Mitsubishi Outlander vs Toyota RAV4

Both figures here are recommended retail prices before on-road costs, so this is a like-for-like comparison. The RAV4 GXL Hybrid AWD is $18,650 cheaper. That is not a trim-level gap, that is most of a small car.

Two things fall out of that table. First, if it is the plug you want rather than the badge, the PHEV ES at $58,990 is the cheaper way in and uses the same drivetrain. Second, Toyota now sells its own plug-in RAV4, the XSE PHEV AWD at $63,340, which sits $7,650 under the Outlander Exceed. The Outlander PHEV no longer has the plug-in family SUV segment to itself at this price.

The Outlander can still narrow the running-cost gap if you charge nightly, because 84km of electric range covers most commutes without touching petrol. It cannot close $18,650.

The Outlander PHEV holds a five-star ANCAP rating from 2022. The current-generation RAV4 has no ANCAP rating on record yet, so we will not put a star count on it either way until one is published. On equipment both list AEB, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, lane keep and adaptive cruise as standard at these trims. If a published rating is part of your decision, the Mitsubishi is the one that has it today.

The Outlander Exceed is the more heavily specified of the two: 12.3-inch screen, Bose audio, 360-degree camera, head-up display, heated and ventilated seats. The RAV4 GXL is more modest, with a 10.5-inch screen, wireless CarPlay and digital key. Feature for feature the Outlander wins, as it should for $18,650 more. Whether that is the right way to spend the difference is the question the rest of this comparison answers.

This is where they are fundamentally different. The Outlander can drive 84km on pure electricity. This RAV4 cannot plug in at all, though Toyota does sell a plug-in RAV4 higher up the range.

The thing most people miss: that 1.2L/100km figure for the Outlander is a lab number that assumes the battery starts full. It is not a promise about your fuel bill. Once the 22.7kWh pack is depleted the car runs as a conventional hybrid carrying a lot of extra weight, and consumption climbs well past the RAV4's. Mitsubishi does not publish a charge-sustaining figure, so treat the 7.5L/100km estimate above as indicative only. The RAV4 does 4.6L/100km without you doing anything at all.

Where the Outlander is unambiguously ahead is output. Its 185kW and 450Nm against the RAV4's 143kW and 221Nm is a large gap, and the 7.0-second 0-100 claim is 0.8s quicker than the Toyota.

The ownership story depends entirely on whether you plug in the Outlander, but on the current prices even the best case does not get there. The figures below use RRP rather than drive-away so nothing is buried in an on-road estimate, 15,000km a year, roughly $2.00 a litre for petrol and about 28c/kWh for home electricity.

The RAV4 comes out roughly $16,280 cheaper over five years even against an Outlander that gets plugged in every night, and about $20,690 ahead of one that does not. Note what is doing the work there: it is almost entirely the purchase price. Charged nightly, the Outlander's energy bill is essentially level with the Toyota's petrol bill, so the plug is not the saving people assume it is once electricity is priced in. What the Outlander still has that the RAV4 cannot match is the 10-year/200,000km warranty, 100kg more towing capacity, and the ability to do a normal commute without burning anything.