Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV on ice: Learning about S-AWC

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3 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV on Ice Photo Gallery

All-wheel drive is changing. There are exceptions, of course, but with regular gas-fueled SUVs, you usually have an engine and transmission driving the front wheels, and then a driveshaft back to the rear axles. Usually there’s a clutch on the driveshaft so the vehicle can save some gas operating in front-wheel drive most of the time, and it just engages the rear wheels when needed.

The shift to electric power opens up new layout possibilities. Typically, that’s a regular hybrid gas/electric engine and transmission driving the front wheels, and a totally separate electric motor driving the rear wheels. That makes sense, and it’s super-efficient. You’ll find that layout on Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura and many more hybrid SUVs. The Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is no different, except that as a plug-in, the Outlander drives like an EV for up to 38 miles. There’s no transmission in this design, just a direct drive with switchable reduction gearbox in front, and an electric motor with a reduction gear in the back. Honestly, the whole system is getting much less complicated, but not less sophisticated.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV S-AWC

We recently took a trip up to the great white north (full disclosure: Mitsubishi paid to take us to a racetrack outside Montreal, Canada) to get an insider’s look at Mitsubishi’s all-wheel drive system they call “Super All-Wheel Control” (S-AWC) as it applies to the Outlander PHEV.

The technology that keeps all four wheels driving at the same effective speed is already very refined. Basically, wheel speed sensors tell the computer how much power to send to any given wheel, with torque vectoring adding or subtracting to keep the Outlander going where you point it through curves and variations in traction.

Mitsubishi had set up a series of exercises on an ice-covered skid pad for us. The first exercise was just to drive around in a circle, just like you would do on a wet skid pad, except the goal wasn’t to learn to control a state of steady oversteer, but rather to notice that there was nothing you could do to get the Outlander to oversteer, even on ice. The S-AWC system just took care of business and kept you pointed straight ahead.

The system makes use of driving modes, which most SUVs have at this point. You can select from a sporty track-oriented mode, or choose normal pavement, gravel, mud or ice-and-snow mode. We put the Outlander into every mode, and you could see and feel how the car allowed more or less yaw and wheel spin before intervening and bringing everything back under control.

The engineers had some complicated slides with a lot of math going on, but the gist of it is: They can control how far out of whack you can get before the system saves you from sliding out.

The test was also assisted by having the right tires. All the Outlanders but one were riding on Yokohama’s latest winter tire, which offered us great traction to begin with. We did have one Outlander running on standard all-season tires, which had a little more trouble grabbing traction, but the vehicle still intervened and kept us going more or less where we wanted to go.

As a treat, one of the engineers from Japan, Sawase-san, known as the father of S-AWC, performed some arcane ritual and disabled all the safety controls and took us for a thrill ride. This guy could have been a pro rally driver, but he got a PhD in engineering instead, and he handled the big SUV like a WRC Evo back in the day. That was just to make the point that this was, at its foundation, a real AWD vehicle.

Our second set of exercises involved all the usual stuff: acceleration, snap lane changes, slalom avoidance maneuvers, high-speed cornering and emergency stops. All the stuff you don’t really want to do on ice, but sometimes you don’t have a choice.

I’ll give you a spoiler: On winter tires and using ice/snow mode, the Outlander handles it all like you’re driving on dry pavement. As a sales pitch, it was pretty convincing.

The bottom line

You can get into a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for $40,345 MSRP, and the top trim with all the luxury goodies like heated massaging leather seats and head-up display will run you about $51,835. All-in.

It’s a great choice for winter driving, and it can go head-to-head with premium brands at much higher price tags. You get to drive with confidence because people like Sawase-san have done some impressive work.