The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV went through various stages of testing during development, including hot weather in USA as well as cold weather in Canada.

Mitsubishi Motors’ engineers ticked another box after the completion of a two-month specific cold weather test in Russia, prior to the forthcoming introduction of the car in this strategic market.

Cumulating more than 30,000 km over 8 weeks of evaluation in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Tolyatti, the three test cars experienced a combination of very low temperature (below -30° C) with snow covered road surfaces, unknown in other cold climate regions where Outlander PHEV is already retailed. All in all, the car performed very well and with no concern for the charging system.

Concluding the test, Andrey Pankov, CEO of MMC Rus, commented: “Together with Mitsubishi, we deliberately chose to test the car over two months of the most unpredictable weather conditions with frost, thaw… in order to test the real-life driveability of this plug-in hybrid electric car in various, and most demanding, weather conditions.”

Start of sales for Outlander PHEV in Russia is expected from the 2014 Moscow Motor Show, held at the end of August.