The Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) is topping market after market these days. With strong sales in a few countries, it even rose to #1 in Europe recently. The latest news is that it has passed up the Nissan LEAF (long he #1 electric car in many a market) to top the UK electric car charts.
The RAC Foundation has released UK electric car registration data for the first quarter (Q1) of 2015. It showed that Outlander PHEV registrations rose to 9,688 (up from 5,273 in Q4 2014). That put it a bit above the LEAF, which hit 8,274, and way above any other models — the #3 BMW i3 saw 2,186 registrations. The Outlander PHEV also saw the biggest percentage change.
There are 26 electric car models in the UK that are eligible for the £5,000 government EV grant (and 9 electric vans eligible for the £8,000. But it’s clear that a couple of models are far more competitive than the rest. I’m eager to see how things shake out in Q2!
Pictures by Zachary Shahan | EV Obsession | CleanTechnica (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Well I own it and my opinion is that it is the easiest way to go electric with no worries, especially in places where the charging grid is still primitive. Big boot, AWD, decent performance. Consistent, real life 40km range per charge are well enough for the majority of European commuters. Weak points: a bit slow when starting from full stop, and the ICE does drink more than a diesel when on highway.
Thanks for the concise review. 😀
I think, I solved mistery of USA stagnating EV sales 😉
Where is Outlander? Where is Renault ZOE?
However USA journalists/specialists will as always present USA-centric point of view.
“It must be low gas prices! We can not be treated like 2nd rate market! Impossible!”
I definitely think many buyers are waiting for soon-to-arrive models: 2016 Volt, Outlander PHEV, Model X, (presumably) next Nissan LEAF, Audi A3 e-Tron, VW Golf GTE…
Unfortunately, I think we’ll never get the Zoe.