Mitsubishi to launch i-MiEV in Australia
August 7, 2009 by David Twomey
Japanese importer Mitsubishi plans to have its electric vehicle, the i-MiEV, on sale in Australia by late this year or very early in 2010, according to Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited CEO Rob McEniry.
Mr McEniry told a media briefing in Melbourne today that the i-MiEV, which has already passed through the Australian Design Rules (ADR) certification process would be on sale here in very limited numbers.
He said that could mean as few as 20 vehicles initially. CarAdvice drove the i-MiEV in Adelaide earlier this year and we found it to be in every respect a very normal city car. The vehicle currently has a range of about 160 kilometres on a single charge.
“The thing is we will have it on sale here, it is on sale in Japan, and we want to show the market that i-MiEV is a proper working car that people can buy and drive every day,” Mr McEniry said.
He would not be drawn on the issue of price for the vehicle, which sells in Japan for the equivalent of about A$59,145, but attracts a government subsidy of almost A$18,000.
Mr McEniry said Australian customers had indicated they were comfortable with a price of “something in the order of Prius plus,” referring to the Toyota Prius, which currently sells for $39,990 in base form.
He also indicated that Mitsubishi would almost certainly only lease vehicles to customers, a practice being proposed by a number of EV makers, who want to provide customers with the strongest possible economic protection as they move to the new technology.
Mr McEniry said he had been talking with the production team in Japan about supply of the vehicles for this year and it was only expected that a very small number would be initially available.
“However, going into next year we will be able to get increasing supply as the company y ramps up production and gets on top of the initial demand in Japan,” he said.
Mr McEniry said that initially Mitsubishi wanted to educate the Australia market about EVs and as more manufacturers moved into the field, it wanted to be at the forefront of the market.
He said the company was examining the infrastructure needed to support EV use in Australia and was negotiating to get at least one fast-charge unit placed in major Australian capital cities.
Questioned about just who would buy, or lease, the vehicles initially he said that while there had been strong interest from government and similar bodies there had been “extraordinary interest from private buyers.”
He said Mitsubishi wanted to get the car into private ownership, rather than have it in the hands of government and business users, as it believed this would have a greater impact in spread the message about electric vehicles.
Print it: 
I would buy one just to experience the instant torque that so many journos have been talkin about. But the price would have to be right. I dunno why they mention the prius as that car is in a completely different class, and i really dont like the prius.
Anyone else find this funny?!
electric cars!
and why do they look so odd?
sure aerodynamics but still, what gives?!
Electric cars a are a very good idea but until there are several fast recharging stations in all cities and not just one i cant see them being a big hit but a move in the right direction none the less.
That price of $AU40K is laughable. A price of nearly $AU60K is ridiculous. This is a tiny city runabout and its price should be more reflective of a motor bike than pricing it higher than say a mid size vehicle at best and matching it to a price higher than an baseline Evo at worse.
Unbelievable. I mean, people will top dollar for the latest and greatest in Electronic equipment – but this is certainly no where near the greatest in motor transport offerings at this price. Your savings in fuel could not possibly make up the differential so why would you bother.
A $AU 20-25K price point might make it a consideration, but $AU40-60K? Not this little black duck.
At a price of “Prius-plus” 30 grand or so (and that’s what it would be), how many private buyers are going to be interested? This is nothing but a joke.
I applaud Mitsubishi for brining new technology to Australia. When you are the only car company in the market with an electric car you can ask what you like on price. Personally I cant help but remember mobile phones, I paid a $1,000.00 up front for my first one.
Something costs so much to produce that they have charge you $50K – this sounds like a very expensive novelty item to me. You want a city car and protect the environment? Buy i10 for 10K, and use 40k buy a bunch of trees.
Hey guys, we may not want to buy them but we are going to pay for them with our taxes so the govt can buy them !
OOOOOOOOOOOOh aren’t we lucky to be helping the planet.
Global warming is a natural cycle by the way.
It would be interesting if the similar sized petrol powered Tata Nano sold here for the claimed starting price of $4,000 odd.
Looks quite cute i reckon.
P.S: Whats the deal with heaps of modern gadgets all starting with lowercase i and then capitals?
“A price of nearly $AU60K is ridiculous”
But its faily competitive when you consider the Hydrogen powered Honda Clarity costs over $2Million AUD. Buts theres lots of folks out there that still think Hydrogen is the way to go….
“Global warming is a natural cycle by the way.”
Well the sun is natural, Co2 is perfectly natural so i guess you’d be right.
could this pave the way for the regular i ?
Good luck mitsi on that one!
people who can afford this litter car, i think they don’t really have any problem about the petrol price.. They will go for the car that is more exciting and more safe i think…
I love the idea of an electric car. Virtually free driving. High fuel economy on short trips (where an ICE wouldn’t have warmed up). Hopefully low maintenance.
But do they HAVE to be so bloody ugly?
They are talking $60k? for this.
It’s a expensive way to make you feel all warm_n_fuzzy.
I PRAY that my local council does not burn MY rates of this silly tiny *thing*, buying a Prius was bad enough, together with the $25k burn after 12 months.
Councils need to support Aussie companies, should be buying Aussie made clean and green LPG Falcons or Commodores [Aussie built Toyota's if they are LPG fired too]
Im with you LPi, we should support our local industry by buying things that are affordable and things we have an abundant supply of(LPG,CNG).
The main reason I’d buy/lease one of these is to be free of being reliant on petrol. It would be so great not to be held to ransom by the oil companies, and be hit by the petrol taxes, then charged for oil, oil filter, air filter, the occasional bottle of radiator fluid, etc etc, when serviced. Nirvana!
I don’t mind the outside appearance, but why so narrow???
It looks like it could have been a little shorter and about 200mm wider. Ugh…
My car will eat this,then spit it out because it tastes so bad.
Hey Paulo, you seem to be living in a dream world. The energy has to come from somewhere, and in Australia the energy to power electric cars is made mainly by …. are you ready? …… oil and coal burning power stations.
Back to square one, you might say.
It will be cheaper than the Prius because it’s smaller and has less complicated technology, plus the latter will not run out charge. The recharge would always be a problem for this. It takes almost an hour to fully charge a mobile phone, so how much time is needed to replenish this car’s power? And yes, there should be more facilities to charge it.
Yes Captain, I’m well aware of the almost total reliance on coal and the petrol industry to not only fuel cars, but also make things like the plastic in them.
You’re right, I’m dreaming, and in that dream one day I’ll own a Hydrogen cell car that has an even smaller carbon footprint than an electric car, than a hybrid car, than the fossil burning but less polluting than my old car, car that I own now.
60,000 A$? No thanks…How about the car powered by the tiny nuclear reactor? USA is now trying to build the nuclear reactor that is the size of a briefcase….Go the car powered by nuclear reactor!!
At least EV ownership would support local energy suppliers and not foreign owned oil companies who dictate how much you will pay for fuel.
BTW, Where is the Ecommodore Holden? built before 2000 and still no sign of it it was supposed to be on sale about now.
We are still burning coal to generate the electricity to charge these things in Oz. Ironic
I don’t see spending over A$40K on such a small car is environmental friendly.
I assume Mitsubishi do need that much money to make a proper margin. That means this car costs a lot to build. If that is true, it is not environmental friendly at all, because anything “green” should be economical in terms of design, build, run and maintain, a complete circle instead just producing less CO2.
there is something about the front of that car which reminds me of the “bomberman” game…
Hi Paulo, H2 requires over double the amount of energy than charging a car to go the same distance. The oil companies have been backing H2 because over 80% is made from reforming Natural Gas & Steam into H2. You’d be better of in a CNG car.
” in Australia the energy to power electric cars is made mainly by …. are you ready? …… oil and coal burning power stations.”
“We are still burning coal to generate the electricity to charge these things in Oz. Ironic”
There you go Swampdawg, we didn’t have to wait that long now did we :)
Big ask for lousy range. Electric cars won’t be main stream until they can reduce the charge time and/ or offer better range.
Goodluck to them for bringing this tech to market.
Re: lazybones :)
I didn’t think it was going to happen,& I didn’t want to sound like a parrot.
I liked this part, & was quoted similar today.
“Global warming is a natural cycle by the way.”
Well the sun is natural, Co2 is perfectly natural so i guess you’d be right.
Mitsubishi Motors, what percentage of the i-MiEV is recyclable?
We are provide car on Lease. To take car on lease contact with us.
smartlease.co.uk
Kinda makes you wonder what Fast and Furious 5.0 will look like.