Last week, AutoBild tested the Toyota RAV4 against the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. The test was part of a special hybrid section in AutoBild and you don't want to do anything with it other than “swim along”. After the Dieselgate, the automotive industry is now turning massively in the direction of hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Germany's “self-proclaimed” number 1 car magazine should not be inferior to this. And actually the strange test of Hybrid vs. PHEV would not have been worth any further news for me. Especially since I only recently got the strange test methods of "auto, motor und sport" had criticized.
How do you compare a PHEV with a hybrid?
You can not do it. Because the deployment scenarios are completely different. Sure, you can compare a diesel with a petrol engine, but every reader knows what this test will look like. When comparing PHEV vs. Hybrid it is stored a little differently. The differences are more subtle. The job of a car magazine is, if you take this seriously, to educate the reader about the differences. Instead, you drive an 08 / 15 test and choose a winner on points.
Reader Florian Franz now wanted to know from us, why the AutoBild comes to a completely different test result, as we on mein-auto-blog. And without his email this topic would probably not have come back on the table.
TOYOTA RAV 4 vs. Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
We would not carry out a comparison test of the two vehicles on my-auto-blog. Hybrid must be tested against hybrid, PHEV against PHEV. We are the RAV 4 already driven and our author Mario has an opinion about it. But - you can't compare the models because of that. And it would be more important to go into the technical solution of the RAV 4 and the PHEV, the advantages on the respective side. You cannot choose a winner from this, you - as a reader, as a buyer - have to make it out. Depending on which drive concept suits your everyday life.
Readers Florian Franz has packed a few quotes from the test into his email, we want to briefly answer with our rating.
"In the warm-up phase, the petrol engine switches on roughly and growls unwillingly." and “The PHEV lacks composure, especially from a standing start”
Is the PHEV in the warm-up phase, which can be quite common on short hauls?
So he growls unwillingly. I would then like to hear the “willing growl” again. The fact is: Of course you can hear an engine when it starts, but only when the car is stationary. At 100 km / h it cannot be heard.
Does the PHEV lack composure? Interesting, because in the next quote you evaluate it differently again?
By the time the drive control, electric machine and a useful number of revolutions of the combustion engine have lined up, the traffic light neighbors have already scurried away ”
Is the PHEV lacking in traffic light start-up qualities (not the strength of an eco-car, but still welcome on German roads)?
This is now the biggest bullshit I've read about the PHEV powertrain so far. On the one hand: Anyone who insists on traffic light sprint duels should buy a sports car, not a 2.0 ton SUV. Second: The electric motor immediately has its entire torque and both motors throw this into the balance “right from the start”. Anyone who demands more power than the battery can provide (60 kW) starts the petrol engine, which is also up to speed immediately and provides power for the generator from a standstill. From about 64 km / h, the petrol engine switches to the front axle and pulls the SUV on.
Does the PHEV lack traffic light start qualities? Yeah, sure, if you want to soap up Pupertierende Halbbstarke in Hot Hatches, it's the wrong car. But then every SUV is, beyond one GLE 63 AMG the wrong SUV. But who decides to hybrid or PHEV SUV, who probably has the mental maturity to judge the start of traffic differently than an AutoBild editor.
"... the brittle response of the chassis ..." and "... the Mitsubishi runs uneasily in a straight line ... "
Last year I drove over 120 different cars for my-auto-blog. 120 different. Many of them only less than 300 kilometers. We have been driving the Outlander PHEV for 14 months now - and neither the undercarriage is brittle, nor is the straight ahead restless. As a car image editor, I would only be restless if I saw the number of copies of my own medium - because then I would be afraid for the future.
Perhaps it is this fear that causes such senseless, but polemical and round table-relevant tests at “Germany's number 1 car magazine”.
