Today marked the arrival of the first mass-produced electric cars in Australia. The two Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicles landed into the Port of Brisbane to a warm welcome from the media and gave Mitsubishi the crown of the first manufacturer to bring a ready-to-sell electric car down under.
The Queensland’s Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Kate Jones, and MMAL’s president and CEO, Robert McEniry were present to spell out the future of electric vehicles.
The i-MiEV has been on sale in Japan since July last year and will go on sale in Australia in the next few months. European versions start production on the next couple of months.
Mr McEniry said the future of cars is showcased in the i-MiEV, pointing out that even the likes of Porsche and Ferrari are embracing electric or hybrid vehicles and that the i-MiEV is not a gimmick but the first of the next generation of electric vehicles.
Some interesting facts about the i-MiEV is its 160km range per charge, which takes 7 hours on a normal household plug. Once the “fast-charge” infestracture is available here you can charge the car to 80% capacity in just 30 minutes. It can travel at up to 130km/h using three different modes: Drive, Eco and Brake.
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV has the ability to read the load on the power grid and only use power when the power grid usage is at its lowest (at night). Of course it can recharge anytime when required. Mr McEniry said the next generation of these vehicles will have the ability to even give back power to the grid when plugged in.
The Climate Change Minister said the QLD government is currently working on an electric vehicle policy which should be finalised by the end of the year, she also didn’t rule out incentives to entice buyers but said she was more focused on getting the policy right first.
No Australian pricing was announced and we don’t expect those details for another few months.
According to Ashley Sanders, Mitsubishi’s project manager for i-miEV, the real constraint is the batteries with lithium being in short supply. Mitsubishi has signed a deal with West Australia company Lithium Australia to boost its lithium battery production.
The battery in the i-MiEVs is a 16 kilowatt hour. If you’re unfamiliar with what a kilowatt hour is: a household heater rated at 1000 watts (1 kilowatt), left on for one hour uses one kilowatt hour (equivalent to 3,600 kilojoules) of energy.
Mr Sanders told CarAdvice that the i-MiEV and its battery will last at least 10 years if not more. The battery pack is separated into 22 modules each carrying four batteries and there has been no battery failure to date.
The car is powered by a single electric motor that drives the rear wheels. Power is put from the engine into a reduction gear and then through a differential. Mr Sanders said most first time drivers are surprised at its acceleration, as the Electric i-MiEV can accelerate faster than its petrol equivalent.
The fast-charge system currently used in Japan is a result of the Japanese manufacturers agreeing on one set of standards for charging electric vehicles and with charging stations being available in populated areas. Australia is still in the process of examining needs for electric vehicle standards.
Mr Sanders says he personally uses a 3kW solar array on his house which can produce 17kilowatt hours of energy per day that will easily recharge the i-MiEV from empty to full, meaning there is absolutely no emissions generated when the car is charged.
CarAdvice will bring you a full review and road test of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV before the end of the month.
We previously drove the pre-production prototype, read our Mitsubishi i-MieV review.
It looks like a very narrow vehicle. Look forward to CA testing this car and giving their opinion on it.
What does it cost?
This car is really cute, really.
Bring it on I say – lets screw over the oil companies by buying these things in droves – they have been doing us over since the ICE was invented!
How clever to charge up the car using a solar array (not sure what these things are exactly) fitted to the house – does that mean free energy not to mention nil emissions.
I think this electric car stuff can work if it is charged up using solar energy – it is clean and diminishes our dependence on oil, and that can only be good for all of us.
Well done Mitsubishi!
Ten News just said it was going to cost around $70,000!
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If this were a petrol car it would be $15,000 to $20,000. Electric motors are a hell of a lot cheaper than internal combustion motors. The one thing that is expensive in electric cars are the Lithium Ion batteries.
If we take a reasonable guess that the car (batteries not included) is worth $20,000 max, are the batteries really worth $50,000???
All manufacturers seem to keep the actual battery price very secret, with Tesla being the only exception at ($680 per KWh). Prices seem to vary from about $600-1000 USD per KWh.
Given Mitsubish would have greater buying power than Tesla you would think their 16KWh pack would be no more that 12-15k USD.
“Solar Today”, June, 2010, has the U. S. price at $30,000, still plenty expensive. The $70,ooo figure has got to be a mistake.
It’s high time we’re starting to see vehicles like the i-MiEV hit the market. As the EV’s are produced and sold in greater numbers, the technology will improve and the price should come down.
And we, of course, will have to belly up and buy one.
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If they can get this under $30,000 it will sell in droves
70k is an absolute joke
It will be impossible. I heard even in Japan it is sold more than 46000 AUD equivalent.
I’d like to know when that ‘fast charge’ technology comes in to Aus. I wouldn’t mind one then if it was reasonably priced. Until then this car is completely useless. Seven hours of charging from coal power completely defeats the purpose of this car and is a large step back from where we are today.
As someone mentioned in the Audi Electric article, it is good and well having electric cars, but how will our obsolete electricity grid handle a whole heap of electric cars when it can’t even cope with the demands of summer. Electric cars are all good and well, but if it is being charged by electricity from a coal power station what is the point. Unless we switch to nuclear power, electric environmental friendly cars are an oxymoron. 7 hours to charge a car, you have to be kidding. Electric cars are a false economy, you save on petrol, but your electricty bill will be far greater then what you would have spent on petrol, especially considering most if not all all states are increasing the cost of electricity by 50% over the next year.
What does it cost for a unit of power in Australia? I would guess around 20c. A unit of power is a kWh and the car holds 16 or about $3 worth and that will carry you about 160km. Petrol costs about $1.20 and a car of this size would use about 5L/100km so to drive 160km on petrol would cost about $10. So the running costs of the car would be about 30% of its petrol powered equivalent purely in terms of energy costs. Even if electricity goes up 50% and petrol doesn’t change it would still cost less than half to run. Maintenance costs should also be lower due to not needing oil changes, air filter, spark plug, and coolant changes and the brakes should last longer due to the regenerative braking displacing some of their use.
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Yr missing the point. These types of vehicles are only meant for the CITY in the interest of pollution reduction.
I dont think it would be terribly comfortable for a long haul.
The thought of driving this among the semis up the Pacific Hwy is rather terrifying.
My daily commute is 70ks return combine city/fwy. i could get two days running out of one charge. If it really does cost the same as a household fridge to charge, then after i paid for the car Im saving $45 a week by not putting ULP in my current car (Barina) and even if i doubled my qtly power bill $220 then I am WAY infront. If i want to drive to Coffs harbour fm Newcastle im gonna need another car. OR something like a Volt with a backup engine,
Swings and roundabouts, but for a couple living in the heart of Sydney looking for a second car this would make a lot of sense even at $40K.
Be agressive with pricing Mitsu and I reckon Melbourne and Sydney will soak these up.
Most people would hardly every need to drive over 160Km in a day.
If you do then this car is not designed for you.
I think you’re looking at the vehicle in the wrong light, this is not designed for long trips, its basically a city runabout that costs 10% of a Petrol Car to run.
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Jeffry!
You are so naughty!
Thank Dawkins!
The kinetic energy, as used mostly in brake regeneration technology is only affective when braking, if the friction was high enough to capture energy, you will be putting out more energy to move than you can capture, it works better when a human being is the power plant as the idea is to use energy :)
Can you stand in a bucket and lift yourself up? The angular kinetic energy you speak of is converted into the thing that we use cars for: motion. If you harness that, your car doesn’t move anymore. The 1st law of thermodynamics applies to everything, no matter how “eco friendly” it is.
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Why don’t these cars have heavy duty solar panels on the roofs so they can self charge or top up charge during daylight?
Imagine a commute to work uses 10% of battery, whilst parked outside all day the batteries are fully topped up and ready to go~!
Just that Huag, the solar panel is too heavy in weight and expensive.Also it needs to be at the right angle to the sun. The loss of energy from it being flat could be up to 30%. Assuming you drive it to a city, you would have to park it on the roof in a carpark, assuming other buildings don’t block the sun.
The area of a car roof probably isn’t big enough to capture enough energy to charge the vehicle. My googling indicated that we get between 280 – 460 W/ m2 and a typical solar panel achieves 10-15% efficiency. So that gives you about 40 W/ m2 on a clear sunny day. If a commute to work takes 10% of your 16kWH battery, thats 1.6 kW. You’d need a 5 m2 panel to charge the car in 8 hours to travel 16km. (assuming 100% efficiency for the charging electronics). Actually that comes close… my commute is about 30k’s though. Mind you solar panel efficiency is heading for 30% in some of the new designs. You might yet get your wish. :)
I understand the under cover car park scenario etc, hence the panel on the roof is not a solution for the car to completely charge itself, but I indicated its use only for a sustainability charge, i.e if the car is used on very short trips or a couple of times a week, the car in theory could charge itself with no reliance from a power grid.
On the topic of solar panels, they too have come a long way, smaller, lighter, some flexible and cheaper. Perhaps these can be optional on top spec models because of added cost!
Hung, you are on the right track. One of my older brothers, an engineer, built a solar car named ‘RALOS’ and raced it from Texas to Minnesota (the GM SUNRAYCE) in the early 1990′s. This car was never plugged in; the only power source was the sun. Would this particular vehicle car have been a practical family car? Not really. But solar panels and batteries have come a LONG way since then (research ‘thin film photovoltaics’). These are lightweight, inexpensive, and provide a decent amount of power. They aren’t necessarily going to provide all of your charging power, but if you park your car in a sunny parking lot while you’re at work, you might just cover a good percentage of your recharging needs, not to mention extending your driving range during sunny weather. Aside from increasing the cost of a vehicle, there’s no good reason why you couldn’t have an electric car that is ‘wrapped’ in solar panels. And of course you can back this up with a solar array at your home or office to top up your batteries without relying on a coal-fired electrical plant… My brother most recently designed the battery pack and battery management systems for this car http://www.allcarselectric.com.....with-video and here’s another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded
Cost of the solar panels!
Only if I had the money to throw away. At this point in time sorry can’t help ya.
Putting emmisions aside and focusing on running costs if the array of solar panels was large enough it could feed enough energy into the grid during the day running the electricity meter in reverse when electricity costs are at the On peak rates 31.97 cents/kWh in summer. Then by the time you get home you plug it in and then that drains from the grid which between 5pm and 9pm electricity is 19.50 cents/kWh then 9.12 cents/kWh during offpeak between 9pm and 7am. Hopefully draining less than what the panels put in during the day. So in theory you get home at 5pm start charging away between 5pm and 9pm this costs $1.27. Then 9pm till 12pm costs 27.36 cents. totalling $1.54 for a 7 hour charge. To break even you would need a solar array that feeds 1000kwh for 6 hours during peak period reversing the meter crediting you $1.59. Just depends how much a 1000kwh solar array costs.
Adding on… For a 1kw solar array it costs anywhere between $9000 and $20000. So you have to spend that amount on top of the car in order to have “free” transport.
Interesting, that price is beyond consideration!
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Sorry to drag on but you would need at least a solar panel that generated more then 14 kw/hr assuming there is only 8 hrs of light in a day.
like to try the maths again?
16kwh is the capacity, not a rate. max charging rate from a 10A GPO is 2.4kw.
there is no such thing as 1kw/hr
1kw = 1000 Joules of energy per second
16kwh @ 32c/kwh = $5.12/charge = $3.2/100km
16kwh @ 9.12c/kwh = $1.45/charge = $0.91/100km
assuming petrol is $1.10/L,
at peak rates its cost equivalent to 2.9L/100km
or at off peak rates 0.82L/100km
only the honda insight could approach the on-peak rates.
Matt
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billie joe wrote>”The battery system is a 16kwh system that takes 7 hours to charge fully. This means it take 16 kilowatts of electricity per hour to charge the battery, for a full charge in 7 hours this would mean it would take a total of 112 kilowatt hours to fully charge the battery.”
regarding the above quote only:
billie joe’s maths = wrong
matt’s maths= right
with a “normal household plug” You get 10amp at ~240v which is 2400 watts. In an hour, this would give you 2.4 kilowatt hours of energy. In 7 hours this would give you 16.8 kilowatt hours. So you would need about 16.8 kilowatt hours to fully charge the battery to its rated capacity of 16 kilowatt hours (assuming it was somewhat empty when you started).
By the way – no offence meant – just trying to correct a misconception about how many kilowatt hours are needed to charge the battery.
That makes more sense, i was thinking it was a little cheap to run that car.
Ok so in the electricity rates according to Synergy in summer the offpeak rates are as I said above
9pm and 7am – 9.12 cents/kWh
and as fabs said
“In an hour, this would give you 2.4 kilowatt hours of energy. In 7 hours this would give you 16.8 kilowatt hours.”
So if a person was to charge their iMiev during off peak like a sensible person would it would cost
7 x 2.4 x 0.0912 = $1.53
Well done Mitsubishi!
Fat greedy oil companies should be worried very soon. Electric cars are not only much more sustainable for the environment but also make far better sense than hybrid as they do not place any reliance on petrol at all.
I really hope that mitsu will work harder on their further electric car devlopment so that the maximum driving distance per charge can get to around 300kms. Then, those i-Mievs will just smash the ugly fat global oil cartel.
The government should be subsidizing these, not hybrid Camry’s and Commodores.
How sustainable are the lithium ion batteries, how sustainable is the coal fired power, etc etc… for th ecar to be sustainable it must have reneable energy which is out of reach of the common man currently.. i dont think the oil companies are shaking in their boots looks like a lot of oil derived products are used in the car i.e a lot of plastics… and then what of the batteries??
According to Mitsubishi when I spoke to them at their i-Miev demonstration this time last year, the batteries are 95% recyclable.
Its a common point missed with rechargable batteries. You HAVE to recycle them, they cannot be dumped into landfill.
“i dont think the oil companies are shaking in their boots”
It is hard to say, but given the recent claim that opec only has 1/3 of the oil reserves it really claims. Its becomes a real possibility that we have already entered peak oil. So getting these EV alternatives going could be more than just about reducing emissions.
What about putting up solar panels on top of service stations. Just a thought!
They cannot even stock up on disposable gloves at the diesel bowser let alone invest in solar.
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The US arent in any of their countries besides Iraq and thats finished. They just there until they can ship all the oil over.
You’re going to be in for a long wait.
Here is the only problem I have with this car……….One can buy a Suzuki Alto (similar size) which say at 50% the price will allow up to almost a decade of fuel!! If the Alto was 30% the cost of the MieV, the saving on the purchase price would buy at least 16 years of petrol!
I could not see myself driving one of these, I still laugh when I see a smart four2 on the road. Why not just put this motor into a Lancer instead of this weird looking car.
For $70k I would buy a G6E T and have enough for 2 years plus petrol.
This little buzz-box has mucho potential. I’m a little sickened by the $70,000 price-tag estimated in the news report I saw about it, though. Surely it couldn’t cost that much to produce? I would suspect that such exorbitant figures are a result of the corporation charging like wounded bulls for technology they know there will be a huge demand for.
I think $70k is the early adopters price. They’re banking on at least 2 rich er people in the whole of Australia that think this is a bargan.
When the Chinese get into this market, expect without batteries, the $5K electric car. If you develop electric cars with the batteries as a replaceable item they make a lot of sense.
They already have an Electric Geely, with slightly more range but something like a price which is 60% lower.
Love to see one at about 30K… will have to wait for Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt to make it to Australia I suppose. I think the Chevy Volt has the front running larger car, range extender and looks great! BUT a dark horse just might be the Renault Fluence EV, battery swap by Better Place and talk of sub 30K US price, Renault Australia can I put a deposit down?
Why are we waisting or time and energy on cars that’s only good for city or very short trips? More public transport people!
Look also at more efficient non-renewables such as Fuel Cells as a bridging solution. They decentralise the power infrastructure, provide cheap, more efficient power at the point of delivery, and would also allow for scaled handling of the imminent increase in electricity demand that electric vehicles will bring.
Whats more, we have the manufacturer of the most efficient natural gas fuel cells in the world right under our noses: Ceramic Fuel Cells – an Aussie Company.
Ceramic Fuel Cells make a dishwasher sized generator that uses Natural Gas and generates up to 2kW with efficiency of 85% (if you use the waste heat for your hot water system). Having these in place would be a good match for the electric car.
Its good to see that most people contributing to this discussion are being objective and not merely complaining in complete arrogance.
Its about time Austalia has received its first mass production fully electric vehicle, we often seem to be the last to get everything down here, thanks Mitsubishi.
I feel electric vehicles like the iMIEV are definitely the way of the future, the technology may still be in its infancy with battery life estimated to last over a decade which is pretty good but that can only improve as time goes on, the great thing is obviously the environmental factor.
Unlike conventional combustion engine vehicles there is only one source of pollution here and thats from the electricity source/station and none from the vehicle, whats even more exciting is that if you have a suitable solar panel source at your place of residence then there is absolutely no polltion.
The price of this first generation vehicle is estimated to eventually retail around $50,000, this vehicle is currently being subsidised in other markets around the world either as a tax break or cash contribution of around $10,000, now thats tempting.
Obviously the price will come down as time goes on, I wonder why that hasnt really been the case with Toyota’s Prius?.
I also understand that the iMIEV generates a small charge to its batteries every time you apply the brakes too.
I understand that Mitsubishi is curently developing Lancer and the next generation Pajero with this technology which should appeal to more buyers.
In my opinion Toyota needs to move on from hybrid and go full electric, really whats the point of hybrid engines when you still have a petrol engine in use, the point is to remove all emissions.
Go Mitsubishi!.
Senario 1: Trip from Brisbane to Sydney (without needing to make any stops): if the interstate high speed rail system was as good as it is in France, Germany, Japan, Korea and now China then one could just catch a ride in an electric taxi to the central train station, then board the highly energy efficient high speed train (compared to a polluting jet aircraft) and people would be in Sydney city in less than 3 hours.
Scenario 2: Trip from Brisbane to the Gold Coast: Make sure you have topped up the batteries with your solar fed supply (which will cost you heaps), drive down, spend a few of hours at the beach, then decide to drive up to the hinterland, park at the local solar fed fuelling station (in an ideal future) for a few hours while having a picnic followed by a bushwalk, then drive back to Brisbane with enough energy.
IT CAN BE DONE, BUT WILL COST YOU AN INSANE AMOUNT OF MONEY, SO WHY NOT JUST BUY A HIGHLY EFFICIENT DEISEL SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED CAR AND USE THE EXTRA ON INCREASING YOUR HOME’S ENERGY EFFICIENCY?
No one is saying you should attempt this. its a city car for your daily drive in the city.
I know a roof panel installer who says that,given the installation subsidy,the renewable energy certificates, and the gross feed-in tarrifs, the return rate on household solar panels is 20%.
One more thing, if most transport contribute to approximately 18% of all green house gases, then imagine if all the people in the industrialised parts of the world originally used highly efficient diesel small to medium sized cars, like most people do in most countries in Europe, then how would the planet’s health be now?
Even better, if all people in the industrialised parts of the world did what they do in the developed countries in this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.....per_capita (Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, South Korea etc.) and used more public transport and/or bicycled/walked then we wouldn’t have to worry about a 300 g/km Ferrari or Lamborghini would we?
Who is producing the batteries?
Are there any Australian manufacturers?
Arnt
Jees that ashley is cute!!!!
Yahoo I’m all for electric cars but you have to do the real world calcs. I drive in the city each day, return trip to work from home of 28km. However I live at the top of a 400m high hill, which takes me 5 minutes to climb at 60 kph in my petrol car. Over that climb of 5 km I calculate 13.3kWh of energy is used (independent of the type of vehicle – bicycle, car or horse). So I would struggle to drive 14km home on one charge of 16kWh. So perhaps I should check whether my pushy would fit in the back.
Mitsubishi has probably validated the 160km range on terrain which best suits power delivery from the batteries, i.e. flat terrain.
In the end we probably have to accept nature for what it is and live with compromises in our ability to think we’re smarter.
I really would love to buy an electric car…. the tesla model S is superb, but this crappy bubble car is pathetic….. i would be embarrassed to drive it, be seen in ti, my wife hates how it looks, do these morons no do any market research???… i would rather burn more fossil fuel then be seen in this garbage! Give me sexy…. shit even hyandai looks fantastic compared to this car….
People/car manufactures get some balls and built a good looking car and not some conservative CRAP….. DAMN WHALE HUNTERS, stop wasting our time…..
One factor people don’t often realize is that not only is electricity cheaper it is also better for our economy if we use electricity vs petrol. The same amount of carbon is probably emitted to power an electric car charged from a coal fired power station as is emitted from burning petrol in a combustion engine the electric car reduces how much oil we have to import. The coal powered fire station is powered by good old Aussie coal, employing Aussie workers instead of from oil imported from other countries. This means we keep more money in the country which helps us pay of labor’s debt etc., The extra tax the government earns by keeping that money cycling around the Australian economy can pay back the debt and when that’s paid off we can pump that money into solar and other renewable energy sources.