Aftermarket Install of 120V Inverter in 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

[bkelly1984]

Hello fellow automotive tinkerers,

In April 2024, I installed the OEM 120V inverter into a friend’s 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which did not come with the option installed. Thought I would write up and share my process and what I learned to help anyone who might decide to try to follow in my footsteps. See the attached PDF for description and pictures. I'll watch this thread and try to come back and answer questions, at least in the near future.

This install involved the Inverter Assembly, part 9461A038 and Junction Block, 9461A016.

Best of luck with your own project!

 

[AndyInOz]

That's an amazing piece of work!

Thank you for sharing it with the forum.

 

[Woon Chung]

That is amazing to me, too. I admire it seriously. But I am not professional on this kind of job. Thus this is "Diamond in the Photo" to me.
By the way, parts alone will over few thousand, and considering labor and tech, the value of the job will be over 5,000.
If we can find CHAdeMO connector and external inverter, like Australian guy from you tube, The cost will be cheaper (not sure) and further more there is no need tech to disassemble the half of the car. Absolutely we cannot carry this equipment in the car. I happened to see the photo of inverter with CHAdeMO adapter, but I can not remember. The price was $3,000.
I still do not understand why Leaf and Mitsubishi has CHAdeMO port in US Market. Outlander is not EV car and not necessarily chagrining on the road for fast charging.

However, two thumbs up to your knowledge and skill. You look like Mitsubishi Engineer.

I believe you should have deep knowledge on PHEV or its related equipment. So, if I am not rude enough to ask you a question, please teach me on following questions.
There are lots of information how to add 120v AC 2000w pure sine wave inverter to provide power to home appliances in case of power outage by nature disaster. In this case, inverter power source is Aux 12vBattery. In case of PHEV, when it is Ready Mode, traction battery will supply thru internal converter to Aux battery.

1. Outlander PHEV Aux battery is rather small capacity such as 45ah. Is this battery capable to supply 2000w when traction battery supply electricity to 12v battery?
2. If traction battery reached minimum level, then Gas Engine activate to charge traction Battery full?
3. Which is the best set, Normal, Eco, Save or Charge?

I am curious about these but can not get correct answer from the people in forum so far. Even AI can not understand my questions.

Thank you

 

[bkelly1984]

1. Outlander PHEV Aux battery is rather small capacity such as 45ah. Is this battery capable to supply 2000w when traction battery supply electricity to 12v battery?

No way. The fastest you ever want to discharge a regular battery from full to empty is 1 hour. Since the Outlander PHEV aux battery is 45 Ah, a constant pull of 45 amps would deplete it in 1 hour. Volts (V) * amps (A) = watts (W), so your 12 volt, 2000 watt load would be (2000 W / 12 V) 167 amps! You will cook the aux battery.

The largest load you would want to connect to the aux battery is 540 W (12 V * 45 A), and you should expect such use to shorten the battery's life.

Edit: Forgot about the "when traction battery supply electricity to 12v battery" part of your question. The answer is still "no". Like discharging, charging a regular battery in an hour is possible but will do cell damage. At most Mitsubishi's charger would be designed to put out 22.5 A.

2. If traction battery reached minimum level, then Gas Engine activate to charge traction Battery full?

The stock inverter install activates the gas engine to charge the traction battery if it reaches a minimum level, but I do not know if it charges to full. My install might do the same, but my install is missing a connection to the ECU and I do not know what that does. Mine may not auto-charge or it could charge to full while the stock does not.

3. Which is the best set, Normal, Eco, Save or Charge?

Normal is the best for everyday driving which is why it is the factory default. However, the other three modes could be useful in certain circumstances.

Eco - This mode tries to save fuel and power by restricting acceleration, useful if you are trying to save money or extend the range of a tank of gas.

Save - This tells your car not to drain the battery while driving. I told my friend to use this mode after she charges up and drives to the campground. That way the power in her hybrid battery is saved for her inverter and not consumed by the drive in.

Charge - This is the manual activation of the "gas engine activate to charge traction battery full" mode. If my friend depletes the hybrid battery while at the campground, she can run this for several hours to charge it back up. This means she has 120 V power as long as she still has gas.

 

[Woon Chung]

No way. The fastest you ever want to discharge a regular battery from full to empty is 1 hour. Since the Outlander PHEV aux battery is 45 Ah, a constant pull of 45 amps would deplete it in 1 hour. Volts (V) * amps (A) = watts (W), so your 12 volt, 2000 watt load would be (2000 W / 12 V) 167 amps! You will cook the aux battery.

The largest load you would want to connect to the aux battery is 540 W (12 V * 45 A), and you should expect such use to shorten the battery's life.


The stock inverter install activates the gas engine to charge the traction battery if it reaches a minimum level, but I do not know if it charges to full. My install might do the same, but my install is missing a connection to the ECU and I do not know what that does. Mine may not auto-charge or it could charge to full while the stock does not.


Normal is the best for everyday driving which is why it is the factory default. However, the other three modes could be useful in certain circumstances.

Eco - This mode tries to save fuel and power by restricting acceleration, useful if you are trying to save money or extend the range of a tank of gas.

Save - This tells your car not to drain the battery while driving. I told my friend to use this mode after she charges up and drives to the campground. That way the power in her hybrid battery is saved for her inverter and not consumed by the drive in.

Charge - This is the manual activation of the "gas engine activate to charge traction battery full" mode. If my friend depletes the hybrid battery while at the campground, she can run this for several hours to charge it back up. This means she has 120 V power as long as she still has gas.

Excellent explanation!!
Please leave me a small space to express my non-professional-knowledge on car. I am an old man and this means that I am more familiar to ICE engine. In ICE engine car there are electric heater and halogen head lamp and lots of power consuming accessories using 12v electric source. But car engineers are smart enough to prevent fast draining 12v battery during using accessories by supplying electricity from alternator directly while engine is running. Alternator capacity is decided by engineer as per car itself consuming amount. Many accessories, high alternator power. If engine is not on, even a small lamp will drain battery during the night.

I would like to believe that this theory is still applied to EV, PHEV or Hybrid. Aux battery will be used for starting a system and as soon as car is in Ready Mode, all accessory power source is Traction Battery. Otherwise, 45awh is too small to heat up seat and heat windows and heat mirror ETC. If it is true, consuming 12v in ready mode is coming from 13.8 kwh battery. If connected 2000w inverter consumes continuously as total sum of 1500w, traction battery is capable to support almost 9 hours. But if the car is in ready mode, it will be charged by ICE.

All my questions are based as above theory. All remained question is that how the power flow system consist. DC-DC converter is differ from each manufacturers, differ from models, and control tower might be in different design, ETC.

So I am curious How much the power transferred from Traction battery to 12v system while the car is in ready mode. Is there any limit considering the car design? I am not talking about 12v battery power. My theory is that if the car is in ready mode, all 12v accessories use traction power. It could be wrong. It could be possible that all 12v accessories use 12v from Aux battery and Traction battery charge Aux battery when voltage drops.

GT model has 2 of 1500w 120v AC plug in the car. Does this means that 3000w is available from Traction battery?

I have no question about CHAdeMO plug is capable to supply 120VAC, because Mitsubishi has their own external 3000w inverter with CHAdeMO adapter 12 years ago in Japan. They did not sell this for civilians. This has been modified to internal inverter for GT model, or vice versa.

I found another story from Daniel77 who installed 2500w inverter on Aux Battery and it was successful, according to the article.
I do not know how to link that post here, Instead, I quote it as follows

Quote from Daniel77
Just I installed inverter on my Mitsubishi and is working great, i installed one inverted 2500w continue and 5000w peak, of cours i will use only 1500-2000w, not good idea to have one inverter 1500w and use 1500w. ( you will burn the inverter) I tested 10 hours through OBD2 ( watchdog) and how long you use the inverter to 2100w everything is fine. I specified the Aux battery is on the back and the inverter have nice place in the box . 2100w is ok for sistem not dropping not even 0,1v the Aux battery. I used 10kw with heat gun and when the main battery was under 25% started the generator and charged the battery. This inverter have remote control with cable and i will install the original push button for activated the inverter and off course I will install 2 sockets like original . Not big cost but is amazing to have 240 every where you go and when you need,
unquote.

Is this wonderful, isn't it?

 

[bkelly1984]

I am an old man and this means that I am more familiar to ICE engine.

How do you do, fellow old man?

In ICE engine car there are electric heater and halogen head lamp and lots of power consuming accessories using 12v electric source.

I think each consumes about 5A which is only 60W.

How much the power transferred from Traction battery to 12v system while the car is in ready mode. Is there any limit considering the car design?

I understand what you are suggesting. I did not touch it in my project but I did find this page suggesting the Outlander DC-DC converter can output 1.5kW. That and the battery could get you to 2kW, but I would not trust the converter to kick in fast enough to prevent aux battery damage.

GT model has 2 of 1500w 120v AC plug in the car. Does this means that 3000w is available from Traction battery?

No, the 1500W limit exists within the inverter, not just the wiring or plugs.

 

[Woon Chung]

How do you do, fellow old man?



I think each consumes about 5A which is only 60W.



I understand what you are suggesting. I did not touch it in my project but I did find this page suggesting the Outlander DC-DC converter can output 1.5kW. That and the battery could get you to 2kW, but I would not trust the converter to kick in fast enough to prevent aux battery damage.



No, the 1500W limit exists within the inverter, not just the wiring or plugs.

Ha ha ha, you definitely have a good sense of humor, too with engineer knowledge. As an old man, I am good.

When we open Fuse box, can you find how many fuses are in there? Most of them is 5A to 30A and total practical available use of 120A is usual, not by the book but by the wind from grapevine yard. This does not mean aux battery is sole supplier. When ICE engine runs, most of them is covered by alternator. As a result, the more high power accessories installed, the bigger alternator required. Engineers always calculate worst situation to prevent any failure in system. Alternator also share the power a little bit to charge Aux battery when engine is running.

But once the engine is off, many of them not working, and only the basic accessories are functioning by the Aux battery. If we leave the car high beam lamp on, the Aux battery will die just in a few hours. But since I do not have engineering based knowledge, I do not know which is for Aux Battery and which is for Alternator.

If the DC-DC converter to Aux battery has limit of 1.5kw, Daniel77's experience is going to be fail. But we can guess through his experience, his inverter is not using aux battery at all when ready mode and even this experience lasted for 10 hours with 2100w consuming. Further, he applied 10kw heat gun and it did not hurt Traction battery and Aux battery at all, INSTEAD, started ICE to charge traction battery. There should be a fuse to prevent any electrical failure inside of DC-DC converter or any other inverter or control module, ETC. If his test is too much, some of the fuse should be blown, at least. I don't believe Mitsubishi engineer did not build a safety system in case heavy load by any reason. Our guess reaches that the inverter connected to the Aux battery is not used as source of inverter, instead the inverter use 12v from Traction battery as if it supplies power to Aux battery and maximum is not limited to 1.5Kw.

I believe that Mitsubishi limited the power to 12v aux battery under some reason. But if Daniel77 can use 10kw heat gun, there should be another route to supply to the 12v contact. That was my question. I would rather get engineered information how the systemically supply the energy to inverter in PHEV.

If I pack all information all together, DC-DC converter did not only supply energy to charge Aux battery but also to the 12V system with more energy as Alternator did on ICE system. Unfortunately, this is all my guess.

Is there anybody to shut my guess with engineering numbers if somebody understand what is my question? Mitsubishi do not want us to use their technology without pay the money. If we can install inverters as user's interest, their 1500w accessories are not essential for the guys who want them.

What if all electric car is capable to supply 120v AC up to 2000w without any sophisticated equipment, It would brake the balance of industry in home emergency energy supply in some way. That is my PICTURE.

 

[mountkay]

Alternator also share the power a little bit to charge Aux battery when engine is running

When an ICE runs, it powers the alternator, which keeps the whole system at the correct voltage. It will probably charge the battery full, around 14.6v for some time. Then float the battery around 13.2v. But the alternator doesn’t distinguish between the loads being drawn and the battery itself. It just does it’s best to keep voltage where it’s told.

I do not know which is for Aux Battery and which is for Alternator.

This distinction between circuits can be called
“True Ignition” - runs only when engine is on.
“ACC” - runs when engine on, or key in Accessory position.
And “alway on” like brake lights. Even without the key in, this circuit is active.



I am guessing the DC-DC converter in the outlander acts as an alternator, and just keeps the 12v battery at proper voltage.
In an ICE car, you can get an idea of how much you can draw when the car is on by looking at the alternator AMP output.

The fastest you ever want to discharge a regular battery from full to empty is 1 hour.

There is a rating spec that batteries have called a C rating. It’s a ratio of the battery size to max discharge of the battery. What you are describing is a C rating of 1. 45ah battery with max discharge of 45a. It’s possible a battery could be designed to output more / charge with more than its amp hour rating.

 

[bkelly1984]

I would be cautious with what Daniel77 said. There is no way he ran a 10kW heat gun off a 5kW peak inverter. In fact, there is no such thing as a 10kW heat gun. Perhaps he meant 1kW.

Let us know what happens if you give a 2kW inverter a try.

 

[Woon Chung]

I would be cautious with what Daniel77 said. There is no way he ran a 10kW heat gun off a 5kW peak inverter. In fact, there is no such thing as a 10kW heat gun. Perhaps he meant 1kW.

Let us know what happens if you give a 2kW inverter a try.

I think you are right. I will be more cautious on installing inverter. Also, I will search different car forum, too.

 

[Shinner]

What about an OEM 220v inverter. Does it exist?

 

[Shinner]

Oh yes. It is the 9461A014.