The first of what is certain to be many plug-in electric cars is landing in Australia tomorrow. The much talked about Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle will see Australian shores on Friday when it arrives at the Port of Brisbane.
We must congratulate Mitsubishi for being the very first manufacturer to bring in a mass-produced full-electric car ready for sale to Australia. The historic moment will see two Mitsubishi i-MiEVs zero-emission electric cars unloaded in Brisbane
The cars will spend roughly one week with Mitsubishi engineers for testing before begining a series of pre-sale evaluations.
CarAdvice will be present at the unveiling tomorrow and will have a Review & Road test of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV in the following fortnight. We previously drove the pre-production prototype, read our Mitsubishi i-MieV review.
In other related news Mitsubishi is planning to make 100,000 of the i-MiEV electric vehicles for the Peugeot-Citroen group starting this year. The idea is 25,000 a year split equally as Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn. The contract with the French runs until 2015. The more Mitsubishi i-MiEVs made the cheaper the cars will become.
However there are reports of battery bottlenecks with the Japanese giant only able to produce 9,000 electric car batteries for itself between April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011.
“This is a headache for us, because out of 9,000 we have to decide how many will be for the domestic market, how many will be exported and so forth.” Mitsubishi President Osamu Masuko told AutoNews in Geneva.
In Europe the Citroen C-Zero is expected to retail for 30,000 euro or $45,000 Australian dollars (thanks to a 5,000 euro government tax deduction).
Australia pricing and specifications are still unknown but more information will be available tomorrow.
The Nissan Leaf Electric Car will also soon make its way to Australia.
I want to see more electric cars. Should be Jazz size around $25,000, travel at least 200km with one full charge.
Im gong to need a very long exension cord to reach from the street up to my flat to charge it up.
First Ford released a Fiesta that uses less fuel than the Prius. Now Mitsu has this soon to be on sale here. Why would you bother with a stupid gimmicks like hybrid Prius/Camry?
Well if you wanted to go further than 160KM you’d want to have something else. If you only ever intended to do city commuting then yes, this would seem ideal (besides using public transport).
Maybe the volt, or a similar car with a diesel generator.
You cant compare a Prius and a Fiesta. Different sized vehicles.
The whole idea of the hybrids is range (without the shortfalls of current electric vehicles) and to reduce emissions/consumption etc.
(Not to eliminate these them yet)
Marketing Hybrids into acceptance is the next step towards Joe Forklift and Sally Housewife enveloping a dependency on something other than fossil fuels. It may be expensive and Toyota were the pioneers but the technology is open and like the internal combustion engine we can look forward to 100 years or so of development and refinement.
It’s a good idea and nearly all the other major players are developing a Hybrid of their own before the transition into something new – which WILL happen in our lifetime.
LOL at $45k
For this thing is a joke! just buy a Getz for $12k and use the $33k left to pay for fuel for the rest of your life! :) haha
New technology has got to start somewhere mate. Considering the original talk was this car would cost $60K. I’d say thats a pretty good start. Anyway look on the bright side, you’re not going to get 180NM & RWD out of a Getz.
I know with the Nissan Leaf which costs $40,000 AU, the price is the same as a petrol same size car plus $10,000 for the battery, which you\’ll make back in no time, because an EV is much cheaper to run and a whole lot cheaper to maintain. (A Getz doesn’t compare, it\’s like comparing a mouse to an elephant)
The Nissan Leaf is a family car.
At least it’s rear wheel drive…
I had the opportunity to drive one of these last year when Mitsubishi were showing it off to fleets, and it was a good car, I thought. No frills.
The expense is a worry, though. As others have pointed out here, you could get equal or better for less. From what I was told last year, the Japanese governments provided subsidies for people wanting to buy these cars, which took some of the sting out of the premium over the petrol version. I doubt our Government will do that here.
Cost of electricity vs the cost of petrol? Take out a loan to pay for the car and think of part of those payments as the petrol bill.
Servicing should be a hell of a lot cheaper too with the motor being the only moving part.
i love the fwd haters.
being able to point my wheels out of the corner and power down to have the wheels drag me where i point them, is a golden feeling as i leave the rwd boys drifting and spinning out all over the place.
the mitsu looks like a good thing, make it cheaper and itll be a winner!
Doing circle work in your front yard is a golden feeling.
This actually compares well to our local boys at bev, Who make the Electron (Hyundai Getz) EV for 48K. And as a bonus it comes with a 250kg towing pack. Which is 250kg more than the Prius.
bev.com.au/about/specifications/
45K for this….are they on crack. Maybe when I wake up and everybody is holding hands and there is peace on earth I may take a brochure. The environment already screwed anyway buying one these arent going to help.