The Government’s new Clean Car rebate on top of an incentivised launch price makes this new plug-in hybrid additionally attractive.

Price: Full RRP $65,990 but $57,990 with launch incentive (down to $52,240 with Clean Car rebate).
Powertrain and economy: 2.4-litre MIVEC petrol engine with front and rear high-power electric motors, single-speed planetary gearbox, super all-wheel control, combined economy 1.9 L/100km, 43 g/km.
Vital statistics: 4545mm long, 1805mm wide, 1685mm high, 2670mm wheelbase. Luggage space 359-626 litres. 18-inch alloys, 225/55 R18 tyres.
We like: Attractive pricing taking full advantage of Government rebate, very good economy and low emissions, no range anxiety, short-range EV benefits.
We don’t like: Published EV range seems a bit generous, can’t see the usability of most EV-related info screens.

ON the face of things, you’d think public acceptance of Mitsubishi’s new Eclipse Cross plug-in hybrid electric vehicle has been a bit slow.

After all, the car was launched in New Zealand in late May. But last month it recorded a mere 12 sales – which, by the way, was 12 better than its big brother the Outlander PHEV.

And Eclipse Cross’ so-so sales performance was despite the fact Mitsubishi New Zealand had introduced the compact SUV with special launch prices that knocked up to $9000 off their recommended retail prices.

But what prospective buyers were doing was simply biding their time. During last month everybody knew that on July 1 the Government would introduce a Clean Car Discount scheme that would make it more affordable to buy either EVs or PHEVs.

In Mitsubishi’s case this meant that although June saw only the dozen PHEV sales, the distributor entered July with an order bank for 280 plug-in units; 70 percent of them Eclipse Crosses. Now, their new owners are able to knock a further $5750 off the price by applying on-line to Waka Kotahi for a clean car rebate on the purchase price.

All this represents very good buying with the Eclipse Cross PHEV, which is available in VRX and XLS levels of specification.

In the case of the VRX, it carries a recommended retail price (RRP) of $65,990 but is currently being offered with a special retail price (SRP) of $57,990, and if you claim the rebate the purchase price drops further to $52,240.

Meanwhile the XLS has an RRP of $58,990, an SRP of $49,990, and the rebate takes the purchase price down to $44,240. Little wonder then that there was that substantial order bank at the end of June – and I’m told by the Mitsubishi people that it has grown considerably since then.

The Clean Car Discount rebate scheme works on the theory that if you can plug ‘em in, then they’re clean – even though that’s not strictly correct in the case of plug-in hybrids.

The 30 different PHEVs currently on sale in New Zealand all have internal combustion engines under their bonnets to remove one of the big hassles with EVs: range anxiety.

In the case of the Eclipse Cross the engine is the same 2.4-litre petrol unit that is under the bonnet of the larger Outlander and some of the smaller ASX. It pops into action only when required, either as an electricity generator in series hybrid mode or to assist performance in parallel hybrid mode.

The brand claims an average fuel consumption of just 1.9 L/100km and CO2 emissions of a mere 43 grams per kilometre.

But is this all realistic in real life? Mitsubishi claims the Eclipse Cross PHEV to have a range of up to 55km as a pure EV, and up to 650km as a petrol-electric hybrid. This should mean, therefore, that most days of the week this vehicle should have sufficient juice to operate purely on electricity, because most recent research indicates that the average New Zealand motorist drives about 11,000 km a year, which breaks down to around 30km a day.

But that all depends on how the vehicle is used for on a daily basis. Several days behind the wheel of a VRX showed that if it is used for a low-speed around town commute involving lots of stop-start traffic, it will indeed remain in EV mode and use no petrol – even though each overnight charge could only get the EV range up to 42km, not the stated 55km. All this underlines Mitsubishi’s claim that its PHEV system is EV-based rather than engine-based which is the case with many of the competitors.

The Eclipse Cross probably did quietly move into series hybrid mode either under acceleration or when taking on urban hills, but I didn’t notice it. During our time with this Mitsubishi we headed out on a couple of longer drives out on the open roads, and this is when the VRX operated as a parallel hybrid in which the electric motor and petrol engine worked in tandem to generate the necessary power to drive the wheels. And importantly, its remaining range as a petrol-electric hybrid hardly changed at all.

It's all smooth and unobtrusive to the extent that you really don’t know it is happening – unless you check various information screens that can be accessed using the vehicle’s 8-inch infotainment screen. There, you can check such things as energy flow, the ratio of time travelled on electricity during a trip, and fuel history both in terms of fuel consumption and electricity consumption.

I suppose all this is nice to have, but it does take the driver’s eyes off the road. As far as I was concerned the only really relevant pieces of information were available alongside the speedometer – two bar graphs illustrating the Eclipse Cross’ remaining range as an EV, and as a hybrid. Truly, what more is needed?

This Mitsubishi uses the same twin-motor PHEV system as the Outlander, with various modifications specific to its size and weight. The Eclipse Cross’ architecture consists of 60kW/137Nm front and 70kW/195Nm rear electric drive motors that deliver force to each axle, a 13.8 kWh drive battery, and a 94kW/199Nm 2.4-litre petrol engine with a single-speed planetary gearbox.

What does all that add up to? Mitsubishi won’t say, arguing that a combined power figure is difficult to calculate because the engine and the electric motors deliver their maximums at different points in their revolutions ranges. But maybe around 130kW might be a good guess.

Like the Outlander, the Eclipse Cross PHEV has Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC)  which Mitsubishi says is different to conventional full-time AWD because the focus isn’t on the torque between all four wheels, but on control over all four wheels.

But there is a slight difference between the two Mitsubishis in their operation of the S-AWC, because they feature a different drive mode. Whereas the Outlander has a Sport mode, in the Eclipse Cross it is a Tarmac mode, obviously for use on dry paved roads. All the other modes are the same however. So, there’s Gravel, Snow, Normal and Eco.

The vehicle features the same facelifted body design as the standard petrol models, which means – thank heavens – it eschews that twin-window look that did so much to ruin the appearance of the pre-facelifted Eclipse Cross. The change has also resulted in additional rear cargo space, which is also good news.

At the VRX level the compact SUV gets leather-appointed seats, that are heated front and rear, and the steering wheel is heated too. The exterior has colour-keyed bumpers and side skirts, and dual sunroofs.

From a safety perspective, both the Eclipse Cross models have forward collision mitigation, blind spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert and lane change alert, while the VRX also has a multi around-view monitor, front and rear parking sensors and adaptive cruise control.

Both CHAdeMo (DC fast charge) and Type 2 ports are provided. The former takes about 25 minutes to charge to 80 percent; a home/public AC “fast” charger takes about four hours (depending on the charge device), while a standard three-pin domestic plug requires seven hours.

By my reckoning the fast charging would add another 35km to the vehicle’s ability to run purely as an EV, which to be frank isn’t much distance at all for the time taken to recharge.

But then again it does add some credence to Mitsubishi’s claim that it is the ‘EV’ in its ‘PHEV’ that is important. It is, too – considering that the company estimates the Eclipse Cross PHEV emits 75 percent less CO2 that its petrol version.

Right now it has to be remembered that New Zealand has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, with a goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.

Experts calculate that to reach that 2050 goal, by the end of this decade more than half of all New Zealand’s monthly vehicle registrations will need to be the plug-in types, whether they be full EVs or PHEVs, new or used imports. That’s the point of the rebates, that have been introduced as a sort of prelude to a fuller scheme which will launch on January 1 next year.

This scheme will introduce fees on vehicles coming into the country with higher exhaust emissions, and a range of discounts on hybrid and low-emission vehicles. All these fees and rebates will be based on the CO2 ratings of individual vehicles – the higher the ratings the higher the fees, the lower the ratings the greater the rebates.

It all suddenly makes 1.9 L/100km fuel consumption and 43 g/km CO2 emissions with a company SUV more appealing, doesn’t it?