Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

While the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV strikes a nice and in-your-face personality when viewed from the outside, the interior cabin of the SUV doesn’t seem to generate the same kind of impression. The overall cabin layout, which is finished in an all-black theme, feels quite dated, but it surely has got a nice fit and finish levels for an SUV of this class.

The four-spoke multi-functional steering wheel along with a TFT MID screen in the instrument console looks quite cool for a driver’s cockpit. However, what feels like a letdown is the center console design. The wraparound theme for the center console, which houses a rather outdated touchscreen infotainment system and plain-looking buttons for automatic climate control, don’t look too impressive. 

What’s impressive, however, is the great sense of space and comfort it offers on the inside. With a sufficient amount of room for five, the cabin of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV offers a good amount of features. However, it skips out on a sunroof, which seems to be the only big miss here in terms of features.

From the outside, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is a good mix of aggression and simplicity at the same time. While the front end of the SUV looks too busy, the rest of the design, including side and rear profiles are styled rather subtly.

Starting from the front profile, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has got the latest front design philosophy of all the new generation Mitsubishis. The double slat stretched-X themed chrome grille has wide headlamps on its either sides. These headlamps do come with dual LED projector setup, along with L-shaped daytime running LEDs.

The trademark-for-Mitsubishi sickle-shaped chrome element flows from the upper outer edge of the headlamp all the way down to the fog lamp housing on the front bumper. The front bumper gets heavy piano black finish with silver skid plate below it at the center.

The side profile of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, in comparison, is quite understated in its appearance. A sharp character line flows all the way from the front fender to the edge of the tail lamp, and apart from that, it looks quite simple and premium with chrome finish on the window waistline as well as door handles.

At the back, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV again looks quite simple, but it is far from being bland in appearance. The horizontally laid tail lamps with LED inserts do feature a sleek chrome finish in the middle of them.

The spacious and comfortable for five people cabin of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV feels impressive furthermore, thanks to its supple ride quality. The suspension setup of Macpherson struts with stabilizer at the front and multi-link with stabilizer at the rear control the body roll in an impressive amount, making the SUV feels good to drive as well.

The real talking point of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is its powertrain. Powering the SUV here is a 2.4-liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine, which is married to a simple CVT gearbox and gets an all-wheel-drivetrain as standard.

The engine, which gets a chargeable lithium-ion battery in synchronization, pumps out a maximum power output of 128 PS and a peak torque output of 199 Nm. The engine is refined and can run purely on battery power as well, however, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV might not feel outright thrilling to drive due to its very sedate power delivery.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is quite advanced in terms of the safety features it offers. The SUV gets kit including front, side, curtain and knee airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, active stability control, traction control, blind-spot warning, front and rear parking sensors, rear cross-traffic alert, lane change assist, forward collision mitigation, adaptive cruise control and around view monitor.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is quite a leap forward for the Japanese carmaker, for the technologies it is offering in the SUV segment under its hood. The SUV feels spacious and comfortable enough for five people, however, the in-cabin experience dilutes a bit by the slightly dated cabin layout.