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Mitsubishi rolls out zero-emission electric minicar

A Mitsubishi Motors employee charges the company’s first mass production electric vehicle “iMiEV” at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Mitsubishi Motors Corp rolled out its first zero-emission electric minicar yesterday, hoping to capture a slice of the fast-growing market for environmentally friendly vehicles.

The new “i-MiEV” — short for Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle — can seat four adults, emits no carbon dioxide and has a range of up to 160km on a fully charged battery.

The distance should be enough for day-to-day city driving in Japan, said company president Osamu Masuko, who added that the automaker was initially targeting corporate and government clients.

“We at Mitsubishi Motors hope to build technology that will put us in a competitive position in the global market of the future,” he told a press conference.

“Thinking about the Japanese auto industry in 10 to 20 years from now, we must make sure the industry does not fall behind our foreign rivals,” he said.

Mistubishi says the car, priced at ¥4.6 million (US$47,500), runs quietly but accelerates quickly, and the running cost is one third of that of a petrol-powered car — or less if it is charged during off-peak hours.

Because of its efficiency — including converting braking energy into battery power — the vehicle emits only one third of the carbon dioxide of a petrol car when the electricity generated to recharge it at a power plant is factored in.

The battery can be charged overnight on a domestic power source, or it can be powered up through quick-chargers now being developed by power companies, Mitsubishi said.
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