This year’s New York Auto Show saw the debut of a remarkably good SUV that is getting remarkably little attention. It’s the 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV hybrid we’re talking about, a full-size family SUV with great off-road prowess and a sophisticated hybrid system.
The biggest hinderance to the Outlander’s taking the market by storm is the way it looks. Not that it’s ugly or anything, but it’s just not fancy and striking enough for today’s customer’s taste. It doesn’t have the joie de vivre German and Korean cars in this segment boast in spades. What it does have, is a Plug-In Hybrid Electric powertrain and Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC) system for unmatched versatility.
2017 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV features a 2.0 liter gasoline engine and two high-performance electric motors backed by a high-capacity 12kWh lithium-ion battery pack. The system offers three modes of EV (full electric mode), series hybrid (electric power with generator operation) and parallel hybrid (engine power and electric motor assistance). Final performance figures will be revealed before the car goes on sale in fall, but you know something this clever is not going to be rubbish.
As for other notable features, the new Outlander PHEV comes with Multi-Around view Camera Monitor, Forward Collision Mitigation with pedestrian detection capability, Blind Spot Monitoring with Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA), Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and…