What’s under the hood of the Outlander PHEV?
As a plug-in hybrid, the 2023 Outlander PHEV has a battery pack that you can charge at home or at a public charging station. Batteries power electric motors that allow you to drive short distances on all-electric power. After that, the gas engine will start and the Outlander will drive like a regular hybrid.
The 2023 Outlander PHEV has a similar powertrain configuration as before — there’s a four-cylinder engine, two electric motors, a battery pack and standard all-wheel drive — but it’s been updated to be more powerful. Its new output is 249 horsepower — up from 221 hp on the 2022 model — and a healthy 332 lb-ft of torque.
Mitsubishi now has seven driving modes in the Outlander PHEV. The typical Normal, Gravel and Snow are all there, but extras like Tarmac and Power don’t seem necessary to us for a crossover. In addition to the drive mode, the Outlander PHEV also has settings for the battery, allowing the driver to prioritize driving on electric power only or start the engine to save battery power for later.
What’s even cooler is the feature commonly known as one-pedal drive. One-pedal drive is common among full battery electric vehicles, but not so much in plug-in hybrids. Selecting this button in the Outlander activates the most aggressive regenerative braking — you lift off the throttle and the vehicle slows down to help recharge the battery. It almost brought the Outlander PHEV to a complete stop without touching the brake pedal. Almost is the key word there — unfortunately, it doesn’t work until 0 mph.
What is the range and mpg of the Outlander PHEV?
With a fully charged battery, Mitsubishi estimates you can drive about 38 miles without using gas. Electric range is up 14 miles from the 2022 model and is comparable to what other plug-in hybrid SUVs get, like the Hyundai Tucson Plug-In and Toyota RAV4 Prime. If you have short trips and frequent charging, driving the Outlander PHEV can really help save gas. However, fuel economy when the battery is dead is disappointing. Mitsubishi pegs it at 26 mpg in combined city/highway driving. That’s significantly lower than the RAV4 Prime (38 mpg) or Sorento Plug-In Hybrid (34 mpg).
What about Outlander PHEV charging?
Plug-in hybrids are designed to charge overnight in most cases, resulting in enough range to handle moderate commutes. On a basic 120-volt household outlet, the battery will be fully charged in about 16 hours. At 240 volts, or on a regular Level 2 public charger, that figure drops to 6.5 hours.
Interestingly, Mitsubishi includes a second charging port for the occasional DC fast charge as well. Think of this as a road trip situation, where you can add some extra EV range in no time. On a Level 3 CHAdeMO plug, the Outlander PHEV will reach 80% battery capacity in 38 minutes. We can’t name any other plug-ins that offer fast charging, but note that it’s pretty hard to find CHAdeMO plugs these days. That said, if you can find one, it’s more likely to be available for use.
How does the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV drive?
Our first driving opportunity came with a hand-assembled pre-production car that represented the final version. Our short experience behind the wheel (about 45 minutes) was mostly positive.
A Mitsubishi product representative said that the company tuned the powertrain to only use the engine when needed for power. In its default Normal driving mode, the Outlander PHEV meets this standard. The battery provides enough power to reach city speeds without any engine intervention, something that can’t always be said about the Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid. EV power alone works up to 83 miles per hour, but a very heavy foot on a ramp will rev the engine.
Switching to Power mode unlocks all the car’s acceleration potential. And while the PHEV feels the most potent in this setting, its downside is too much intervention from the engine, with constant noise coming from the engine running at high rpm. In Power mode, the powertrain feels least refined — a stark contrast to its smooth manner in everyday Normal mode. It’s possible that the pre-production tuning was the cause of the engine’s inability to hand the reins back to the battery, but nevertheless, we experienced it throughout the drive.
We’ve yet to test the Outlander PHEV in bad weather but we’ll take Mitsubishi’s word for it that the Outlander PHEV’s All Wheel Control (AWC) system is designed to handle all kinds of situations. Unlike the standard Outlander, the PHEV’s rear axle has no connection to the engine. Instead, the battery pack supplies all the power to the rear motor that drives the rear wheels. The Outlander should have no problem holding its own in snow, gravel or deep mud. We’re looking forward to putting the PHEV through its paces in our real-world tests.