Equipped with plug-in hybrid power, seven seats and plenty of standard equipment, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed has the potential to tick a lot of different boxes for a growing family.
2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed
The Mitsubishi Outlander was the first mainstream SUV in Australia to offer plug-in hybrid power when it launched in 2013.
Credit where credit is due – in an ever-evolving market, it’s managed to maintain its foothold, albeit with some much-needed upgrades.
The new Outlander PHEV landed in Australia in 2022, loaded with a bigger battery, more electric range, more interior space, and a longer list of active safety and technology features.
With the option of seven seats and the inclusion of vehicle-to-load functionality, the 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed has the potential to tick a lot of different boxes for a growing family – but is it worth the extra spend over and above its petrol siblings?
How much does the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid cost in Australia?
No matter the specification grade, all Outlander plug-in hybrids have the same powertrain.
Under the bonnet is a 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, which is paired to a front and rear electric motor and 20kWh battery – driving all four wheels via a single-speed automatic transmission.
Combined peak outputs are rated at 185kW and 450Nm, which is 50kW and 205Nm more than the non-hybrid Outlander.
There are four specification grades of Outlander plug-in hybrid – I’m reviewing the Exceed, which is the second grade down from the flagship Exceed Tourer.
The Exceed and Exceed Tourer are the only hybrid grades offered with seven seats, with the lower grades offering five seats.
For $2500 more than the Exceed, the Exceed Tourer adds two-tone design accents and massage seats, but otherwise shares much of the same equipment.
The Outlander PHEV Exceed is priced from $65,990 before on-road costs, which is $16,000 more than the same grade in non-hybrid form – a considerable leap given they share similar equipment.
For that price, the PHEV Exceed offers seven seats, a sunroof, 20-inch alloy wheels, leather-appointed seats, tri-zone climate control, leather-appointed seats and electric mirrors.
My test car is finished in the only non-cost paint shade, white, making it $71,630 drive-away in Victoria.
The Outlander offers one of the few plug-in hybrids in the medium SUV class, not to mention one of the only 5+7 seating configurations.
Its key competitors are the Toyota RAV4 hybrid, the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid and the MG HS Plus EV plug-in hybrid. All three are priced from between $50,000 and $55,000 before on-road costs for a mid-to-high spec variant, making the Outlander look pricey by comparison.
However, none of those models offer seven seats, and only the RAV4 offers all-wheel drive.
| Key details | 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed |
| Price | $65,990 plus on-road costs |
| Colour of test car | White |
| Drive-away price | $71,630 (Victoria) |
| Rivals | Toyota RAV4 hybrid | Ford Escape PHEV | MG HS Plus EV |
How much space does the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid have inside?
The cabin of the Outlander PHEV Exceed is streamlined and spacious, with some unique design accents and upmarket inclusions that help to elevate the overall feel.
The leather-appointed quilted seats offer heating and electric adjustment, and match with the quilted detailing on the doors, as well as the leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearshifter.
Two sizeable screens for the infotainment and driver’s display combine to modernise the cabin and incorporate well into the zoned dashboard.
Climate-control buttons sit above a wide centre console, appointed in glossy black and silver plastic and housing a wireless smartphone charger, one USB-A port and one USB-C port, two cupholders and a central glovebox.
Headroom is ample, but the car’s battery pushes up into the front seat and creates a raised section of flooring that can prove troublesome for your foot placement – but it’s only a minor annoyance.
The second row sits higher than the front seats, resulting in reduced headroom that could prove untenable for anyone taller than me (I’m 178cm tall).
Leg room and knee room are eminently comfortable, though, and independent tri-zone climate control allows middle-row occupants to access their own temperature controls.
There are ISOFIX tether points for a child seat on each of the outboard seats, with three top-tether attachments over the back of the middle row.
Loading and unloading my toddler was blissfully easy thanks to the Outlander’s ideal height, and installing my Britax Brava seat in the forward-facing position was simple with the ISOFIX click-points.
The in-built sunblinds – included as standard on the Exceed grade – were a helpful inclusion on sunny days and meant I didn’t have to add any ill-fitting aftermarket sunblinds to protect my son from the glare.
The middle row features a 40:20:40-split fold, enabling you to fold each eating segment individually and increase boot space even if you have a child seat installed.
The middle bench can also slide and recline to increase legroom for occupants, or improve access and space for the third row.
Putting the third row up is trickier than in other seven-seat SUVs I’ve reviewed – requiring you to fold the base up and click it into place, before pulling the seatbacks into position and flipping the headrests up (refer to my video to see this in action).
Other seven-seaters tend to only require you to pull the backs of the seats into place in a single manoeuvre.
Mitsubishi has attempted to assist owners by numbering the pull tabs on the third-row seats in order of what needs to be pulled and when, but I found this made the process even more confusing.
Once you make it into the third row, most adults will find headroom is properly non-existent – I wasn’t able to sit fully upright. Legroom is possible if middle-row occupants are willing to sacrifice most of theirs, but it’s mostly unsuitable for anyone bigger than a child.
Small windows either side restore some sense of space, and there’s a cupholder for both seats, plus you can recline the seat back to allow a bit more breathing room.
I’d suggest it’s more of a temporary solution for short trips, and probably ideal for primary-school age kids who are out of booster seats but not yet tall enough to complain about space.
The seven-seat Outlander PHEV’s boot space measures 478L with the third row stowed, or 163L with the third row in play – with a maximum of 1473L with all seats folded flat.
That’s slightly smaller than competitors like the Ford Escape, Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4 and Kia Sportage, but keep in mind you’re squeezing a third row into the mix.
The five-seater offers a little more boot space at 485L.
The Exceed grade scores a hands-free power tailgate as standard, but while non-hybrid Outlanders get either a full-size spare or a space-saver spare, hybrid buyers have to make do with a tyre repair kit.
In the boot, underfloor storage has been removed to make way for the third row seats, meaning there’s no way to store the car’s retractable cargo blind when it’s removed.
The boot features levers that can remotely lower the middle row, plus a power point where you can access the car’s vehicle-to-load (V2L) capabilities. That basically means the car can operate as a mobile battery to power your camping equipment, laptop or, in my case, a hair straightener.
In order to access this functionality, the car must be running and owners must hit a button reading ‘1500W AC’ to the right side of the steering wheel. I found it worked beautifully, allowing my hair straightener to heat up quickly and give my hair a boost on a particularly rainy Melbourne day.
There’s also a second powerpoint at the back of the centre console.
| 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed | |
| Seats | Seven |
| Boot volume | 168L to third row 478L to second row 1473L to first row |
| Length | 4710mm |
| Width | 1862mm |
| Height | 1745mm |
| Wheelbase | 2706mm |
Does the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid have Apple CarPlay?
The Outlander PHEV Exceed’s infotainment system appears on a 9.0-inch central touchscreen, while a 12.3-inch digital display houses the instruments cluster and driver assistance functions.
Included as standard is wireless Apple CarPlay, wired Android Auto, satellite navigation, AM, FM and DAB+ digital radio, and a nine-speaker Bose sound system with subwoofer.
While the graphics on the driver’s display are crisp, modern and quite detailed, the graphics on the central touchscreen look dated by comparison and could do with more pizzazz.
The flipside of this fairly basic set-up is that functionality is excellent, with intuitive menu options and efficient navigation through the various screens – with ease of use while on the move.
Is the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid a safe car?
The Mitsubishi Outlander was tested by ANCAP in 2022 and received a five-star rating across all variants.
It scored highest in the child occupant protection category, where it received 92 per cent, and was rated at 83 per cent for adult occupant protection, 81 per cent for vulnerable road user protection and 83 per cent for safety assist.
The Outlander features eight airbags, including a centre airbag, which is a newer type of airbag to prevent a collision between front seat occupants.
However, while the seatbelt reminders extend to the third row, the curtain airbags do not.
| 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed | |
| ANCAP rating | Five stars (tested 2022) |
| Safety report | Link to ANCAP report |
What safety technology does the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid have?
From the base grade, all Outlander plug-in hybrid models receive adaptive cruise control, a blind-spot warning, active lane-change assist, driver attention monitoring, traffic sign recognition, and front and rear parking sensors.
There’s also forward autonomous emergency braking that can detect cyclists and pedestrians and function at junctions.
This is a compelling standard offering, and the only things missing from the base model are a rear cross-traffic alert and rear autonomous emergency braking – both of which are standard from the Aspire grade and up, and both of which featured on my Exceed test car.
From the Aspire grade, this package also includes auto high beam, auto dusk-sensing headlights and rain-sensing wipers, plus an excellent 360-degree camera that Mitsubishi calls a multi-around view monitor.
The multi-around view monitor is a fantastic addition for a car that can feel on the larger side and it’s well-executed, providing a split screen view of the reverse angle, as well as an overhead view that can allow for maximum precision when parking.
Meanwhile, from the Aspire grade, a 10.8-inch head-up display projects onto the windshield with key information like speed-limit updates and satellite navigation instructions.
How much does the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid cost to maintain?
The Outlander PHEV will cost $1214.59 to insure per year based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.
Mitsubishi has an impressive 10-year, 200,000km warranty provided you service your car exclusively at Mitsubishi dealers every 12 months or 15,000km.
If you don’t do that, the warranty reverts to five years or 100,000km. The battery in the plug-in hybrid variants has a warranty of eight years or 160,000km.
All owners get 12 months of free roadside assist, with an additional 12 months available for those using the Mitsubishi dealer network to service.
Servicing the Outlander PHEV costs $897 over three years, or $1495 over five years – with capped-price servicing available for the full 10 years. This works out to $299 a year for the first five years of servicing.
By comparison, Toyota charges $230 a year for the first five years to service its RAV4 hybrid, while MG charges an average of $317 a year over the same period for the HS Plus EV – so the Outlander PHEV sits somewhere in the middle in terms of affordability.
| At a glance | 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed |
| Warranty | 5 years, 100,000km as standard Up to 10 years/200,000km if service conditions are met |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Servicing costs | $897 (3 years) $1495 (5 years) |
| Energy cons. (claimed) | 19.2kWh/100km |
| Energy cons. (on test) | 25kWh/100km |
| Battery size | 20.0kWh |
| Driving range claim (WLTP) | 84km |
| Charge time (2.4kW) | 12h |
| Charge time (11kW) | 6h 30min |
| Charge time (50kW max rate) | 38min (0–80%) |
Is the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid fuel- and energy-efficient?
In terms of electric range, the new Outlander PHEV is an improvement on the model it replaces, with a bigger battery that delivers a claimed range of up to 84km – roughly 30km more than the outgoing model.
The most range I saw on the car’s trip computer was 70km immediately after charging it to 100 per cent battery, with the heated seats on and the car in the ‘Normal’ drive mode.
Of course, maximum claimed range is never a perfect estimate – it will change according to the drive mode you’re using, whether you’ve got climate control on and your individual driving style.
I only stopped to charge once during my week of testing, using an Evie DC fast charger with a charging rate of 50kW – which also happens to be the maximum charge rate the Outlander’s on-board charger can accept. It took me a total of 70 minutes of charging to get the battery from 20 to 100 per cent charge and it cost me $4.50.
For AC charging, your Outlander comes with two cables – one for plugging in to a regular wall socket at home, and one for charging at a slightly faster wall box or public AC charger.
The car has two sockets – one is a Type 2 socket for slower AC charging, the other is what’s called a ChaDeMo socket for faster DC charging.
Mitsubishi estimates it will take at least 38 minutes to fully charge the battery on a DC fast charger (as mentioned, I found it was more like 70 minutes), 6.5 hours on a 15A AC charger, or 12 hours on a regular wall socket.
I’d imagine most buyers with off-street parking will simply plug their car into a regular wall socket overnight to keep it fully charged.
As for fuel consumption, the car has a button for EV mode, which allows you to drive it using fully electric power until you run out of battery – so theoretically, if you keep it charged, you’d never even have to use your petrol supply.
Mitsubishi claims 1.5L/100km over a combined cycle of driving. In real-world terms, I found I was only able to equal or better this figure when I had a fully charged battery and was driving in EV mode – enabling my fuel consumption to drop as low as 1.3L/100km.
However, once my battery charge ran down, fuel consumption ramped back up to 5.6L/100km. Overall, it settled on an average of 4.8L/100km for my week of driving – dropping back down once I’d charged the battery and was relying more heavily on EV mode.
The Outlander PHEV has a 56L fuel tank and requires 91RON at a minimum.
Energy consumption was moderate, at one point hitting 25kWh/100km when driving in full EV mode with climate control and seat heaters blasting, but dropping to 20kWh/100km overall.
If those numbers mean nothing to you, just know it took me 4.5 days of commuter driving to run the battery down from 100 per cent to 20 per cent charge.
Fuel Consumption – brought to you by bp
| Fuel Useage | Fuel Stats |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 1.5L/100km |
| Fuel cons. (on test) | 4.8L/100km |
| Fuel type | 91-octane unleaded |
| Fuel tank size | 56L |
What is the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid like to drive?
I last drove the Mitsubishi Outlander only a few months before this review, but it was a lower-spec, full-petrol variant with less power and no all-wheel drive.
I can comfortably say after comparing the two that the PHEV offers the superior behind-the-wheel experience, with gutsier performance and improved handling.
To me, the 185kW/450Nm peak outputs actually feel like more because they’re delivered so silently and efficiently from a stand-still and, unlike in the full-petrol model, there’s no clear point at which the acceleration taps out or becomes lackluster, with power steadily building in line with pedal input.
It’s still no performance monster, but most buyers will find it has the perfect amount of grunt for their daily driving, with a little extra on hand for quicker, more demanding inputs.
During my week with the car, Melbourne experienced extremely heavy rain, which really put Mitsubishi’s all-wheel-drive system to the test. I felt incredibly confident in the heavy rain and on wet roads, with traction distributed evenly and efficiently as required.
As in the full-petrol Outlander, visibility isn’t terrible but could certainly be better, with a wide D-pillar eating into the rearward visibility available.
I struggled a bit to get a sense of the dimensions of this car because it is quite big for a medium SUV and it’s also quite long – plus the driver is positioned quite low, so it feels as though the bonnet is quite prominent in your forward view.
As previously mentioned, the 360-degree camera system is a handy inclusion and definitely worth spending a bit more money to access.
At lower speeds and in EV mode, you could be forgiven for thinking the Outlander is a fully electric vehicle – it relies predominantly on electric power, allowing for a quick, silent takeoff from a standstill.
In EV mode, all-electric drive mode is maintained provided the battery has enough charge, and the engine only kicks in if you stamp down on the throttle and demand extra power in a short space of time (like going from a standstill to freeway speeds when merging on a freeway on-ramp).
Otherwise, the powertrain is silent and the handover to petrol power elicits minimal noise.
Of course, this lack of engine noise can prove problematic when navigating pedestrian-laden streets, which is why the Outlander PHEV makes a humming noise when driving at low speeds, and a beeping noise when in reverse. The latter is truly humiliating when trying to reverse park, and certainly drew some stares in my small inner-city street – but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
The steering feel is well matched to the car’s size, offering enough feedback and precision when needed, but without feeling cumbersome and heavy for city driving.
An 11m turning circle meant I couldn’t always pull off a quick U-turn, but the Outlander is definitely more agile than most seven-seater SUVs.
My main complaint with the Outlander is the ride, which can be inconsistent.
In my personal opinion, it erred on the wallowy, floaty side when cruising around town and handling corners, but then was overly reactive on speed bumps and potholes, feeling crashy and unsettled in a manner that felt incongruous with its size – possibly as a result of the added weight from the hybrid system’s battery.
I also felt the brakes were on the lighter side, with light pedal input having little to no effect, requiring you to really stamp your foot in order to halt the heft of the car.
The amount of drive modes in the car can feel a little overwhelming, with modes pertaining to both traction and power. I mainly focused on the EV button next to the gear lever, which allows you to toggle between EV-only mode, normal mode, charge mode and save mode.
There’s also a button that allows for single-pedal driving, meaning you can slow the car almost to a stop simply by decelerating, without needing to use the brake, which can extend battery life.
The regenerative braking feel is subtler than in full-electric cars and doesn’t bring the Outlander to a complete stop, still allowing for some roll.
| Key details | 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed |
| Engine | 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol |
| Power | 98kW @ 5000rpm petrol motor 85kW front electric motor 100kW rear electric motor 185kW combined |
| Torque | 450Nm combined |
| Drive type | All-wheel drive |
| Transmission | Single-speed automatic |
| Power to weight ratio | 86kW/t |
| Weight (kerb) | 2141kg |
| Spare tyre type | Tyre repair kit |
| Tow rating | 1600kg braked 750kg unbraked |
| Turning circle | 11.0m |
Should I buy a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid?
The 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Exceed is a car that has the potential to really tick a lot of boxes for family buyers.
The Exceed grade offers heaps of standard equipment, all-wheel drive and a well-appointed cabin, but the inclusion of a third row can mean some interior practicality has been compromised, with a smaller boot and decreased headroom in the middle and third rows.
But while it’s a substantial price jump over the regular Outlander, the plug-in hybrid Outlander offers more power, better fuel economy, an improved behind-the-wheel feel, and the potential for a full-electric driving experience.
The Outlander PHEV might also look a little pricey when compared to rivals, but it’s fairly unique in its segment in terms of size and seating arrangements, plus Mitsubishi’s conditional 10-year warranty and the car’s vehicle-to-load functionality are great deal-sweeteners.
If you have off-street parking and are willing to plug it in every night like you plug in your smartphone, the sizable electric range could mean you rarely have to even use petrol.
Some might even say it Exceeds expectations. See what I did there?
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