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Thanks to the success of the Outlander, Mitsubishi are riding the crest of a wave in the UK, says Alan Douglas

If it were possible for a car manufacturer to take to sea, Mitsubishi would be riding on the crest of a wave.

Which is good news because not so long ago, it looked as if the Japanese company was about to hit the rocks, less than forty years after it first arrived in the UK.

Continuing the maritime theme, it had been pretty plain sailing, building a great reputation for some seriously robust four-wheel-drives like the iconic Shogun, the L200 pickup and the fearsomely fast Lancer Evolution, which with success in world rallying, subsequently evolved into various versions under the Evo name.

Sadly that is no longer available in the UK and the company suffered badly from the strength of the Pound and the weakness of the Yen which at one point meant it was actually losing money on every car it brought to the UK.

However, stormy waters are behind it and things are looking decidedly bright and much of the credit for that goes to the Outlander SUV, and more specifically the hybrid plugin PHEV version. It’s now the best-selling electric vehicle of any kind in the UK with around 30,000 on our roads by this summer. It was launched in 2014 and went down well with 10,000 sold in the first ten months and is now responsible for 34 per cent of the UK’S plug-in hybrid segment.

Those sales figures are likely to be given a boost with the introduction of the newly revised model which has added features and refinements of its power system to make it even more economical and cleaner.

It was the first car to be engineered from the ground up to incorporate both an internal combustion engine and plug-in hybrid technology. The engineers have perfected that technology to improve its range – it can now run for 33 miles on pure electric power – and it’s the only hybrid which can be plugged into a rapid charger. They are becoming more widely available and it takes only 25 minutes to boost the battery back up to 80 per cent capacity.

The claimed official fuel economy is put at 166mpg but the unique element of the PHEV is that it’s the only plug-in hybrid with driveradjustable levels of regenerative braking. Using paddles on the steering column, you can increase or decrease the amount of braking power and send a charge to the batteries.

Once you get the hang of it, you can complete a journey without hardly ever having to use the footbrake and at the same time keep the battery power up and extend the range. Not only does that reduce the use of expensive petrol, it also saves on brake wear and servicing costs.

Power comes from a two-litre petrol engine, coupled with two small electric motors, one for each axle. The PHEV is the only four–wheel-drive to have such a set-up and capable of being driven on purely electric power in 4x4 mode.

Other changes in the latest version include an electronic parking brake with auto hold and a switch to keep the car on electric power only. There are LED front fog lights and on the safety front, there’s a forward collision mitigation system with pedestrian detection and blind spot monitoring.

The conventional diesel version has also been improved to keep up in the competitive SUV crossover market, which continues to see many new arrivals touting for business.

It’s got some discreet styling changes including a shark fin antenna on the roof and the new family front face with LED headlamps, a redesigned radiator grille and front bumper, fog bezel and wings. There are dramatic daytime running lights and smart 18-inch alloy wheels. The top level 4 version also has a very welcome heated steering wheel as standard.

Seven seats are also standard for the diesel, except for the entry level model, and with the second and third row of seats folded, it can swallow a couple of mountain bikes whole, yet its exterior dimensions are smaller than most family estate cars.

The central console screen has been refreshed to reduce the number of hard keys and introduce some subtle colour changes to make the system feel much more upmarket.

The new Outlander also has the latest version of Mitsubishi’s renowned all-wheeldrive technology, with an ondemand 4WD system which improves stability, traction, fuel economy and emissions, with what’s called ‘Yaw Rate Feedback Control’, to judge the vehicle’s cornering movements accurately for sharper and more responsive steering.

Mitsubishi are certainly doing something right with the Outlander whether you embrace the latest plug-in technology or want to stick with a traditional oil-burner.

“The unique element of the PHEV is that it’s the only plug-in hybrid with adjustable levels of regenerative braking”