galore.

The RAV is very nicely packaged, which isn't something you can say about the Corolla or C-HR. Front seat passengers score a big phone sized cubby hole in the console as well as couple of litres underneath the armrest along with a little tray.

The two cupholders are placed just ahead of the armrest. The dash also sports a Kluger-style split, thoughtfully lined with rubber for your passenger's bits and pieces. Just the one USB port, though, which is a shame - the GXL and up have another four. Seems a bit stingy for rear-seat passengers.

Rear seat dwellers score two cupholders and all four doors have bottle holders. There is also plenty of space back there with good head and leg room and air-con vents.

The boot has a clever two-position floor to eke out a few more litres if you need them. In its lowest position you have 580 litres (assuming you don't have an optional full-size spare).

Set it higher, and level with the boot loading lip, you have 542 litres. As is Toyota's habit, the company doesn't have an official figure for a folded seat situation.

The GX Hybrid is obviously a bit more than (and a commensurate improvement on) the 2.0-litre GX, costing $35,490 ($39,606 drive-away) before any of the very skinny options list is added. So skinny it's basically a full-size spare and only available in this grade.

Base models just aren't what they used to be, especially not at Toyota, and particularly not when the price starts with a 35. You get 17-inch alloys, a six-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, central locking, front and rear parking sensors, active cruise control, sat nav, auto LED headlights, auto wipers and a space-saver spare.

It's also a Toyota with (clears throat) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on its prominent 8.0-inch touchscreen. Massive win.

Joining the belated digital revolution is DAB+ radio with a dire interface that reminds you how bad the embedded software is, despite a hefty upgrade in the last year or so.

I should note the car I drove was a pre-November 1, 2019 build and was yet to have CarPlay activated, but the identical system on the C-HR and Corolla has it.

It’s here we find the biggest change for the 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, with a bigger petrol engine and a higher-capacity battery combining to deliver what the brand promises will be a “sportier” drive.

First, under the bonnet there lurks a 2.4-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine which will deliver some 94kW at 4500rpm and 199Nm at 4500rpm - up from 87kW and 186Nm from the old 2.0-litre engine. 

The petrol engine works in conjunction with twin electric motors, (60kW/137Nm front, 70kW/195Nm rear), and though the maximum power produced remains 94kW, it does allow the Outlander to switch between petrol and electric power at will.

That power is fed through a single-speed automatic gearbox and ultimately sent to all four wheels.

The cheapest RAV4 Hybrid comes with a 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine allied to an electric motor and a CVT auto driving the front wheels. Toyota is famously conservative with its mixed-power numbers, quoting a combined 160kW (up from 152kW in the non-hybrid and 127kW in the GX 2.0-litre) and down from the AWD's 163kW.

The company will only quote the combustion engine's torque figure, which is a fairly ho-hum 221Nm. It's clearly more than that with the electric motor boosting away, but alas, we don't have a proper number.

If you feel so inclined, the GX Hybrid will only tow a 480kg trailer (braked or unbraked), which rises to 1500kg braked for the AWD model.

The bigger battery, now 13.8 kWh, doesn’t actually result in a longer driving range, with Mitsubishi still claiming a 54km EV range, according to the NEDC cycle. Stick to that, and your fuel use will be zero.

Engage the petrol engine, however, and Mitsubishi then claims a combined fuel-use figure of 1.9 litres per hundred kilometres, and C02 emissions of 43g per kilometre. The Outlander PHEV is fitted with a 45-litre fuel tank. 

When it comes time to recharge, you can expect it to take around seven hours using a plug at home, while using a CHAdeMO high-speed charger should give you 80 per cent capacity in 25 mins.

But the point Mitsubishi makes, and it's a good one, is that owing to the petrol engine, you really never need to worry about public charging. Instead, should you run out battery juice, simply drive home with the petrol engine and plug in when you get there. 

Given it's a hybrid, this is a rather important part of the package. The official Toyota figure comes in at 4.8L/100km on the combined cycle. 

Here's the astonishing bit. I got it. A week of driving around as I would normally and I scored an indicated 4.8L/100km. I did a bit of digging to see if there is a corresponding WLTP figure (as opposed to the ADR) and found it was bang on 4.8L/100km.

It's lucky, really, because the tank is a smidge on the small side (for long runs, anyway) at 55 litres.

It’s a slightly confusing experience, climbing behind the wheel of the Outlander PHEV. Not least of which because the thing that takes pride of place in this eco-friendly SUV’s centre console is a massive “Sport” button, conjuring images of slaying mountain passes, all while saving the planet.

The reality, though, is just a little different. Bigger engine or no, the Outlander is no backroad bandit.

In fact, I think it does its best work away from Sport mode, which can leave the accelerator a little too twitchy, and give you a sort of lurching effect should you so much as breath on the throttle, but then fail to backup that promise with meaningful, neck-snapping acceleration. The sprint to 100km/h, for example, will take 10.5sec, which is down from 11 seconds in the outgoing car, but still not overly quick.

Remember, this is a family friendly (and eco-friendly) SUV, and so you shouldn’t be surprised to learn it behaves at its finest when it is treated as such, accelerating smoothly, switching between electric and petrol modes without great fuss, and genuinely going about its business with a quiet confidence. 

Besides, like most electrified cars, slipping behind the wheel of the Outlander PHEV does strange and mysterious things to your driving style. Believe me, no matter how heavy your right foot is, you can’t help but want to drive the Outlander gently, trying to prolong its battery-only range and stop the petrol engine kicking in. It’s like the eco-friendly version of chasing lap times, and it is strangely addictive.

On the EV side, you can choose between Charge mode (which prioritises battery charge) or Save mode (which maintains the battery charge), and to help the battery stay charged, you can up the regenerative braking via the gearshift paddles, too. 

The truth is, though, that the Outlander drive experience really isn’t defined by its eco credentials, but by its sense of normality. It behaves in much the way you expect an Outlander to behave, with the fuel use (or lack of it) an added perk.

The steering is not overly engaging, but it’s light and easy, and the suspension focuses more on softness than sportiness. Is it as fun to drive or as engaging as some of its more modern rivals? Not really. But it's big, spacious, familiar and easy.

Toyota's experience with hybrid is unquestioned. The company has been doing it for donkeys, but mostly in the terminally dull Prius.

Now it's working its way through to other cars, including the refreshed C-HR, last year's all-new Corolla and here in the RAV4. This isn't the plug-in hybrid overseas markets get, which is a shame, but given what we already know about the fuel economy, not a massive let down.

During the week I had the car, I tried to see how fast I could go under electric power only. The battery is a small one and anything more than breathing on the throttle starts the combustion engine. A leisurely trundle down a long straight street near me saw 36km/h come up on the screen before hydrocarbons stepped in.

The hybrid system does a great job of getting you off the line, which in traffic is the bit that burns a lot of fuel. You can stay on electric in stop-start messiness when you're gentle on the throttle but it's not like, say, an Ioniq PHEV where you can get a good shove from the electric motor.

While it does whir and click a bit, the system is otherwise unobtrusive, although the initial bite on the brakes is a bit soft, which is understandable. You have to get used to it and it's not something from which other hybrids I've driven suffer. The transition from energy recovery to actual braking is a little awkward but once you're familiar, you'll stop noticing.

In terms of dynamics, the RAV4 is really nice to drive. There's enough feel in the steering to know what's going on, it rides well and responds to your inputs without the traditional Toyota pause or protests from either engine or tyres.

It doesn't roll too much, which is a massive improvement. And I'm sure a better set of tyres (over the OE Bridgestone Alenzas, which sound like an Aldi brand) would improve its overall grip.

I drove an AWD RAV4 straight after this one and I can't say there was a marked difference. So, unless you need all four wheels in action, you won't need to spend the extra.

The RAV4 ships with seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, trailer sway control, blind-spot monitor and reverse cross-traffic alert.

'Safety Sense' is standard across the range and includes lane departure warning, lane keep assist, forward AEB (with pedestrian and daytime cyclist detection), road sign recognition, auto high beam and active cruise control.

There are two ISOFIX points and three top-tether anchors.

ANCAP awarded the RAV4 a maximum five star rating in May 2019.

The Outlander PHEV is covered by a five-year, 100,000km warranty, with the batteries on board covered for eight years or 160,000kms.

Mitsubishi’s capped-price servicing program limits service costs to $299 for each of your first three visits to your dealership, which will be every 12 months or 15,000kms.

There isn't much more Toyota can do here - a five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, seven years warranty on the engine and gearbox (if you keep it serviced by the book) and seven years of roadside assist.

On top of that, every 12 months or 15,000km you'll pay $210 per service, which is a bargain. This program covers the first four services, taking you to four years/60,000km.

For most people that's going to be fine and Toyota says it can knock the service over in 90 minutes, if you're happy to wait.