Last report - Bye bye battery

The time has come for me to hand back the keys to my Outlander PHEV. I must admit that, in the last few weeks, I was beginning to look forward to my replacement diesel test car, but as I saw the driver collecting the Mitsubishi heading off into the distance, I couldn't help but feel a hint of sadness that my time with the plug-in workhorse was over. 

It was my first time driving a plug-in hybrid on a long-term basis and although I sometimes resented the Outlander, custodianship of the car was somewhat of a learning curve - but in a
good way. 

Yes, it took a while to get used to its limited electric range and to learn how to drive it to the optimum settings for maximum power, and yes, the Outlander has its flaws (which I have mentioned in previous tests). One of the main drawbacks is its price, and I have to say I was a little baffled when I first learned this 4h equipment level car sits just below the £40k mark, but lacks much of the kit you would expect for that money, including a sat-nav, of course, (no, I am not over that yet). In the lower trims the current car starts at £32k, rising to just under £44k for a fully specced 5hs, but we expect the equipment level we had to account for the majority of sales. 

All that said, the Outlander PHEV has many perks. It proved itself very useful for long road trips, with its large boot, flat-folding rear seats and, of course, its ability to do the last few miles around town and in the city on pure electric mode. Despite its size, the Outlander is easy and relatively pleasant to drive. Refinement is good at low speeds, especially when the electric motors are in action. The 2.4-litre engine is also quiet and refined, only becoming strangely audible under heavy acceleration or when going uphill. 

Inside, the Outlander, while very basic in the tech department, is a pleasant place to be for drivers and passengers, with plenty of room - storage room is ample too. 

In reality, if you are thinking about a PHEV, you are probably looking to minimise your tax liability, a very valid reason to consider this Outlander plug-in; it will be cheap to run, too. No, you probably won't get 159.5mpg, (unless your commute can be done almost entirely on electric power), but even with the heavy battery the Outlander nonetheless promises decent fuel economy overall if you charge it regularly. 

And of course, CO2 emissions of 46g/km under the WLTP (on the old NEDC cycle it is rated at just 40g/km) means your tax bill will be tiny. We are talking thousands less per year than an equivalent petrol or diesel.

As I jumped into my diesel long-termer for the first time and realised I won't be able to get anywhere near the mpg I achieved in my Outlander PHEV, I began to question when a viable diesel plug-in would be available on the market. For this reason, it is hard not to recommend the Outlander in many ways, because it is the only car of its kind that really exists - an 'affordable' large SUV with sub-50g/km CO2 emissions. 

If you are a business user with a couple of kids, you might struggle to fit them in a 3 Series or similar, and because the tax savings are so massive you really ought to have a PHEV. So, if it fits your lifestyle, the Outlander really is the only option. 

Update 6 - Breaking the stereotype

In a previous review of the Outlander I wrote about how I was able to drive it into the city centre to test out the manoeuvrability of the chunky SUV.

While it performed well in the city streets despite its size, being a 4x4 the Outlander's capabilities should really lend it to bigger, more challenging roads. 

What becomes obvious after driving the Outlander on the motorway is that Mitsubishi has worked hard to make it drive more like an SUV than some of the more authentic 4x4s we've become used to driving.

That is not to say that the Outlander is perfect, though. Revised front and rear shock absorbers are supposed to make the ride a little smoother, which they do, but it is still not the smoothest-driving SUV. Speed humps are to be approached with caution unless you want a bit of a bump in the bum department, but body control is quite impressive, helped, no doubt, by the weight of the battery low down.

There are a few driving modes to get your head around in the cabin, such as an EV button that stops the engine from kicking in if you want to remain in electric mode (provided there's enough charge). Then there is a sport mode that sharpens the throttle response but it is pretty much pointless, as preserving battery life is the aim of the Outlander game. 

Speaking of which, the Eco button does the exact opposite, making the throttle less sharp in order to preserve electricity. 

Then we get to the AWD system, which gives the powertrain a further three modes - normal, save and charge. The save option keeps the battery topped up if, like me, you live in Zone 2 and want to get home without roaring around the tiny streets of south London in the loud ICE engine. Charge does what it says on the tin and charges the batteries if you aren't heading to a location where you can easily plug in. This mode in particular is able to recuperate charge quite quickly if you are driving at speed, and is therefore one I use a lot while motorway driving. 

It is worth noting that none of these modes are automatic and you have to remember to click them on yourself, but it is funny how quickly you remember to whack charge on when you are trundling down the M4 and can see the battery power disappearing before your eyes. But it is also worth mentioning that there are six levels of regenerative braking, which it took me at least two months to discover. They are operated by moving the gear selector from D to B and playing with the paddles behind the steering wheel, which in D fulfil their normal purpose of allowing you to change up and down gears before the transmission does it automatically. It is worth noting that the paddles are weirdly labelled + and -, but they do the opposite of what you would expect. Once you get used to using the regenerative mode, it is likely you will use it all the time. 

It may have its flaws, but if you are after a PHEV SUV that drives well, yet is cheaper than similar offerings from German manufacturers, then you are in for a treat. However, at 40k, we will be revisiting whether or not it is worth the money in our next, and sadly final,
long-term report on the Outlander. 

Update 5 - What do you mean there's no sat-nav?

Using Android Auto isn't something I would usually groan about; in fact, it's often my go-to as I trust its reliability and live traffic information. But in all honesty, I have come to expect most new cars to have their own built-in sat-nav, and it came as a bit of a shock to me
when I discovered my long-term Outlander doesn't.  

Not only is a built-in sat-nav important as a back-up when you run out of 4G driving out in the sticks, it would have also been very helpful during the process of moving flats last week, since the wi-fi at home took a good few days to get set up.

I resorted to tethering my laptop to my Huawei internet one morning before a conference, only to then find my usually long-lasting phone internet had taken a beating and was now going to cost a fortune per MB before my renewal date. This meant that jumping into my Mitsubishi and plugging in my phone was an expensive option. Instead of paying, I decided to try and remember my way into Canary Wharf, having driven there a few times before. A trip to Leeds, where I definitely wouldn't be able to find my way, ended up costing me around £20 in extra phone data for Google Maps. It is safe to say I will be requesting a sat-nav in my next test car. 

Another complaint has arisen during my time with the Outlander. The screen that displays the radio (and Android Auto) isn't the best quality display and in all honesty looks something out of the early noughties. To the right of the screen, the closest buttons to the driver are those to control the volume of the radio and to turn the display off, not to change the display menu or operate the radio, meaning I have to reach right across to the passenger's side if I want to do any of those things while driving - which isn't too easy a task.  

Update 4 - Trying for size 

If you are considering the Outlander for its potential use as a family car you may already know that the biggest difference between the PHEV and the conventional Mitsubishi Outlander is the lack of a seven-seat option, due to the extra space taken up by the batteries. But before you rule it out of your choice list, you should know that boot space in the hybrid Outlander due to the batteries drops by just 14 litres, meaning the PHEV still has an adequate 463 litres of luggage room. Pretty good, right? 

A bank holiday weekend road trip from London to a caravan site in west Wales with lots of luggage, bedding and two adult bikes seemed like a great opportunity to see whether the boot size and space is sacrificed too much due to the placement of the batteries.