Thread: First drive review: Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

Easygoing Outlander range-extender is refreshingly usable and uncompromised for everyday family use A different kind of plug-in hybrid: this is the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, which Autocar has been given a world-exclusive first drive in. Why different? Well let the man from Mitsubishi explain. If the next generation of battery-powered cars is ever going to become truly mainstream, its vital that they become ordinary, he said. The handful of plug-in hybrids that weve seen thus far have been showcase cars; four-wheeled statements of technological advancement for their manufacturers, and of environmental awareness for their drivers, rather than practical, usable family machines for everyone. Ours is different, he insisted, before handing us the keys to a near-finished prototype. Just as we were, youre probably inclined to dismiss all that as marketing waffle, but the car itself does actually live up to the billing.