Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Unveiled At Paris Motor Show

It's finally here, but is it enough - and will anybody care?  These are both important questions for Mitsubishi, which unveiled the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle at the Paris Motor Show this past week.  The Outlander PHEV is claimed to be the world's first production plug-in hybrid crossover vehicle.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is powered by two electric motors that are each responsible for one of the vehicle's axles, giving it all-wheel drive on battery power alone for roughly 55 kilometres.  The lithium-ion battery pack is augmented by a gasoline engine that can be powered up in order to act as a generator for charging purposes, or even connect directly to the driveline to provide fossil fuel motivation of its own.

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Mitsubishi has advertised the Outlander PHEV's fuel economy rating as 1.6 l / 100 km, which is an impressive figure to be sure.  Less certain is the availability of the Outlander PHEV outside of the Japanese market.  While Mitsubishi has promised to bring the vehicle to Canada sometime after the summer of 2013, the company is in dire straits both financially and in terms of consumer interest in its products.  It is also dealing with a line-up of vehicles that has been gutted in the face of a lack of future planning admitted by the CEO of the automaker himself.  While the electric Outlander may well be a technological tour-de-force, it could be too late in the game for Mitsubishi to stage a comeback in North America.