Element Magazine - July 2014 Element Magazine - July 2014 | Page 16

It’s
electrifying

...

Element editor James Russell took the brand new Mitsubishi Outlander
Plug-In Electric Hybrid for a test drive, and liked what he saw.

T

he best thing about test driving an electric vehicle is imagining
the possibilities. The most obvious one that springs to mind
about the Outlander is that the depressing weekly trip to the
service station for $100+ worth of climate destroying fossil fuels
could be dispensed with.
I have to admit, I was also excited about the possibility
that, when smugly asked by a Mike Hosking/Leighton Smith
climate-change-denying type whether or not I drive a car to get
around, I could smugly answer ‘yes – an electric one’.
Just recently I had 2.8kW of solar panels fitted to my roof – you
have to practise what you preach. But it brought up another
possibility – that provided I stayed under the Mitsubishi Plug-In
Hybrid’s (PHEV) 52km electric range before the petrol motor kicked
in, and plugged the car in while the sun was shining, then motoring
would be essentially free. Only 1kW of my total array was dedicated
to charging the car when the sun was shining.
It all brings up the possibility of a pretty smart future, where
solar panels on businesses and homes are charging vehicles while
their owners work or relax at home. When you consider that three
quarters of the $9b worth of fuel used in this country is for private
vehicles it represents not only a colossal financial boost, but a
significant step towards New Zealand’s energy resilience. The way
the biofuels industry is progressing, it’s entirely feasible the rest
of the country’s liquid fuels could come from net-zero emissions
sources without the need for Mr Bridges to hand out any deep sea
drilling permits.
The brand new Mitsi PHEV has an annual running electricity cost
of $364, an annual fuel cost of $280 and will travel 100 kilometres
on 1.9 litres of fuel. For a car which still has an engine in it, these
are unheard-of figures. It’s also telling that electricity will cost more
than fuel, despite the relatively small range.
I’m afraid than other than being able to safely reach its destination,
the way a vehicle handles means little to me, and in attempting
to describe it I would only embarrass myself. Here’s how Herald
reviewer Damien O’Carrol reviews its performance: “It weighs more
than a standard Outlander, but with all that weight down in the
drivetrain it actually improves the Outlander’s handling. The extra
weight also improves the feel of the Outlander on the road.

16

element

“The brand new Mitsi PHEV has an annual
running electricity cost of $364, an annual
fuel cost of $280 and will travel 100
kilometres on 1.9 litres of fuel.”

The
numbers

1.41

$

The cost to fully charge the
batteries on the Mitsubishi
Outlander PHEV
The extra grunt from the electric motors is felt as well, with
Mitsubishi’s claim that the PHEV is also the performance model of
the Outlander range certainly holding true on the road.”
Box ticked there, then.
Also worthy of note here is that the Mitsubishi PHEV doesn’t
economise on space and practicality like some of its e-competitors.
It’s a large, roomy vehicle, which feels solid and safe on the road. It
will take a hoard of children, bikes, buggies and whatever else you
throw at it. It seems its batteries haven’t compromised anything
– probably because there’s not many of them. It’s the future of
cars – at least for the next decade anyway – before the Outlander
all-electric arrives.

52
6.5
$
364
$
280

The kilometres the vehicle can
travel on a full charge

The hours needed to charge the car

Electricity costs per year (based on
38 kilometres travelled each day)

Fuel costs per year (based on
EECA tests)

6 Star

The Energywise rating from EECA