2025 Mitsubishi Outlander update revealed as longer-range PHEV, likely for Australia
Yesterday at 06:29 PM
One of Australia’s top-selling hybrid family SUVs has had a mid-life update with new technology and a longer electric-only driving range – but blink and you’ll miss the styling changes.
The updated 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander has been revealed – in PHEV plug-in hybrid form with an expanded electric-only driving range – ahead of an expected, but as-yet-unconfirmed Australian showroom arrival.
Exterior changes are subtle for the 2025 Outlander PHEV, which instead focuses its updates on the interior, and under the skin where the battery capacity has been upgraded from 20kWh to 22.7kWh for a longer EV-only range.
The exterior and interior updates are likely to carry across to Mitsubishi’s petrol-only Outlander – which accounts for nearly 85 per cent of sales in Australia – in due course.
Prices for the PHEV are expected to rise over the current model’s $57,290 plus on-road costs starting RRP. Drive has contacted Mitsubishi Australia to confirm local arrival timing.
MORE: Electric cars Australia – Cheapest, best and newest electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids
The 2025 Outlander has made its global debut in Europe, where the latest-generation model is launching with the updated range – three years after Australia and Japan.
While the latest update arrives three and a half years into the Outlander’s model cycle – when a comprehensive ‘facelift’ would customarily arrive with key styling tweaks – there is little to distinguish the 2025 version from its predecessor on the outside.
The upper front grille adopts a new pattern, which reports suggest now incorporates active shutters that open or close to improve engine airflow or reduce aerodynamic drag, as the car requires.
There is also a new six-spoke 20-inch alloy wheel design, as well as a newly-added Moonstone Grey paint finish. The LED tail-lights also appear to have clearer lenses for a subtly-revised signature.
Inside, the 9.0-inch infotainment touchscreen has been replaced by a larger 12.3-inch unit from the related Nissan X-Trail, running new-generation software promising quicker responses.
Android Auto is now wireless, in addition to carry-over wireless Apple CarPlay.
Support for the Mitsubishi Connect smartphone app is available in Europe, with remote tracking and control of the windows and locks.
Flagship versions replace today’s Bose stereo with a 12-speaker Yamaha sound system, and offer ventilated front seats and a digital rear-view mirror for the first time.
Semi-aniline leather upholstery is also now available, offered in a brown colourway. There also appear to be new graphics for the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster.
European models are fitted with a driver monitoring system similar to the latest Triton ute, with a camera pointed at the driver’s eyes to ensure they are looking at the road – and beep at them when they become distracted.
It is unclear if this will come to Australian versions, as driver attention monitoring technology is a legal requirement in Europe not locally.
Driver monitoring systems are key to earning five stars under the latest ANCAP safety criteria, but the current Outlander is already covered by a five-star score from 2021 that does not expire until December 2028.
The largest changes have been applied under the skin, where the PHEV’s 20kWh battery has been upsized to 22.7kWh.
Mitsubishi Europe claims an 86km electric-only driving range which, on first glance, only appears to be a marginal improvement on the 84km of the current model.
However, the 86km figure is measured to more stringent WLTP lab-test standards than the 84km result – derived from more lenient NEDC tests – so the updated NEDC electric-only range is likely to be closer to 100km.
Motor outputs are unchanged, combining a 100kW/203Nm 2.4-litre petrol engine with an 85kW/255Nm front electric motor and 100kW/195Nm rear electric motor.
A 225kW combined output is claimed in Europe – for 0-100km/h in 7.9 seconds – against the current 185kW in Australia. The latter is expected to carry over to the updated version locally given the electric motors and petrol engine are unchanged.
Mitsubishi in Japan has previously promised the larger-battery PHEV will deliver more responsive performance, and relies more heavily on electric power – switching on the petrol engine less frequently.
It has also confirmed the suspension and steering have been retuned.
No engine changes are expected for the petrol-only version, which is currently powered by a 135kW/244Nm 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine matched with a continuously-variable automatic transmission driving the front or all four wheels.
The 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander is due in European showrooms early next year, after production begins in Japan at the end of 2024.
The post 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander update revealed as longer-range PHEV, likely for Australia appeared first on Drive.
