Mitsubishi Outlander Plugin Hybrid

I can introduce you to the new Mitsubishi Outlander in 4 weeks - because then the test car will come to visit. In the meantime, I should take a closer look at the plug-in version of the upcoming Outlander hybrid:

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

The esteemed colleague Peter Ruch from radical-mag.com had the opportunity to drive the new plug-in hybrid from the Japanese and, after reading its impressions, I am extremely excited about this “milestone” from Mitsubishi.

At the moment, all-electric vehicles are still too far from achieving the great success on the market that they would actually be entitled to. Until the time comes and petrol has finally become more expensive than gold - we will turn to optimizing conventional drives. This also includes that internal combustion engines with electric motors to so-called "hybrids" be combined.

In order to be able to treat the hybrids to the particularly fascinating “purely electric” ride, electric motors and storage batteries must be adequately dimensioned.

In the new plug-in hybrids from Mitsubishi Lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 12 kWh were accommodated. Two electric motors are fed from this. One on the front axle and one on the rear axle and both 2 kW. Since you can make a difference between power and power with electric motors, the front one is at work with 60 Nm and the rear one with 137 Nm.

There is also a 2 liter four-cylinder petrol engine with an additional 121 hp. The Outlander should be able to do both in this version. Drive in series as well as in parallel 😉 - i.e. use the petrol engine to charge the batteries to drive purely electrically, or use the petrol engine to drive together with the electric motors.

It seems to be an extremely complex, but probably just as fascinating system that Mitsubishi will probably only treat us to in autumn 2013.

Prices? Unknown. Consumption? First of all, unimportant - because the question is how to measure this consumption in a meaningful way. Anyone who has charged the plug-in Outlander at home within 4 hours from the socket and then has not driven further than 55 km - you probably won't have used a drop of fuel.

So in the future it will depend even more than before - how you use your car. General statements are becoming less and less important.

However, the PHEV Outlander is becoming important for Mitsubishi! So you can really prove your competence, I'm looking forward to my first test drive with this plug-in hybrid.