2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV price: $48,800 plus on-roads

By Tim Beissmann | June 16th, 2011

The 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV will be priced from $48,800 plus on-road costs when it goes on sale in Australian in mid-August this year.

Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited President and CEO, Genichiro Nishina, announced the official pricing of Australia’s first publically mass-production EV today.

Mr Nishina said sub-$50,000 recommended retail price represented a 22.5 percent reduction compared with the previous model, which was only available to select groups on $63,000 lease plans.

Mitsubishi gave the Australian press its first look at the 2012 model year i-MiEV last week, apparently on the back of a “large number of public enquiries” into the vehicle’s launch.

Read CarAdvice’s full report on the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

The first examples of i-MiEVs will arrive in capital city dealerships from mid-August.

What is your reaction to the Mitsubishi i-MiEV pricing? Too much, about right, or a bargain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

GSD_Dave

Is that including the Electricity for life?

Anything greater than $16,000 is too much….
JEKYL & HYDE

love to see where the price will end up(maybe in the not-to-distant future) $25k ???.wait for the leaf to come…
Phil

This is cheaper than the original Honda Insight – which was only a two seater and you still needed to put (premium!) fuel in it.
The Associate

$48K!!!!!
G

can you strap a solar panel on top of it?

Andrew

You probably could, but what good would it do? Realistically, a solar panel of that size would have trouble powering a single light bulb, let alone a car.
Alexander

A few hardcore eco people in the US have put Solar panels on a Prius which supplements the hybrid battery giving it slightly extended EV range. Apparently the solar panel on the Fisker Karma’s roof is enough to generate electricity for a few KM of EV range per year, but it’s mainly to cool the car while stationary…

Tom

I’m in the midst of converting my 99 ford econvan to electric, van = $4000 motor = $1,500 cells = $3,000 inboard charger = 1,000

400km range, 100hp @ 450nm of torque and never visiting the oil barons for a daily again!

All that for 10gs! 45gs, what a joke! There not even bothering to engage people to a greener future!

Sounds like ‘who killed the electric car’ to me

Lazybones

Those cells sound a bit cheap, what are they and how big is the pack your making? I know the guys in Castlemaine (Bev) can supply cells at a good price.
pja

interesting project. do you have a link to more details/photos?

Alan

I’m with PJA . How powerful is the motor? how heavy is the total cell structure? Have you done most of the work yourself or hired a sparky? do you have minimum specs for RTA approval?

I would have thought that any thing between 18K and 22K plus on-roads for a small vehicle like that would be reasonable.

I would be interested either way

http://Frosty Hicks

WHAT!?

ROFL. I will be the last person to ever buy a green car, and one thing is for sure that these car companies can’t put R&D costs onto the sticker price. They need to absorb it and consider it an investment in the future of their own company, especially if the way of petrol cars are going the way of the dodo one day – which i doubt in my lifetime.

50k for a car like that is a JOKE.

Alexander

Remember when a Plasma TV’s cost $20,000? now they’re $900 for a superior product, or when camera phones were $1,000, now one can be had for $50? It’s the same concept, give it 5-10 years and a car superior to the iMiev will be available for less than $20,000.

toxic_horse

I remember when a CD Burner was 20K and a blank CD was $60

Henry

Looks a tad old…
Lars

$20000-30000 sounds realistic to me, not more!
Wayne Kerr

If you think $48K is bad, wait until the Australian Government decides to tax it. That’s right, electric cars could get taxed because the government thinks they are dodging petrol taxes.

AcuraTSX

like I said

ECT (ELECTRIC CAR TAX)

Alan

$48,800 for a tiny tinny little box – wow! If you must have a green car, a Prius would be a far better proposition. The Prius (base model) is $13,800 cheaper or the equivalent of about 10,000 litres of fuel which would take you about 250,000 km and consume 0kWhrs of brown coal derived electricity. The soon to arrive plug in hybrid vehicles will be a much better proposition for the next few years.

Lazybones

“and consume 0kWhrs of brown coal derived electricity.”

Wow, so how do you pump the fuel into the car then without electicity? Then consider an average size petrol station can easily consume 200KWH in a day!

Jimmy

Yep, pretty ridiculous. And with not knowing a great deal about Mitsubishi’s cost structures, it sounds completely counter-intuitive too. I’m not sure if that’s the price they need to set it at to break even, but if not, they shouldn’t be looking to make a great deal of profit on the i-MiEV, it’s more of a public relations vehicle if anything. Looking at it from a consumers’ point of view, there’s the unknown of a first-run mass-produced EV with no existing emotional connection, there’s not a great that it offers that cheaper competitors (read: Prius) don’t, and well, quite frankly it looks like it’s worth about $10,000 at most. I can’t see it succeeding in Australia at all at $50,000.

Andrew

It looks like it’s worth about $10,000 and more importantly, it performs like it’s worth about $10,000 too. In short, from buyers’ point of view it *is* worth about $10,000 and until manufacturers can meet that price point they have no business bringing this half-baked nonsense to the market. As it those cars only serve to turn people off the whole idea… personally I can’t wait to see one on the road, so I can point at it and laugh.
Phil

If you can’t see what this offers over a prius, I’ll spell it out for you:

- Prius needs its engine serviced regulary (6 monthly?) vs I never needs its engine serviced.

- Prius needs $10 of fuel to cover 160kms vs charging the I overnight for a 160km range only costs $2 and the difference is even bigger overseas where petrol is up to 3x our prices whilst electricity is generally cheaper and of course fuel prices are always going to climb (and at a higher rate that electricity prices).

- Prius puts out tailpipe emissions vs I puts out zero tailpipe emmissions. Total running emissions for the I are about the same when charged with 100% dirty coal however it can be charge with green electricty giving it no running emissions whereas there are no clean fuels for prius.

PB

Oh and how do you propose to charge it with ‘green’ electricity in a country which produces nearly all it’s electricity from coal fired power stations. The Prius’ tiny amount of tailpipe emissions would be far less than the amount pumped out from a coal fired plant… EV wont make environmental sense in this country until we have clean power generation on a scale large enough to make a difference. BMW has it right, hydrogen fuel cell technology will be the future, it will just be a way off yet. Oh and what was the range of it again?… no much use in outback Aus either

Real Numbers

Both of your arguments are pointless without a proper engineering analysis of each vehicles emissions including those that are released at a result of manufacturing the vehicle.
I imagine that if a proper analysis is done a small petrol vehicle would perform better in terms of total emissions from manufacturing to late kilometers.

Tezzer

I have a petrol triton which was new in 2008 ,what a gas guzzler.Why not work on making conventional vehicles more sustainable.Surely there is much room for improvement on the conventional Mitsubishi fleet.

O

Why can’t Mitsubishi just give us the petrol I for 12000?
More

Doesn’t pay to be an early adopter! It’s only gonna be some hard core cashed up greenies shelling out for this. I predict they will sell 10 this upcoming financial year.

Phil

They had more than 10 people paying more than this (over a lease period) to be even earlier adopters, so I think your prediction is wrong.

Hung Low

You could have people carry you in a throne everywhere in some countries at that price! The ultimate environmentally friendly way to get around.
Victor

They should have put in some cutting edge technology, like the radar cruise control and automatic braking system on the Prius iTech, so as to go some way to justifying the massive cost. These features are AWESOME on the iTech and I doubt I would ever drive a car in future without these features. They make peak hour driving sooooooo much more relaxing.
Pauly

If this costs $48,800…

WHAT THE HELL ARE HOLDEN AND NISSAN GOING TO CHARGE FOR THE LEAF AND VOLT?

The LEAF and Volt are both bigger superior cars in basically everyway. Please Holden and Nissen use commonsense and price these cars appropriately (not $48K!!!!)
Steven A

Good job Mitsubishi.
This high tech EV is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the future.
All new technology costs more at first so get real people.
bne

Looks far to much like the cult, which has its faults and many blind spots to boot
Greynomad

It costs about $33,000 (US) in the US, but $22,000 after govt. rebate. Our $ is worth $1.05 US. Why is it so much more here?
We have a 4.5kw solar array. I would be very interested but not at the asking price.

Be not the first by whom the new is tried, nor yet the last to cast the old aside.
Rod

The price will only drop if people buy it and i don’t see that happening.
http://techAU.tv Jason Cartwright

Drove this beast today in Canberra at a Mitsu drive day. Wasn’t blown away by power, but with the lack of noise, certainly different. I’m 6’3 and this is not for tall people. The seat rails need to be about twice as long. Your not really going to have people in the back that often, so no need for rear leg room.
Barbara poss

You’ve got to be joking! If developers were serious about electric cars they would subsidise the ridiculous over-the-top price. How long would it take to recoup the cost of an electric car against the cost of petrol or diesel. If we’re to take on the new technology it has to be within reach of the general public, not just the green and wealthy.
Suz

That’s a complete joke – you buy for not only the environment but the savings on fuel expenditure, are they including the fuel costs for the next x number of years in the up-front cost? I’m interested but not until they drop the price dramatically, would not consider until it was under $20,000 given the size of the car.But that said cars in Aust are generally way over priced, it would be nice to see them drop to reasonable levels in the coming years.
David

$50 K for that? I was expecting an electric car that small and flakey and unsafe to cost about $12,000. I really want to ditch petrol cars but cannot afford to unlesss they are cheaper than petrol guzzlers. WHat is so expensive about the electric technology? One moving part to replace the 4000 parts of the petrol motor Cars in Australia are ridculously over priced. ACCC should do something…
froilan

with that price of almost 50k, its useless promoting this kind of product. consumers would still go for tested petrol cars which are a lot cheaper. not to mention second hand cars.
http://? Doug

Since when have mitsubishi made a decent car anyway this one is a joke at any price
IRON-J

LMFAO!!! $48K?????
WTF??? The planet’s atmosphere is screwed anyways. I’d rather buy a $48K petrol SUV for that price.
Seriously, if they think that the average person will go out and buy one of these, they really need to reassess their marketing\sales departments.

Whatever happened to the theory of selling a lot for a cheaper price than selling a few at a higher price???

Michael

LoL you’re an absolute peanut but you prove your own point whether or not you know you’re making it: We are too stupid to realise the potential of this car once it reaches the AU$25,000 price point and THAT is why it will be delayed so severely no matter how it is promoted or marketed; because of guys like this twit and their majority status.
Ray

I agree, Iron-J

I was at the Miami auto show recently, and after seeing the meagre offerings from the EV/Hybrid folks, I turned to my brother and said “Ya know, Gas ain’t goin’ nowhere”..

As much as I would love to get an electric car (I have been looking for years now) I think I would rather pay $16-$18K and get a Ford Focus, a KIA 5-door or something else with almost 40 MPG… That’s good enough for me….

Mark Berndt

$48k is too higher price , this is obviously targeted at a select few , it would appear the govt and manufactures are not really interested in providing a low cost alternative to the general masses, and have to agree with the other comments that what would the government do without the huge taxes on fuel. We all know that fuel is heavily taxed, its about time this global scam be stopped.
Chris

I can not understand how Mitsibushi has formed their price of 48K.Honestly i will never buy electric car,the Government has achived their goals tax us on everything and get as much tax as they can.
John

Everyone is right – it is way too expensive. For a number of reasons:
1. No govt subsidy – why would the govt subsidise something that is going to eat into their tax revenue. That would require principle. In Canberra?!
2. Current battery technology means the battery pack for this car cost Mitsubishi more than a small car on the road in Australia – however when you consider that they are aiming for a retail price of 22K in the US that is actually good news because volume sales in their will lead to lower prices.
3. They’ve done their market research and they know they will sell more than they can currently make so why sell cheaper until production outstrips demand?

If the govt were serious about supporting Australian business they’d be helping Blade Electric Vehicles with Govt contracts rather than a Japanese conglomerate. Not that an electric Getz for $47K makes any more sense but it is a much better car in every respect.
Richard Glissan

Under $20K should be the target price, with life (litium ferrite) batteries which are cheaper and safer than li-ion.
Lithium Ion

The battery pack is the most expensive part. That Coupled with a pile of Australia Tax results in the price you see.
Terry

Dream on.