NRMA to use Mitsubishi i-MiEV roadside assistance vehicle

Article
Gallery

By Brett Davis | July 12th, 2011

The NRMA has announced it has adopted a Mitsubishi i-MiEV into its fleet of roadside assistance vehicles as a trial EV. The i-MiEV will begin work in the Sydney CBD area in September.

This will be an Australian-first for a roadside assistance electric vehicle, and it will be used for daily duties and call-outs to NRMA members in trouble. The car will also feature on-board electric vehicle recharging equipment for EV drivers who have run out of juice.

NRMA Motoring and Services President Wendy Machin said she was excited about a more environmentally friendly means of rescue vehicle.

“The NRMA’s i-MiEV is a further step in greening our patrol fleet, which would assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It will help us understand our members’ EV needs as part of our regular roadside assistance network in the city and will service both electric and regular vehicles.

“Our patrol workers have been trained on servicing electric vehicles to ensure the NRMA is keeping pace with emerging alternative fuels technology.”

The Mitubishi i-MiEV will be used on a trial for six months to see how it copes with day-to-day duties. The NRMA will also find out how well the fully electric vehicle adapts to Sydney’s current infrastructure.

Using an EV seems like an appropriate approach to EV roadside assistance, compared with various other countries such as Japan, where a large diesel truck is used for EV assistance.

Read our Mitsubishi i-MiEV review.

Hung Low

You wouldn’t want to do too many jump starts with this!
http://Frosty Hicks

Saw one of these being towed into North Strathfield base for NRMA.

Not a good sign me thinks.

Steven A

Highly unlikely one thinks………..

laurie

Diesels with stop/start technology are a match for EV especially suited for the NRMA

Alexander

Are you serious? Diesels emmit carcinogenic emissions, far more N0x and more C02 litre for litre than a petrol car, diesels are proven to contribute more than an equivalent petrol car to poor air quality. .If this Miev is charged on renewable energy, it means the Miev is essentially zero emissions, something a diesel car will never be able to come near to being. NRMA would be better off with a standard small capacity petrol engine than a diesel with stop/start. Stop Start on non hybrid cars only keep the engine off for around 2 minutes and the aircon will stop blowing cool air.

Matt M

You do realize that someone is going to throw the coal power argument at you?
But before they do, dont forget that the city of Sydney is going totally green, it will power itself soon (no not with hot air), with wind, solar and gas, if the NIMBY’s stop whinging.
So a EV plug into the Sydney grid, will be as green as you can get.

http://Frosty Hicks

Shh Matt, everyone thinks the solution to global warming is EV cars. Never-mind it’ll decrease emissions on vehicles, but increase emissions on the power grid every night when greenies are charging them.
Alexander

Of course the whole ‘coal powered EVs are just as bad for the environment’ argument will come up, studies have shown that a coal powered EV is still more efficient/cleaner than a petrol or diesel cars, partly due to the very high efficiency of an electric motor and the lower efficiency of a combustion engine. You also have account for the fact that people and organizations who buy/use EVs also have the funds/sense to charge it with renewable energy. If the whole ‘EVs being dirty to produce’ debate also comes up it can be countered with the fact that batteries are almost totally recyclable, are able to be produced with recyclable materials, Hybrid and EV manufacturing facilities are becoming cleaner (such as Toyota’s Gen3 Prius manufacturing plant) and that most EVs and Hybrids use bioplastic and or recycled plastics (the Leaf, Volt, Miev, CT200h and Prius all do). The only real advantage a diesel car has over an EV is range, although having a 160k range may not be an issue to some people.
JEKYL & HYDE

first i’ve heard of this.care to explain it,or provide links.seems a bit far fetched to me….

Trump

Hopefully NRMA will be charging owners of EV a higher membership fee….

Matt M

Why? With no internal combustion engine fewer moving parts and the only service they need is to rotate the tires, they should charge less.
And who on earth would want to steal one of these puppies? They wouldn’t get far, a ram raid in i-MiEV aint going to get you far, and a police chase in one of these would just be hilarious.
As long as you dont leave Sydneys inner urban areas, and carry an extension cord, you wont need the NRMA.
Alexander

As Matt said, there are VERY few moving parts in EVs, pretty much it’s only the electric motor. Servicing wise they can be serviced up to every 40,000km (from memory i think that’s the Leaf’s service interval), these services (as Matt M said) are just a Tyre rotation and software update. Electric motors are proven to outlive a combustion engine (there’s not much that can go wrong with it) and again who’d want to steal an EV?

I dont see why NRMA would want to charge a higher membership fee? especially considering in some companies in some nations provide cheaper fees to hybrid cars?

laurie

I see and what about the cost of replacement batteries!!

Alexander

Batteries are guaranteed to perform at their fullest for 8 years (a general standard with hybrid and EV manufacturers), after that the storage capacity decreases slightly year by year, roughly at a 10% loss of range per year, so if your EV can travel 160km (an industry standard as well), each year after those 8 years it will be able to travel 12km less on a charge. It’s a similar idea to combustion engines losing their power over the years.

As for the actual cost of replacing them, as with any technology, the more it’s produced, the lower it will cost (remember when a Plasma TC was $20,000 and now they’re $700). I remember when the Prius was first released the batteries cost $10,000 to replace (for a 1st gen Prius model which had inferior batteries to today’s model), these days an OEM Toyota battery in the US is closer to $3,000, a recycled/refurbished battery from a third party manufacturer (Re-InVolt) can be had for just under $2,000. So i guess it’s hard to say what a Leaf or Miev battery would cost to replace when the time comes for them to actually be replaced.