PHEV Diary: Month four - Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (2)

Countryside adventure
AutoVolt magazine editor Jonathan Musk partnered me for our drive and after consulting the greenlanefinder.com and bywaymap.com websites and selecting two suitable-but-not-to-challenging routes, we set off for our countryside adventure. Fully aware of the Outlander’s more on-road capabilities and design, the first of our selected lanes presented a bigger challenge than the one we had bargained for. An uneven rut with a much deeper nearside track on the brow of a small hill was judged impassable without the risk of damage to the hybrid Mitsubishi. So after a well-judged and directed long reverse back to the start of the track, we moved onto the next route. A shame, as the ford which was at the foot of the hill looked quite enticing...

After dismissing our original second lane for being slightly too far away, its replacement looked much more up the Mitsubishi’s ‘green’ street. Largely flat, with few undulations, the Outlander handled it with ease. Never approaching even the urban speed limit, we passed the leafy branches in almost absolute silence. That’s the main benefit of being in an electric or part-electric car such as the Outlander when in the countryside: wildlife is undisturbed – we saw a brace of pheasants who seemed unflustered by the slow-moving car – and farmers and other byway users are more amenable, a fact we would appreciate a little while later… Also, with almost no noise emanating from the car itself, the tyres can be heard splashing through the muddy puddles, slowly covering the car in brown liquid, and making it look a little less city-like.

Raised ride height
The third and final lane again, looked well up to the Mitsubishi’s capabilities. With its raised ride height and SUV-style body, the hybrid Outlander also has four-wheel drive which can be locked on to provide even more traction when needed. A long way into the final track, we had to call on it. Much like the unsuccessful first lane, a deep rut on the nearside of the track proved impassable and as the Mitsubishi’s wheel sank into the mud, we knew we were done for. I pressed the ‘Twin Motor 4WD Lock’ button in the centre console to increase the all-terrain performance from the Twin Motor 4WD system, but to no avail – we were well and truly stuck. Jonathan bravely stepped out of the car and loaded the mud-filled rut with broken branches and logs but it still wasn’t enough. And with the farmer wanting to get through and go back down the track to where we’d passed him a little while earlier, the pressure was on. There was nothing else for it, I’d have to reverse out of the rut and risk (mildly) damaging the car.

With higher ‘revs’ and a slightly heavier right foot, I engaged reverse and – with a small crunch – we were out. Jonathan stayed out of the car to guide me and we started our traverse back down the long and narrow track to its beginning. We pulled over to let the farmer display the abilities of a true and more rugged four-wheel drive vehicle as his big-tyred quad bike bounced past, and 10 minutes of reversing later, we were back where we started. On inspection of the car, the small rubber ‘under-spoiler’ which runs the whole width under the front of the car was having down, having broken at one end. Once I got home, some electrical tape and determination fixed it temporarily, but it will need to go in to a local Mitsubishi dealer to have the middle section replaced.

What the enjoyable experience taught us is – maybe obviously – a ‘proper’ off-roader such as a Land Rover is more attuned to dealing with more challenging off-road situations, but with its near-silent running and cabin comfort, the Outlander PHEV proves there is a small market for those conservationists who want to see wildlife close-up but who maybe aren’t that physically able. It’s a four-wheeled ‘mild’ green-lane machine with a conscience and coped impressively. What we really needed, though, was the super-tough and wide-arched Outlander PHEV which competed in the 670km-long 2015 Baja Portalegre 500 Rally...

Glut of longer journeys
Back on the black stuff, the Outlander is continuing to perform its duties with aplomb. It’s covered the most miles per month so far – 1,013 – but also has incurred the most fuel costs so far, too. A glut of longer journeys with little time or no accessible charging points has meant that I’ve run on petrol much more than I’d like, with three fill-ups this month. The public EV-charging infrastructure has been tested again this month, with two stops at rapid chargers on Ecotricity’s ‘Electric Highway’ and again, the experiences were positive. More still needs to be done, though – at Clacket Lane Services I had no other fellow drivers charging while at Birchanger Services near Stansted Airport, five cars were waiting for me and a Nissan Leaf owner to leave the pair of bays. I also took the hybrid Mitsubishi to see my folks in Suffolk and used the excellent Zap‑Map (www.zap-map.com) to look at possible charging locations in Lowestoft. The result? A disappointing two, and neither offered CHAdeMO capability. So again, petrol was used once the available range had depleted.

We’re now around halfway through the Outlander’s time with us, and this month due to the longer journeys and less charging, the average miles per gallon figure has dipped to 104.2. Electricity consumption this month has been 3.23 miles/kwh. I have – finally! – achieved four leaves on the ‘eco-meter’, though, which appears in the selectable information display ahead of the driver. Up until now, I’ve only ever ‘scored’ three.

Minor issues
A couple of minor issues have raised their heads this month. While the Outlander PHEV’s pre-heating feature via the remote app is a fantastic and time-saving thing, it causes WV65 YUO’s alarm to repeatedly go off unless the car is unlocked and the door opened and closed. Mitsubishi thinks that the sensitivity of the warning system itself is thought to be too high.

A simple thing to fix, the car will need to go in and have it turned down a notch. There also seems to be no capacity to save driver settings: every time I drive the car, I switch off the oversensitive lane departure warning system and select ‘Eco’ mode to aid green driving. It would be nice not to have to carry out the ‘pre‑flight’ checking sequence before every trip, but it really is a very tiny blot on the car’s functionality.

If you should know how to bypass the focused start-up procedure, or if you’re an Outlander PHEV owner or driver who wants to inform others of your experiences, please do get in touch. Email richard.gooding@psigroupltd.co.uk or ping me a message on Twitter at @richgoodingcom.