Mitsubishi Plug-in Hybrid EVGives you the best of both EV types, with a battery supplying energy to the electric motors, backed by an engine. The battery is recharged by plugging into a power source, and can also charge via regenerative braking while driving. The engine can also act as a generator to charge the battery while driving, powered by fuel.
Surely a PHEV can't be fully self charging as well. I understood as with all EV's, that regenerative braking puts some power back into batteries but only self charging hybrids use the ICE as well to replenish their small capacity batteries. This might explain your findings TBM. Happy to be corrected though
I think from the Mitsubishi Outlander Website quote above it can be a plug in and also charge itself. So I feel a PHEV can be fully self charging as well.
Watching videos I think it has a petrol motor that is a generator but also can drive the front wheels in top gear as a direct drive, no gearbox. So I think it can do the following;
- Charge with a home power point or road side charger and drive up to 80km as an EV.
- Drive at below highway speeds using the electric motors like and EV but using the petrol engine to charge the batteries as they are used for driving.
- Drive at highway speeds using the direct drive petrol engine with the electric motor just kicking in to cope with hills and overtaking.
The petrol engine is only connected to the generator and the front wheels so when running on the highway using petrol as a direct drive it is a FWD car unless the rear electric motor kicks in. There are two electric motors, one driving the front wheels and one driving the back wheels. So it can be a AWD when required.
As it appears EV's are not efficient at highway speeds and Petrol not efficient around town it appears the Outlander uses what is best depending on the situation.
