New Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV teased ahead of debut later this year
Mitsubishi promises a next-generation plug-in hybrid system, which will hopefully give drivers more juice to drive on battery power only.
Coming soon.
We already have the 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander in its fancy new form, but the Japanese automaker is gearing up for another SUV: a new Outlander Plug-In Hybrid. On Thursday, the brand gave us our first look at the new Outlander PHEV, though the photo doesn't give much away.
In fact, the new plug-in version of the SUV should look basically identical to the standard Outlander you can buy at dealers right now. Perhaps we'll see some sort of minor visual cues to distinguish it better, but it shouldn't rock any substantial design changes. That's not a bad thing since the new Outlander is actually pretty great-looking.
What will be the star of the show is Mitsubishi's promised next-generation plug-in hybrid powertrain. Today's Outlander PHEV sports a 2.4-liter inline-four engine and a couple of electric motors to augment power delivery. A 13.8 kilowatt-hour battery provides the electric motor juice. In all, there's 221 horsepower on tap and the SUV can go 24 miles on battery power alone. It's a safe bet the new model will pack a more energy-dense battery to squeeze more range out of the powertrain.
Mitsubishi said we'll see the new Outlander PHEV debut later this year before it goes on sale in Japan first. By the middle of 2022, it'll land at US dealers.
