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Mitsubishi i MiEV has been Confirmed Going to Local Sales
:: 26 July, 2008
AUSTRALIA will have its first plug-in electric car by the end of next year. The baby Mitsubishi i MiEV has been confirmed for local sales, with a showroom target in the final months of 2009 and a starting price in the $30,000 range.
The company plans to skip the hybrid phase of future car development and go straight to a plug-in, with a claimed top speed of 180km/h and a range of 200km.
"Mitsubishi don't make hybrid cars. They make electric cars. And we will have one here as soon as we possibly can," says the managing director of Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Rob McEniry. "We will have the i-car initially. But it doesn't go into volume production until next year.
"How many we get depends on the reaction by some of the key fleets in Australia, and governments. We would dearly like to have a number of them here in 2009."
The news comes as several European manufacturers, including BMW and VW, confirmed they were also getting ready to build electric production cars.
Mitsubishi's i MiEV has only been a motor show concept until recently, both as a standard car and a sports model, but Mitsubishi is pushing ahead with a solid production plan for the aluminium-framed baby. It has an on-board power pack, using lithium-ion batteries, with three motors.
One turns each of the front wheels, with the third powering the back axle. The power pack is in the rear of the car, creating maximum cabin space despite an overall length of only 3.4m.
"Mitsubishi is determined to retain their leadership position in electric cars," McEniry says. "Mitsubishi, if you look . . . is very environmentally focused. And with the products we have, and the products that are coming, it will be a position we strengthen with our brand.
"Having an electric car as a clear technology demonstration would naturally be very good." McEniry will not talk specifics on pricing or deliveries but says the i MiEV will not be cheap.
"Initially, because those sort of vehicles are at the cutting edge, they will be sold through a lease arrangement. At the moment they have them running in Japan with test fleets, like government departments and electrical utilities. That would probably be the way to go here, too, and to protect our intellectual property."
Meanwhile, Daimler and VW have announced plans to roll out electric models in 2010 and BMW has announced it would begin to test several hundred electric models of its Mini brand. BMW did not say when it planned to sell such vehicles, however, nor did it indicate if the BMW brand would also offer an electric car.
BMW's first hybrid cars, that use a traditional petrol engine combined with an electric motor, should arrive in late 2009.
In France, Renault has vowed to be the first manufacturer with a full-scale rollout and is aiming for several European countries in 2011.
About Mitsubishi i
The Mitsubishi i is a kei car from Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors, first released in January 2006, twenty eight months after its debut at the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show. It is the first four door automobile since the 1960s to employ a "rear midship" setup with the engine behind the passengers, in an attempt to improve safety and interior space without enlarging the overall exterior.
The innovative layout and styling of the i proved an immediate critical and commercial success, exceeding Mitsubishi's initial sales targets by 20 percent and winning thirteen awards in its first year. Although designed with the Japanese keijidōsha light automobile class in mind, the attention it generated led to its subsequent introduction in right hand drive markets in Asia, Oceania and Europe. It is also speculated to be the basis of the battery electric vehicle Mitsubishi has timetabled for introduction in 2010.
Two prototypes were exhibited during the car's development. The first was the "i" Concept, which debuted at the 60th Frankfurt Motor Show in 2003, and previewed the car's striking exterior. Motoring journalists were quick to seize on the distinctive silhouette, calling it "a very good egg", and a "crystal ball" with which to see the future of Mitsubishi. One reviewer even speculated it to be an allusion by the vehicle's French-born designer Olivier Boulay to the Renault 4CV, France's popular post-war "people's car" with which the i shared its four seat, rear-engined layout. Its styling was formally lauded when the i won the Grand Prize at the 50th anniversary Good Design Awards from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in October 2006, the first kei car to win the award.
