The much-delayed Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has finally been launched in the UK, two years after the standard model arrived in 2012. Claimed to be the greenest SUV on sale in the country, the plug-in hybrid SUV is remarkably priced the same as the UK's base Outlander Diesel model, at £28,249 (around RM155k).
That's after the UK Government's £5,000 Plug-in Car Grant (P-iCG) has been taken into account, of course, but effectively there's no premium to pay for choosing the new ultra-efficient petrol hybrid model (it's officially rated to return more than 50 km per litre). At least in monetary terms, that is.
There are differences beyond the powerplants involved. The rear-mounted electric motor takes up the place of the diesel model's third-row seats, making the Outlander PHEV a strict five-seater. The boot space is now smaller too, down three per cent in volume compared to the standard variant.
In Malaysia, there had been plans to bring the model in by the end of 2013, but various production delays – which has affected the model's US debut as well – put paid to that. More recently, the CKD-centric NAP (with unclear EEV incentives) further affected the SUV's business case here.
Nevertheless, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia (MMM) is not ruling out the possibility of embarking on a CKD local assembly operation for the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. We've already driven the hybrid SUV in Japan, and think that it's quite a machine. Here's hoping that MMM will spring us a surprise soon.
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV in Malaysia
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