Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV v Nissan X

Jun 19, 2023

There’s a huge focus on electric cars today – both in terms of saving costs and doing your bit to save the planet – but not everyone is ready to make the leap all the way from fossil fuels to electrons. Which is where these two popular hybrid-powered mid-size SUVs come in. The Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is now into its second generation, while the Nissan X-TRAIL e-POWER is a new and different take on using electricity to reduce fuel consumption and boost performance. There’s a lot that’s similar between these two high-tech hybrid SUVs, and on pricing they also stack up close in the mid-$50,000 bracket, so let’s find out which is the better bet on the road to greener motoring.

The 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV is priced at $56,490 plus on-road costs, while the 2023 Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER is priced at $54,690 plus ORCs.

The ES is the cheapest way to access plug-in hybrid tech in the four-model Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV line-up, while the Ti is the middle tier in Nissan’s three-model X-TRAIL e-POWER range.

While both these models combine a petrol engine with dual e-motor all-wheel drive, Mitsubishi and Nissan offer cheaper Outlander and X-TRAIL derivatives with petrol engines, front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive.

In terms of electrically-assisted internal-combustion medium SUVs, the most obvious rival for these two is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, which starts in the low-$40K bracket before on-road costs as a front-wheel drive and above $45K as an all-wheel drive. But wait times for the RAV4 have been running at 12-24 months, and aren’t expected to be down to less than six months until mid-2024.

Others in the vicinity include the GWM Haval H6 Hybrid and the MG HS (available as both hybrid and PHEV).

Being the entry-level model in the hybrid range means the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV does miss out on some gear available standard further up the line.

The 2023 Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER, by contrast, comes with heaps of luxury bits and bobs.

Externally, that means the ES misses out on items like a panoramic sunroof, privacy glass, roof rails, smart proximity key access, rain-sensing wipers and a power tailgate.

The Outlander rolls on 18-inch alloy wheels versus the X-TRAIL’s 19s and neither vehicle gets a spare tyre, just a repair kit.

Internally, the Outlander ES continues the basic presentation. Seats are cloth trimmed and not even the driver gets power adjustment let alone heating or seating position memory.

The X-TRAIL Ti has leather seat and steering wheel trim, heating and 10-way power adjustment for both front seats and memory for the driver.

The ES comes with dual-zone climate control, but the Ti tops that with tri-zone climate including controls for second-row passengers. Both cars have push-button start and an electronic park brake.

The ES is one of two Outlander PHEVs without a third row of kiddy seats. Seven seats are available within the X-TRAIL range, but not with e-POWER.

The Ti has a clever boot storage system (more on that later) and a cargo cover. The ES has neither.

But the Mitsubishi stages a strong fightback when it comes to running costs.

The ES PHEV comes with a mammoth 10-year/200,000km warranty (if you service with a Mitsubishi dealer – if not it’s five years/100,000km), while the Ti e-POWER comes in at five years/unlimited kilometres.

The Outlander also has an eight-year/160,000km battery warranty and a guarantee over the same period the pack will retain 66 per cent of its useable energy capacity.

Nissan offers a similar warranty for the X-TRAIL’s lithium-ion battery and protects against battery loss of more than 25 per cent as indicated on the vehicle’s capacity gauge.

The Outlander is serviced every 12 months/15,000km, while the X-TRAIL visits the workshop every 12 months/10,000km. Both vehicles offer capped-price service programs averaging out at $509 per year for 10 years/150,000km for the Mitsubishi and $508.50 for the Nissan over six years/60,000km.

The Nissan comes with five years’ roadside assistance. The Mitsubishi has up to four years, as long you keep going back to a dealer for service.

Maximum five-star ANCAP safety ratings based on 2020-2022 protocols apply to both the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV and the Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER.

The Outlander scored 83 per cent for adult occupant protection, 92 per cent for child occupant protection, 81 per cent for vulnerable road user protection and 83 per cent for safety assist.

The X-TRAIL’s equivalent scores were 91 per cent, 90 per cent, 74 per cent and 97 per cent.

Both vehicles include autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection and junction assist. They have front, front-side, curtain and centre airbags, but only the Outlander includes a driver’s knee airbag.

They also include adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and prevention, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert with emergency braking, driver monitoring and traffic sign recognition.

A key driver assist advantage for the Nissan is autonomous lane centring. That means it can be driven with little driver guidance along straight or gently curving roads such as freeways. It’s easily switched off when road conditions are not appropriate.

The Nissan also has a stop-and-go function that’s useful in heavy traffic and an internal mirror with a camera view that’s handy when the rear view is obstructed. It also aids night vision.

The X-TRAIL also offers 360-degree camera assistance, while the Outlander makes do with reversing vision only.

Both cars have front and rear parking sensors, LED headlights with auto high beam, three child-seat top tether strap points and two outboard ISOFIX positions.

Sit in the cabin of the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV and the Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER and it may not be immediately obvious how much they share in technology terms.

That’s because they have the same fundamental infotainment operating systems, so the information they present and the way they are controlled are similar. They just look a bit different.

Both cars have a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. The Mitsubishi has a 9.0-inch infotainment touch-screen and the Nissan a 12.3-inch unit. The X-TRAIL adds a 10.8-inch head-up display.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto smartphone connection are standard in both vehicles. The X-TRAIL adds wireless charging.

Other features include embedded satellite navigation, AM/FM and digital radio sources and Bluetooth streaming.

In both cases, sounds are amplified via a six-speaker audio system. The Mitsubishi has two USB-A points in the front, while the Nissan has a combination of four USB-A and USB-C points across front and rear.

The Nissan alone has active noise cancelling, which attempts to neutralise extraneous noises in the same way noise cancelling earphones do.

The petrol-electric powertrains in the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV and Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER are the centrepiece of this comparison test.

The Outlander is a plug-in hybrid that combines a 2.4-litre Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder petrol engine and an electric motor on each axle fed by a 20kWh lithium-ion battery pack to produce 185kW and 450Nm.

Driving via a single-speed automatic transmission, the Outlander PHEV is claimed to run solely on electricity up to 84km, but can also use drive via petrol alone or a combination of both electricity and petrol. Mitsubishi says the petrol engine only directly drives the wheels above 70km/h.

Cleverly, the Outlander’s PHEV system has bi-directional charging capability, meaning it can power your house using vehicle-to-home (V2H) technology – very handy if there’s a blackout – and potentially even make you money by feeding electricity back to your power provider via vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech. But you’ll need an expensive inverter – and approval in the state or territory you live in – to do that.

Sadly, the ES is the only Outlander PHEV without 240V/1500W plugs to power household appliances like laptops.

The X-TRAIL is what’s known as a range-extender hybrid. It combines a variable-compression 1.5-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder engine, an e-motor on each axle and a tiny 1.8kWh lithium-ion battery pack to produce 157kW and an unstated amount of torque.

It’s got to be a decent amount because the e-POWER accelerates via its single-speed reduction gear with zest. Nissan claims a 0-100km/h time of 7.0 seconds, but it feels faster than that.

Unlike the Outlander’s system, e-POWER is not designed to allow the petrol engine to drive the wheels. Its job – along with effective regenerative braking and a single-pedal-style e-pedal brake mode – is to generate the electricity that allows the electric motors to do that.

As a result, the engine’s soundtrack doesn’t match what’s happening with the throttle, which can be a bit disconcerting. It will even turn over rolling down a hill to expel excess electricity if the battery is full and the e-motors aren’t working (it doesn’t use fuel in this mode though).

And so we get to the crunch. The 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV emerged from this comparison test more frugal than the Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER, but the margin definitely varied.

The Mitsubishi can run for a certain amount of time in EV mode and use no petrol. But once the battery is exhausted and the petrol engine kicks in to recharge it, fuel consumption becomes a thing.

The X-TRAIL doesn’t have that sort of flexibility. There is an EV mode but the battery is so quickly exhausted the engine is usually running.

In both cases there are multiple regenerative braking modes to aid recharging, as well as a single-pedal mode that bring them almost to a stop without using the brake pedal.

The Outlander can also be plugged in to recharge its battery. It can take as little as 38 minutes to go from 0-80 per cent using a DC fast-charge CHAdeMO plug, or as much as 9.5 hours trickle charging off a 240V AC domestic plug.

There is no way to plug in the X-TRAIL between drives, and considering the size of the battery, no point.

On a 180km loop that started in the suburbs, transitioned through the urban fringe to country driving and finished with a freeway blat back to the refuelling point, the Outlander resolutely drove as an EV for 55.6km. It ran out of juice just as we reached the countryside.

At that point, the Outlander was averaging 22.2kWh/100km versus the 19.2kWh/100km ADR figure published by the federal government’s Green Vehicle Guide.

Over the balance of the journey, as its petrol engine both drove the car and helped rebuild battery power at the same time, the overall fuel consumption average climbed steadily to eventually finish at 5.1L/100km.

That compares to Mitsubishi’s startling 1.5L/100km fuel consumption claim.

The X-TRAIL story is far less complex. Its average emerged at 6.6L/100km over the run, with a lot of those kays done with regen turned up. That compares to its 6.1L/100km claim.

The X-TRAIL’s average on test equates to about $3 more expensive than the Outlander per 100km on the 91 RON fuel they can both run on – although Nissan recommends 95 which widens the price gap.

But remember, the Outlander uses no fuel if being used in a runabout and commuter role and if you are disciplined enough to plug it in whenever the opportunity or need arises.

Riding on the same basic platform shared across the wider Nissan-Mitsubishi-Renault co-operative helps explain why the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV and 2023 Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER drive in a fundamentally familiar way.

Their wheelbases are officially separated by a millimetre at just over 2700mm, they both use a combination of MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension, electric-assist power steering and disc brakes all-round.

The Mitsubishi is the heavier at 2020kg versus 1903kg (neither are what you would call lightweights), and is also the longer at 4710mm versus 4680mm.

The Outlander drives sharper than the X-TRAIL. Its electric motors are tuned for quick response from tip-in throttle so this is a vehicle that always feels lively.

It also has quick and light steering and a firmer, direct handling set-up that keeps body roll in check. There’s no sense of float or roly-polyness here. This is an Outlander like no previous generation.

The downside is a sharper ride that can be a little intrusive on rough surfaces.

It’s in ride and body control where the X-TRAIL really diverges from the Outlander. It feels like it’s been set up to better absorb road inputs.

It seems a nicer balance for the intended use of these types of vehicles without getting vague in the steering or wobbly in the body. It’s actually a neat and entertaining drive. Again, no previous-generation X-TRAIL has driven like this.

It’s not as strong and immediate in its engine response as the Outlander, but with the help of its high-torque front e-motor it’s a darn sight smarter off the line and responding than the orthodox 2.5-litre petrol X-TRAIL.

The Mitsubishi has an advantage when it comes to cabin quietness. Obviously, it is hushed when running in EV mode but it’s also peaceful when the petrol engine chimes back in.

Both vehicles have tight turning circles for their size – 11m for the Mitsubishi and 11.1m for the Nissan – which aids around town, along with decent outward vision, a high seating position and big windows.

Both vehicles come with multiple drive modes for on- and off-road driving that impact powertrain, steering and so on, but you can’t pick a custom combination in either.

Yes, both the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV and Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER can go off-road, but neither would be our first choice to do so.

These are light-duty off-roaders for gravel roads and trails, not bush-bashing. Whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to take a spare tyre!

Both cars have electronically activated rather than traditional mechanical-link all-wheel drive. Nissan says the e-4ORCE system is 10,000 times faster to respond as a result. Mitsubishi says less precisely its modestly named Super-All Wheel Control deploys “faster”.

By the way, both vehicles are rated for towing. The Mitsubishi can haul 1600kg braked and the Nissan 1650kg braked.

While their underpinnings are similar, there is a vast ambience difference between the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV and Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER.

The ES is the entry-level badge in the Outlander line-up whatever powertrain you choose and it shows up in the materials and trims, including stuff like the cheap urethane trim for the steering wheel rim.

By contrast, the Ti looks and feels upmarket with its leather trims, imposing infotainment screen and power adjustments. Even small things like the feel of the volume button is more refined.

The front seats in the X-TRAIL are more supportive, but finding a comfortable driving position in both is easily achievable with the help of a reach- and rake-adjustable steering column.

The Nissan alone offers a double centre console for added storage space up front. The butterfly lid of its centre bin allows access to its contents from row two.

The infotainment system is straight forward and efficient across both vehicles. The classic and modern views offered for their digital instrument clusters are almost identical and emphasise their shared DNA.

Many people are going to project their smartphones through the touch-screen of both vehicles and to be honest that makes most sense. It’s just easier.

Thankfully there are climate-control hard buttons and an on/off/volume dial so not every function is operated via the touch-screen

In the second row there is more seating space in the X-TRAIL than the Outlander and its added tech and climate controls give it an equipment edge. The seat base also slides and the backrest angle can be adjusted.

The Outlander fights back in row two with multiple pockets in each seatback.

The X-TRAIL also has the bigger boot of the two with 575 litres of space expanding to 1396 litres when row two is folded. The Outlander has an also generous 494L and 1414L respectively.

But the Nissan adds its unique ‘divide-n-hide’ stowage that allows floorboards to be adapted to contain items of various shapes and sizes. It’s a really well-executed idea that stops luggage sliding about.

In so many ways the 2023 Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER is the better vehicle on test here. It’s got more equipment, it’s nicer to sit in and delivers a more comfortable drive for roughly the same money.

But our winner is the 2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV.

That’s because it is the more appropriate intermediate step from our internal combustion present to our EV future.

This is a vehicle that can be driven purely as an EV and deliver the advantages that provides in terms of environment and fuel costs.

The X-TRAIL doesn’t deliver that option. No matter how frugal and efficient you are driving, you will almost always be burning fossil fuel.

In reality, you can buy this equipment package and this trim level in an orthodox X-TRAIL and save yourself thousands of dollars without using much more fuel.

Of course, if you are going to opt for the Outlander PHEV then you must use it properly by plugging it in.

If you can’t be bothered doing that then you’ll just be lugging around extra weight and chewing extra fuel.

If that’s going to be the case, buy the X-TRAIL or a cheaper Outlander.

2023 Mitsubishi Outlander ES PHEV at a glance:Price: $56,490 (plus on-road costs)Available: NowPowertrain: 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol-electricOutput: 98kW/195Nm (electric motors: 85kW/255Nm and 100kW/195Nm)Combined output: 185kW/450NmTransmission: Single-speed automaticBattery: 20kWh lithium-ionRange: 84km (ADR)Energy consumption: 19.2kWh/100km (ADR)Fuel: 1.5L/100km (ADR Combined)CO2: 35g/km (ADR Combined)Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

2023 Nissan X-TRAIL Ti e-POWER at a glance:Price: $54,690 (plus on-road costs)Available: NowPowertrain: 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol-electricOutput: 106kW/250Nm (electric motors: 150kW/330Nm and 100kW/195Nm)Combined output: 157kW (torque NA)Transmission: Single-speed automaticBattery: 2.1kWh lithium-ionRange: Not applicableEnergy consumption: Not applicableFuel: 6.1L/100km (ADR Combined)CO2: 139g/km (ADR Combined)Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2021)

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