I contacted a person I know at Mitsubishi, he has confirmed that for NZ the ratings are 750KG braked or unbraked. Mitsubishi NZ came to this rating after extensive testing in NZ conditions.

Dingbatt: Yep. 'Soft-roaders' vs true go anywhere, tow anything SUVs.

Monocoque will always have a lower towing capacity and off road ability compared to a ladder chassis. Some soft roaders though have quite impressive off road abilities for what they are . The new Suzuki Vitara AWD does quite well.

MikeB4:

 

I contacted a person I know at Mitsubishi, he has confirmed that for NZ the ratings are 750KG braked or unbraked. Mitsubishi NZ came to this rating after extensive testing in NZ conditions.

 

When the car first came out the towing capacity was listed on the website as 750kg, but the GCM was 1500kg more than the GVM. I asked for mitsubishi them to fix the error with the towing weight (knowing the 1500kg rating in other markets), but they slashed the GCM instead).

I hear stories along these lines too, and really don't like them. The car's manufacturer's (Mitsubishi) design engineers should set the tow capacity, Not the local retail agent's.

Rumours were that if you let the battery run down, then went up a very long incline at max GVM, the car would go into turtle mode. All hybrids are like this, at least on the outlander you can force the car to charge the battery off petrol in anticipation for any mountain climbs. It's not like other parts of the world don't have hills.

While it's not the law in NZ to follow the maunfacturers towing weights, it is generally a good idea, and some insurance policies won't cover you if you don't.

My family has a just under 1500kg towing weight powerboat, and a previous generation outlander. The slashed NZ tow rating means the PHEV can not be considered as a replacement.

Dingbatt: The latest generation Prius now has a towing rating, at least on the UK website it does. It even has a video of it towing a caravan. What I could glean from the launch article was that they had increased the cooling for the battery and electric motors. Maybe the Outlander would need similar? Interesting that the salesperson I spoke to put me completely off the PHEV originally by adding it couldn't tow, which was obviously incorrect.

Dingbatt: Admittedly it is only a little caravan and towed in the Lake District.

http://blog.toyota.co.uk/toyota-prius-towing

So certainly wouldn't be trying to pull a 25ft launch!

However, this is taking the thread away from the OP's question. Once again it's going to boil down to what is trying to be achieved by going electric. If you need a Suburban Tractor to drop the kids off at dance class in Remmers (or Fendalton, or Khandallah , etc) then the Outlander probably fits the bill [joking].

With no passengers nor their gear. (And as you mentioned no steep hills ... don't think it will make it north out of Dunedin [there are 5 epic hills]

I test drove a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV back in June and you can find all my thoughts in the article! 

http://nztechblog.net/2016/07/07/review-2016-mitsubishi-outlander-phev/