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The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is still the UK's best-selling plug-in hybrid SUV, with 3,167 sales from January to the end of October 2020. The pioneering model also remains one of Europe's favourites, amassing 20,339 sales across the continent in the first three quarters of 2020 (Jato).

In the UK, sales of PHEVs have nearly doubled compared to the same period last year to 50,052 (SMMT), with the Outlander topping the SUV charts and still on the podium across all plug-in hybrid competitors. Demand for PHEV technology is surging across Europe too, with more competitors than ever coming to the segment leading to some 340,000 registrations in the first nine months of the year - almost treble the number registered during the same period in 2019.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV was in second place overall across Europe at the end of September, hot on the heels of the Ford Kuga which was only 660 units ahead at the time.

The increasing popularity of PHEVs is understandable. Across Europe governments are incentivising the technology to lower emissions and accelerate the move to full electrification, tackling the natural reluctance to give up familiar internal combustion technology for one around which there are still many uncertainties, not least driving range and how and where to recharge.

And, of course, EVs are still expensive compared to equivalent petrol or diesel cars, with those at the more affordable end of the market not yet capable of offering enough driving range where people feel comfortable having that as the main or only household vehicle. That's where PHEVs come in.