Made for Australia: Why plug-in hybrid technology is perfect for Aussie families

The most advanced examples — like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, for example — will allow its owners to do their part in the vital race to lower emissions by giving them the option to drive entirely in zero-emission EV mode. In the case of the Mitsubishi, you get up to 84km between recharges — among the highest range on offer anywhere in the world — which is enough for your daily commute and then some.

But the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle offers the best of both worlds, by combining a 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine that runs on petrol with its two electric motors and a 20kWh battery.

Charge the battery up every couple of days — depending on your usage — using a wallbox and solar panels (if you have them) and you could effectively run it not only as a zero-emission car most of the time, but do so at zero cost. And when using a typical 7kW wallbox charger, it will take 6.5 hours to fully recharge the battery.

Don't have a wallbox? Simply plug into a regular electrical socket and you'll still be fully charged overnight.

The big bonus, of course, for Aussies who like to get out of town and go on adventures — a task the rugged and spacious Outlander is clearly built for — is that when the battery does run dry, the petrol engine kicks in, instantly and seamlessly, and you can continue to drive as far as you like into the outback, or along the coast, where there are plenty of service stations to supply you.

As a huge added bonus for those adventurous types, the Outlander also offers a brilliant new technology called V2L, or Vehicle to Load, which allows you to access the power in the car's battery to run a fridge, or lights, or an electric fry pan, whatever you like, by plugging into the handy, home-style three-pin plug in the boot.

Some Outlander owners have driven thousands of kilometres without ever resorting to using the petrol engine, even bettering the Mitsubishi's incredibly low fuel-economy figure of 1.5 litres per 100km. And if you look at that statistics, it's easy to see how.

According to The Real Australian Commute Report 2022 – prepared by Real Insurance and the CoreData research group – the average Australian commuter travels just 33km each day (which takes an outrageous 54 minutes).

Statistics being what they are, this figure is not definitive. The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that the average distance people travelled from their place of usual residence to work in Australia 16 km (which will makes 32km round trip, so it's close).

Interestingly, around 7.4 million people (or 73 per cent of employed people) commuted a distance of less than 20 km to work.

Now consider the all-electric range of the Outlander PHEV. If you drive the typical distance, or less, each day to work, and then throw in a school run, some shopping and so forth, you're still highly unlikely to exceed the 84km of smooth, silent and purposeful electric-only range this large SUV offers.

Indeed, it's likely most people wouldn't even need to charge it every day, because 84km could cover two or even three days of typical driving with ease.

What those oft-quoted figures fail cover, however, are the longer trips that holidaying Australians tend to take a few times a year. A run to the snow from Sydney or Melbourne, for example, or a road trip from Canberra to Brisbane, are going to be a charging challenge for a pure electric vehicle, but no problem at all for a PHEV.

The ABS tell us the average vehicle in Australia covers 12,100km per year, with cars in the Northern Territory travelling the furthest, on average, at 12,500km, followed by Victoria at 12,400km. Tasmanians travel the least, at 10,900km on average.

Clearly, living in Australia, with the vast distance between cities, and even the long drives within them — anyone who's tried to traverse Sydney or Melbourne from end to end will tell you it's a long journey — requires the owning of a vehicle that can do it all, short-run commuter journeys and longer car trips.

And while some people are adapting quickly to the new, electric way of life — planning their trips around charger locations, constantly calculating their range — a car like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV means you don't have to, if you don't want to.

It's a way of starting your electric journey, without having to do it all at once.

It's still change, of course — we're talking about a car with a petrol cap and a charge point and a cable to plug it in — but it's change at a gradual pace. And humans are pretty good at that.