Andy, thanks for this video, great seeing a real off road test. I’ve seen a video of a PHEV doing a diagonal test on a sealed car park with a wheel high in the air and with enough throttle it does transfer torque to the wheels with grip. Seemed to take a lot of wheelspin to achieve though.
When I get my 2019 PHEV and the winter comes, AWD will be tested. It has improved snow mode so I hope it will be fine. All i have to do is order the OBD2 adapter to see the status. yes the time will show if it was a good buy. have a good day from norway. and stay charged :D
Shimool could you try diagonal test instead? You just need a small hill, have one or two wheels be in the air, see if you can stop and then recover (move) from there
Interesting test Andy. I would have to agree with your conclusions that u would expect a button to make some difference to ur traction situation. Also, I know this is an old post, but I thought it would be easier to control all 4 wheels of an electric vehicle with electronics compared to their ice & mechanical counterparts. Someone once told me, “There is no substitute for power”, & I guess this is where EV’s will always be limited to some degree by their power source & how it is managed. It is 3 yrs since this original post, & battery tech & EV’s (PHEV’S) is constantly changing all the time. Cheers
Thanks again Andy, always entertaining videos! Perhaps you could try jacking up the rear end, ie: both sides, and see if you can get any torque to the front motor. (You’d need to use a trolley jack with wheels in case the car moves.) If you still get no power to the front, then it wouldn’t take much to stop the car in snow and ice, or mud etc. Obviously both diffs are completely standard with no limited slip capacity- thus have one wheel front and one wheel in the rear slipping, and you’ll go nowhere. Also equally obviously I don’t think the PHEV makes a good off road 4WD LOL :-) I’ll leave that to my Jeep- it’ll go almost anywhere within reason.
Jojo from Flensburg, I will get my 2019 Outlander end of December (hopefully). Also I looked already for an OBD II and watchdog as well and will keep an eye on this matter too. The snow clearance in our specific outskirt area is not the best, so when we get snow it will be tested. My actual car (Mercedes R-Class 4-matic) has definitely no problems under snow and ice conditions. So I can compare these both under similar conditions (if weather permits :-)).
Jojo, the snow and ice traction seems to be fine with the Outlander. It only cannot handle any off road under certain circumstances. The ground clearance also is not the best but OK for some softroading.
Hey Andy, have you considered just plugging the seat belt in when you're not sitting in the seat, to just disable the alarm? For testing only, not when driving on the road, of course. ;)
I wonder if using the Save/charge button would make a difference. I imagine that if you accelerate enough, the ICE would kick in and maybe deliver power differently
I am very sure there is something wrong with the S-AWD control on the PHEV as compared to the same with the petrol or diesel models......have had the issue with no rear power when 2 fronts are of the ground and in a crossed situation the s-awd should lock the floating wheels to move the torque to the gripped-wheel...but as you have shown this is not happening either...I'm not happy with this at all...
I think the S-AWC is only active when the car has a certain speed but I'm not sure if the wheel is enough or the whole car has to actually move. I think it's around 10-12km/h or so... When I pressed the accelerator the car actually did better and got out of the situation.
Yes, I also understood that the front and rear should be locked, so if EITHER end had traction to both wheels, the car should move. However this doesn’t seem to be happening at all with the vehicle stationary from those Facebook videos and this video of Andy’s. This would make the vehicle little or no better than a 2WD if you’re stuck in slippery conditions. (I wonder how a Tesla AWD would go in the same conditions- much better I suspect!) Andy’s experiment with one wheel clear of the ground seems to indicate that the 4WD lock function is very close to useless. Just one of four wheels with no traction and the car is all but stuck!
Funny you should mention the Tesla, we are trying to source some rollers at the moment to do the same test on a 75D here at the moment! will post when we get it sorted!
I tried hard to understand what I am looking at, but I still can't figure it out. It's like the car really has no power to climb that hill? It is not that much steeper than some garage driveways around where I leave, but I have never seen a car have trouble with that kind of slope if there is traction. This Outlander obviously has traction (wheels don't spin), yet no able to climb (not enough torque? or a tree? why did you choose a slope with a tree in front?) I expected the failure to be due to wheels spinning, but they don't even turn?
Battery is actually oil cooled - I know that as I punctured a cooling line, and tried to fill it with water and almost ruined it... Having said that, with the right tyres and someone who knows how to drive it I think it’s all but unstoppable . As for road tyres, you’ve lost the battle before you’ve begun.
Jordan Rowland Now I am confused- I thought the battery was liquid cooled too- will have to have a closer look! In any event, just be thankful it has some form of cooling, unlike a Nissan Leaf! (They’re hopeless in a hot climate with no “thermal battery management”.)
It's all in the Mitsubishi Technician Training Guide explained: tinyurl.com/ycv8odmt - The front electric motor is oil-cooled (page 105) - The rear electric motor is water-cooled (page 41) - The drive battery is air-cooled (page 85)
It always uses both motors. The lock button is not a lock button as we know it and only distributes the power equally between front and rear (50/50). Without lock it's 40% front/60% back. Hence the lock button does not do anything and is totally useless. I could not think of any situation where this could be helpful.
I dont understand why Mitsubishi didn’t do some kind of torque vectoring using the brakes in conjunction with the ABS to stop the spinning wheel with no traction and divert power to the other wheel
Hi Andy, have you tested with the charge mode engaged ? I know it sounds like a dumb test but regarding how the Outlander PHEV is designed and how motors, batteries and electronics operates it might be a way not to stay stuck when offroading in sand or mud by "forcing" the petrol engine to deliver both mechanical power to the front axle and electrical power to the rear axle motor.
The engine will only deliver electrical energy when the speed is below ~70km/h. Only above it will drive the front wheels directly. I doubt I can get to this speed in my backyard :D
I heard it's only fwd when the battery is flat. Range is about 30km on asphalt, first gen phev. So you probably have just 5-6km with awd offroad capabilities.
The PHEV has AWD all the time (unless it drives in hybrid mode over 75km/h). I never heard about that the battery has to be flat for that to happen. Have you got any sources?
mmmh oh - there is a tree in our way... did not see it before? THAT was reason why it stopped. Even a 400HP other SUV would come further with SAME tyres at lowest speed. So what did you wanted to show by this test?
Thanks for the extreme testing, hope u did not get a nose bleed due to altitude from that massive hill.😉👍
Andy, thanks for this video, great seeing a real off road test. I’ve seen a video of a PHEV doing a diagonal test on a sealed car park with a wheel high in the air and with enough throttle it does transfer torque to the wheels with grip. Seemed to take a lot of wheelspin to achieve though.
Very nice demonstration of the offroad incapabilities of this car.
Thank You, I know what car I will not buy.
When I get my 2019 PHEV and the winter comes, AWD will be tested.
It has improved snow mode so I hope it will be fine.
All i have to do is order the OBD2 adapter to see the status.
yes the time will show if it was a good buy.
have a good day from norway.
and stay charged :D
Please let us know how the car behaves in Norwegian winter ;)
@@unpluggedEV will do.
@@mungursulu any updates? :)
@@ThinkscapeVideo its a sad winter yet, no snow:(
Shimool could you try diagonal test instead? You just need a small hill, have one or two wheels be in the air, see if you can stop and then recover (move) from there
Interesting test Andy but have to say I thought the car struggled more than I would have expected.
Very nice video :) Some time later another PHEV was taken into the test, it got better result, but still worse than petrol/diesel versions.
Thanks for the feedback and info. Have you made an updated video about it? What model year was that?
@@unpluggedEV Yeap, here is the video and info: ruclips.net/video/swXwSQoToj4/видео.html
Interesting test Andy. I would have to agree with your conclusions that u would expect a button to make some difference to ur traction situation. Also, I know this is an old post, but I thought it would be easier to control all 4 wheels of an electric vehicle with electronics compared to their ice & mechanical counterparts. Someone once told me, “There is no substitute for power”, & I guess this is where EV’s will always be limited to some degree by their power source & how it is managed. It is 3 yrs since this original post, & battery tech & EV’s (PHEV’S) is constantly changing all the time. Cheers
Thanks again Andy, always entertaining videos!
Perhaps you could try jacking up the rear end, ie: both sides, and see if you can get any torque to the front motor. (You’d need to use a trolley jack with wheels in case the car moves.)
If you still get no power to the front, then it wouldn’t take much to stop the car in snow and ice, or mud etc.
Obviously both diffs are completely standard with no limited slip capacity- thus have one wheel front and one wheel in the rear slipping, and you’ll go nowhere.
Also equally obviously I don’t think the PHEV makes a good off road 4WD LOL :-) I’ll leave that to my Jeep- it’ll go almost anywhere within reason.
I thought about lifting the back up but was too scared as I don't have the right tools for that. Didn't want to use any timber logs or so ;)
Danke für das Video... beste Grüße aus Tirol
Jojo from Flensburg,
I will get my 2019 Outlander end of December (hopefully). Also I looked already for an OBD II and watchdog as well and will keep an eye on this matter too. The snow clearance in our specific outskirt area is not the best, so when we get snow it will be tested. My actual car (Mercedes R-Class 4-matic) has definitely no problems under snow and ice conditions. So I can compare these both under similar conditions (if weather permits :-)).
Jojo, the snow and ice traction seems to be fine with the Outlander. It only cannot handle any off road under certain circumstances. The ground clearance also is not the best but OK for some softroading.
That was pretty interesting, makes me think the car isn't too bad off road even if it's not a "proper" off roader.
Hey Andy, have you considered just plugging the seat belt in when you're not sitting in the seat, to just disable the alarm? For testing only, not when driving on the road, of course. ;)
Yeah, I thought about getting just a dummy to stop the noise and keeping it plugged in when I'm driving on the property :D
I wonder if using the Save/charge button would make a difference. I imagine that if you accelerate enough, the ICE would kick in and maybe deliver power differently
I am very sure there is something wrong with the S-AWD control on the PHEV as compared to the same with the petrol or diesel models......have had the issue with no rear power when 2 fronts are of the ground and in a crossed situation the s-awd should lock the floating wheels to move the torque to the gripped-wheel...but as you have shown this is not happening either...I'm not happy with this at all...
I think the S-AWC is only active when the car has a certain speed but I'm not sure if the wheel is enough or the whole car has to actually move. I think it's around 10-12km/h or so...
When I pressed the accelerator the car actually did better and got out of the situation.
Yes, I also understood that the front and rear should be locked, so if EITHER end had traction to both wheels, the car should move. However this doesn’t seem to be happening at all with the vehicle stationary from those Facebook videos and this video of Andy’s. This would make the vehicle little or no better than a 2WD if you’re stuck in slippery conditions. (I wonder how a Tesla AWD would go in the same conditions- much better I suspect!)
Andy’s experiment with one wheel clear of the ground seems to indicate that the 4WD lock function is very close to useless. Just one of four wheels with no traction and the car is all but stuck!
Funny you should mention the Tesla, we are trying to source some rollers at the moment to do the same test on a 75D here at the moment! will post when we get it sorted!
It's astounding that there's no side to side electronic differential lock option on the rear wheels or limited slip, at least.
I tried hard to understand what I am looking at, but I still can't figure it out. It's like the car really has no power to climb that hill?
It is not that much steeper than some garage driveways around where I leave, but I have never seen a car have trouble with that kind of slope if there is traction. This Outlander obviously has traction (wheels don't spin), yet no able to climb (not enough torque? or a tree? why did you choose a slope with a tree in front?)
I expected the failure to be due to wheels spinning, but they don't even turn?
Battery is actually oil cooled - I know that as I punctured a cooling line, and tried to fill it with water and almost ruined it... Having said that, with the right tyres and someone who knows how to drive it I think it’s all but unstoppable . As for road tyres, you’ve lost the battle before you’ve begun.
The battery is definitely air cooled. Maybe you punctured the engine oil line?
Jordan Rowland Now I am confused- I thought the battery was liquid cooled too- will have to have a closer look!
In any event, just be thankful it has some form of cooling, unlike a Nissan Leaf! (They’re hopeless in a hot climate with no “thermal battery management”.)
It's all in the Mitsubishi Technician Training Guide explained:
tinyurl.com/ycv8odmt
- The front electric motor is oil-cooled (page 105)
- The rear electric motor is water-cooled (page 41)
- The drive battery is air-cooled (page 85)
I wonder if you put the handbrake on slowly if that would help you go up the hill? That often helps in other cars...
So which motor does the car use when you aren't in 4x4 lock the front or rear?
It always uses both motors. The lock button is not a lock button as we know it and only distributes the power equally between front and rear (50/50). Without lock it's 40% front/60% back. Hence the lock button does not do anything and is totally useless. I could not think of any situation where this could be helpful.
I dont understand why Mitsubishi didn’t do some kind of torque vectoring using the brakes in conjunction with the ABS to stop the spinning wheel with no traction and divert power to the other wheel
I think it would end up with no wheel turning at all due to the differential
Hi Andy, have you tested with the charge mode engaged ? I know it sounds like a dumb test but regarding how the Outlander PHEV is designed and how motors, batteries and electronics operates it might be a way not to stay stuck when offroading in sand or mud by "forcing" the petrol engine to deliver both mechanical power to the front axle and electrical power to the rear axle motor.
The engine will only deliver electrical energy when the speed is below ~70km/h. Only above it will drive the front wheels directly. I doubt I can get to this speed in my backyard :D
I have seen mixed messages about towing capacity on the PHEV
Very good video
I need more off road test in real condition not comerial video. you are the best
WOW, thank you very much for your feedback!
I heard it's only fwd when the battery is flat. Range is about 30km on asphalt, first gen phev. So you probably have just 5-6km with awd offroad capabilities.
The PHEV has AWD all the time (unless it drives in hybrid mode over 75km/h). I never heard about that the battery has to be flat for that to happen. Have you got any sources?
Dangerous, it is consuming 10.000W of electrical energy although it is totally silent and it seems that nothing is happening. 10:18
Why u sell it
I don’t see what your trying to prove here my outlander wouldn’t have a problem with them tiny hills
mmmh
oh - there is a tree in our way... did not see it before?
THAT was reason why it stopped.
Even a 400HP other SUV would come further with SAME tyres at lowest speed.
So what did you wanted to show by this test?
The torque. I tried to slip one or two wheels as I explained in the video.
ahhh 😁 didn't get it either. thx for clarifying!
What's the point of the wheel spinning in the air ?... What a useless system 🤔
What bad recorder he move to much the CAMERA.
Thankful for your comment! Great to have you here.