Plug In SUVs

30 miles in ev? must be some battery!

 

The Outlander is in the same class as the Rav4 and Escape. Small SUVs were never the FSPs like the Sequias and Tahoes people picture when they hear SUV. This PHV doesn't spell the end for large crossovers.

 

i picture the explorer as the original suv, i suppose because it was so ubiquitous.

 

There were ones before, but most people picture a midsize or larger vehicle when SUVs are brought up. This plug in just isn't that big. It is also a unibody. Most SUVs now are, but that makes them more of a crossover to me. So its success has no bearing on whether the big SUVs are saved

 

The Tesla EV got a poor score of 38/100 on greenercars website (US mix of coal, CNG, etc). I wonder what a partial EV in SUV form would get?

Some SUVs do quite well (35-40 points) but large SUVs get hammered & I doubt making them EV would help in GC's anti-car analysis. Probably 15-30 points.

 

That Mitsubishi was by far the best selling SUV in the Netherlands in 2013.

Mainly due to the government not taxing it to death like they do with other cars...

25% of the value of the car is added to your income when driving a company car. And then taxed, so a 40k car (like the normal Outlander) will cost you 4000-5000 euro's a year in extra incometax.
This is 'only' 14% for fuel efficient cars.
And 0% for cars with less than 50g/km of CO2, which this Mitsubishi was!
So a regular Outlander will cost you >5000$ a year (but the boss WILL pay all petrol/roadtax/repairs).
The PHEV Outlander will cost you nothing. Not that strange that the plugin Volvo V60 was sold out in May and the Mitsubishi broke sales records...

The fact there are several around and I never, NEVER see one plugged in, is probably a clue to how they are really used... (as a regular Prius, therefor they should be in the 14% bracket, not the 0%)

It cost the government too much money (in missed tax), so as of 2014, they dropped the 0% bracket and replaced it with 7%.

 

I would second the thought that the explorer is the prototypical SUV, pre cute ute/crossover segment
Midsize SUV Sales In America - December 2013 And 2013 Year End - GOOD CAR BAD CAR

Unibody means lower weight more car like ride, but body on frame normally means more durable and lower repair bills when you are doing that off road/utility part. The explorer has now gone unibody for fuel economy

IMHO PHEV makes great sense in these vehicles. They are too big and heavy for a small battery to improve them enough in fuel economy, so why not make the battery more beefy and add a plug. Perhaps the highlander hybrid could benefit from a more robust electronic AWD and a bigger battery. The SUV hybrids already add a big hybrid premium, a bigger battery and a plug may make it more worthwhile.

 

I don't know about where you live, but studies in CA say that 70-80% of charging is done at home. Most likely in a closed garage.

Mike

 

I should have said that most people don't have a garage here.
I do, but it would be too small for an Outlander And it doesn't have electricity...
We're the tallest people on earth, but everything here is tiny: houses, yards, garages, parkingspaces, roads, etc.

 

Are you sure about being the tallest? Maybe you all have built a nation to let yourselves feel that way.

 

Many ways to measure this, but holland does have the tallest average height. Turkey has the tallest man

 

Explorer? I guess I wrongly assumed you went back farther than that:


GM's flagship land barge - the Suburban has been in production for 3/4 century . . . not that I thought you went back THAT far . . .


Here's my favorite thing about Mitsubishi's Plug in Hybrid SUV ... the Outlander has Chademo !!! Woo Hooo !!!



I LOVE the idea of plug in's being able to Quick Charge.
.

 

i go farther back than i care to remember, i can recall when it was one broomstick!

 

That suburban lacks a great number of things we think of as being part of an SUV, the sport part. The jeep was really the first SUV, it had the sport, and utility, but didn't carry that much. The explorer added comfort and interior space of a modern SUV. The current suburban only has name in common with that mini van suburban from so long ago.

I'm sure there is a joke here that I just don't get.

 

i'm offering a prize for whoever gets it.

 

Whisk Broom II set the world record for 1 ¼ miles in the 1913 Suburban. He finished the race in two minutes flat while carrying the high weight of 139 pounds. He broke the record, set by his sire Broomstick in 1904, by nearly three seconds.

Thanks, Google!

 

nope, not even close.