2026 Nissan Rogue Plug-in Hybrid Quick Spin: Rogue’s Bridge to the Future

Key Points in This Review

• The new 2026 Nissan Rogue Plug-in Hybrid is the first PHEV for Nissan in the U.S., and despite it being little more than a rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid, it’s still a useful addition to the Nissan showroom.
• Able to travel an estimated 38 miles on electric power alone, the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid is useful for commuters who can plug it in at night.
• With a total estimated driving range of 420 miles, the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid has the ability to do long road trips on gas power.

We’ve gone over the relationship between the Mitsubishi Outlander and the Nissan Rogue a few times, so we’re only just going to briefly touch on it here — Nissan owns part of Mitsubishi, and Mitsubishi uses the Nissan Rogue SUV platform for its Outlander. But Mitsubishi also offers an optional plug-in hybrid powertrain in the Outlander. Nissan wanted a quick ‘n’ dirty Rogue hybrid, so the automaker slapped a Nissan badge on the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid and painted the grille and trim black. The result is the 2026 Nissan Rogue Plug-in Hybrid you see here.

Minimal effort, maximum payback — shoppers who have passed over the gas-only Rogue have a new reason to stop into a Nissan showroom. We got our first look at the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid at the 2025 Los Angeles Auto Show, and now we’ve had a chance to get behind the wheel for a brief spin in the wintry hills south of Nashville, Tenn., to see how this new Outlander in Rogue drag performs. (Per our policy, Cars.com pays for its own travel and accommodations when attending such manufacturer-sponsored events.) The quick ‘n’ dirty answer to the quick ‘n’ dirty SUV: It does just fine!

Related: 2026 Nissan Rogue Plug-in Hybrid: Rise of the Roguelander

The Relevant Details

Powering this first-ever Nissan Rogue Plug-in Hybrid is Mitsubishi’s hybrid-electric powertrain, which combines a naturally aspirated 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and two electric motors. The gas engine can provide power to the electric motors, charge the 20-kilowatt-hour battery or directly drive the wheels through a unique transmission setup. The Rogue Plug-in Hybrid is rated to go 38 miles on all-electric power with a fully charged battery, but it can continue on for a total of 420 miles with a full tank of gas. It also has a 3.5-kilowatt onboard charger, and recharging the battery takes 7.5 hours using a Level 2 charging setup, according to Nissan. That’s not exactly cutting-edge in terms of charging speed or electric-vehicle range, but it’s more than sufficient for someone who has a 20-mile commute and can charge in their garage overnight. It would potentially let someone go weeks between visiting a gas station.

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How the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid Drives

My brief drive of the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid felt very much like my last drive of the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid, which isn’t surprising given there aren’t any mechanical differences between the two. When the battery has a charge and the SUV is operating in EV mode, the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid is quiet, comfortable and perfectly respectable as an around-town commuter. What it’s not is quick — it may have a system-rated 248 horsepower and 332 pounds-feet of torque, but not when it’s just trundling along as an EV. It’s poky if you have it in EV mode, and unless you really mash your foot past the detent on the accelerator that will call on the gas engine for emergency power, it’s not going to be all that confident on a highway on-ramp.

But leave it in Auto mode and it decides for itself what mix of gas and electric power to use, favoring the electric side of things as much as possible. Using the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid when its gas engine is running produces better thrust, but overall, it’s a less pleasant experience; the four-cylinder engine’s rather thrashy and harsh-revving nature is accompanied by some kind of electronic whine that combines to create an unwelcome cacophony of sound in the cabin. It goes from serene EV to wince-worthy hybrid quickly — which is just more motivation for you to make sure you plug it in overnight, in my opinion.

There are also several EV modes to choose from, giving you a welcome amount of choice in how you use your PHEV, which isn’t something all PHEVs do. Besides Auto and EV modes, there’s also a Save mode, which runs the engine when needed to keep the current battery charge level. This is useful if you have a full charge and want to preserve it for later use, say in an urban area where all-electric driving is more efficient. Finally, there’s a Charge mode, which runs the engine constantly to build up a charge in the battery. This mode can charge the battery fairly quickly; driving the vehicle for about 30 minutes in Charge mode brought the battery from empty to a quarter charge, or about 10 miles of EV range.

Using the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid

The rest of the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid driving experience is perfectly pleasant. The cabin’s first two rows are spacious and comfortable, with lovely available quilted leather and high assembly quality. The Rogue Plug-in Hybrid will only be available in SL and Platinum trim levels, the two highest in the Rogue lineup, so one should expect a high level of fit and finish. One thing the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid has that other Rogues do not is a third row of seats — tiny chairs best suited for the kids or when you’re in an extreme passenger-hauling emergency, as the seat is laughably small for adults.

As far as the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid’s onboard tech, Nissan didn’t have to change much from the Outlander in order for it to fit into the Rogue lineup, as the Mitsubishi already had a lot of Nissan parts in it. From the multimedia system to the screens to the buttons on the steering wheel, these were already Nissan parts-bin components. While the interior styling is distinct from other Rogues, it looks just as good and is easily as usable. We gave the Outlander high marks after it “went Rogue,” and transforming that vehicle back into a Nissan-badged SUV brings with it no penalties at all.

More Nissan Rogue News From Cars.com:

• Nissan Debuts 2026 Rogue Plug-in Hybrid, Which Is a Rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
• How Much Is the 2026 Nissan Rogue?
• 2025 Nissan Rogue Review: Keeping the Compact SUV Crown
• It’s a Threepeat: 2025 Nissan Rogue Wins Cars.com Compact SUV Challenge
• Which Compact SUV Has the Most Cargo Room?

Pricing and Availability

We don’t know as of publication the price that Nissan will be charging for the ‘26 Rogue Plug-in Hybrid; the automaker says it’s planning that announcement for mid-January 2026, and the vehicle will likely be on sale very soon after that. The beauty of the arrival of the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid, however, is that it dramatically expands consumer access to the PHEV technology offered in the Mitsubishi Outlander — there are three times as many Nissan dealers in the U.S. as Mitsubishi dealers, meaning it’ll be easier for shoppers to get behind the wheel of a Rogue Plug-in Hybrid. And if you’re looking for a solid, sometimes-electric commuter vehicle that can carry the family and still be great for longer road trips, Nissan’s new Rogue Plug-in Hybrid should definitely be on your list for consideration.

But you might want to hurry. Nissan says that the next-generation, all-new Rogue SUV is also coming in 2026, and it will be launched with a gas-electric hybrid powertrain. And it’s a unique one at that — Nissan’s “ePower” hybrid system uses a small gasoline engine only as a generator. The next Rogue will have dual electric motors for all-wheel drive, and a gas engine that isn’t connected to the wheels at all, a system the company’s been perfecting for years now and that is finally being offered in the U.S. That means Nissan plans to evaluate whether the Rogue Plug-in Hybrid will stay around more than a single model year to appeal to drivers who want its all-electric driving range, or if the new 2027 Rogue ePower hybrid will replace it entirely. Stay tuned for more info on that later in 2026.

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