Mitsubishi MIEV for 2010

Kirstie_H

Check out this ultra quiet, lightning fast upcoming hybrid electric from Mitsubishi. What do you think?

iluvmysephia1

under development by Mitsubishi. I like how quiet it's said to be and how well it handles, due to its low center of gravity with the battery packs located low-center in the all-EV.

I will be watching the development of this car very closely, indeed. I would like a longer range but this one has my rapt interest. I even like its look, it's grown on me.

gagrice

You could cut the back out of it and toss in your golf clubs. Head to the course as soon as you leave the office. They are intriguing for sure. I just see those high prices and it turns me off. I think it will be an uphill battle getting them past EPA and CARB. They will want 5 star crash ratings and that will increase the weight beyond what the batteries will carry.

iluvmysephia1

but I don't see another one on the U.S. market I would reach for at all right now. Actually, Mitsubishi hasn't decided if this one will even cart across the pond for our purchase quite yet.

BYD of China makes a midsize crossover called e6 that has a decent body design but with Chinese built rigs there are several thousand questions that come to mind... as far as homogolation, passing crash testing, basic reliability questions, etc.

I think Mitsu can squish the car past EPA and CARB(with a decent amount of intense engineering involved) but passing crash tests with 5 stars might be a challenging endevour, indeed. I think Mitsubishi will try and strike compromises with U.S. regulators and make it work. They'll get there...short of retrofitting the '08 Lancer GTS to all-electric for about $15,000-$20,000(ouch!) this i-MIEV looks like the next best thing for my wife and I to consider. ICE propulsion is looking very long-in-the-tooth to me lately. Wonder why that might be.

tpe

Think electric

This car has very similar capabilities to the i-MIEV. It has already passed European and US crash tests. Given the investors in this company I believe they are very credible. I've read other articles which state this car may be produced in So. Calif.. At $25k it might be a little more expensive than the i-MIEV but until these cars actually make it to the market their price is just a guess.

stevedebi

"It has already passed European and US crash tests"

The article said it had met EUROPEAN safety requirements. I didn't see anything about the US, or any plans to import it.

And it requires an additional $200 per month lease on the battery...

tpe

The article said it had met EUROPEAN safety requirements. I didn't see anything about the US, or any plans to import it.


There are a lot of recent articles out there about the Think City. I should have probably provided a more comprehensive example.

Think City

TH!NK city meets all European and US federal motor vehicle safety requirements.

Sales other than initial trial and demonstration projects will begin in The North American market in 2009.

iluvmysephia1

I must've skipped over the portion of the article that mentions the $25,000 price tag. Oh, well, could be worse than that. I still long for more range than 100 miles(i-MIEV) or the 125 miles of the Think car. I didn't see that Think engineers had come up with a 1/2 hr re-charger that Mitsu engineers offer with the sale of the i-MIEV, which enables one to get a 80% re-charge. That is an attractive offer, I would just need to find someplace in Tucson, to make a for instance here, if my wife and I take our i-MIEV to Tucson(80 miles west of us), to re-charge. So we could drive back to our little cowtown back east a bit. I think that this type of thing could be worked out.

For instance, my son mentioned that Portland, OR, offers an electric car re-charging station. I never learned of that when we were still living in the Pacific NW, but, knowing some of the free-thinkers over there, I don't doubt that such a station already exists like that.

I think that I could probably go to the lone Mitsubishi dealership in town and re-charge at an electric port there. In fact, if I am serious about buying an i-MIEV in a few years(I'd say I'm serious enough to inquire a whole lot more about the little city car), it would behoove me to call up Wildcat Mitsubishi in Tucson and shock them with an inquiry like that.

"Can I charge up my little i-MIEV at your electric re-charge port on the side of your showroom in 2010?"

"Our what?"

tpe

The Think City currently uses sodium batteries. They are working with A123 Systems and EnerDel to replace these with a Li-ion battery pack, which will extend the range by around 10-15% and improve the performance.

I'm a little suspect of the i-MIEV's claimed range of 100 miles given that it only has a 16 kWh battery pack. The Think City's battery pack is 28.3 kWh. Although at 1379kg. the Think probably is a heavier car.

iluvmysephia1

there is a car maker in China, BYD, that makes their own car batteries. They made themselves famous by building state-of-the-art cellphone batteries for the masses. But they also build petrol and electrically-driven automobiles and if the car needs batteries for propulsion, they build those batteries themselves. They make a new crossover they showed at the Beijing Auto Show called the e6. It is attractive and it is all-electric. It can go 186 miles before needing a re-charge. And yes, they also provide a quick charger like Mitsubishi does with their i-MIEV. This one goes 100mph and goes in to the production next year for the Chinese market.

Whether BYD will bust in to the U.S. automotive market or, might I dare say, when they bust out in to the U.S. automotive market depends on their aggressiveness to work on passing crash-testing and homogolation work to ready them for our car market. But I have indeed read that BYD plans to export to the U.S. And more than one model is coming here, too. By the time I am ready to trade for an all-electric rig, the specs will be much more user-friendly and comfortable for cruising a little longer distance. Let me put it this way, there are a lot of people like me who want an all-electric rig in America. It would behoove carmakers, even Chinese ones like BYD, to prepare an EV (or three) for the American market.

jflor

I really hope that the 2010 i MiEV will be sold here in the US. It is said that after its initial sale in Japan and UK in 2009, Mitsubishi will bring the car here a year later. The company should also bring in the next generation Colt. These two cars are worth considering in this time of soaring gas prices.

Here is the link regarding this bit of information:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/05/15/new-zealand-prime-minister-goes-for-a-ri- de-in-an-i-miev-falls-i/

nwng

the pictures were taken in nyc, so no edmunds writers were offered a ride?

iluvmysephia1

on this little gem in the works from Mitsubishi Motors of Japan? Drool, drool, drool.

chelentano

http://bp2.blogger.com/_LnXKlTB8gKw/SF729e_RKGI/AAAAAAAABr4/gy4vgc7RSkQ/s1600-h/- 080622%2520MiEv%2520Sport.jpg

tpe

MiEV 2009

The price tag seems a little steep but this is just another example of the direction that the automotive industry is heading. Unlike the last go-round this current interest in EVs is not being driven by government mandates. It's being driven by market conditions and, to a lesser extent, environmental concerns. These factors aren't going away. We will have EVs on the road much sooner than anyone would have ever anticipated 5 years ago. IMO, that's a good thing.

stevedebi

"The price tag seems a little steep but this is just another example of the direction that the automotive industry is heading. Unlike the last go-round this current interest in EVs is not being driven by government mandates. It's being driven by market conditions and, to a lesser extent, environmental concerns. These factors aren't going away. We will have EVs on the road much sooner than anyone would have ever anticipated 5 years ago. IMO, that's a good thing. "

1. I've heard of no "incentives" planned for PHEV vehicles here in the US, unless they are covered by the hybrid incentives - but what would be the reference vehicle/
2. 10K per year (2011 numbers) is not very many vehicles.
3. 37K???!! For a "minicar"??!!!

chelentano

>> 37K???!! For a "minicar"??!!!

at this price it'll be a toy for "green" celebrities

iluvmysephia1

that want a Mitsubishi i-MiEV and don't want to pay $30,000 in USD for one. If you're willing to get one that is a plug-in hybrid and wait until 2013, Mitsubishi has announced they're going to build one. It's in the planning stages right now.

Two really cool things in this breaking Mitsubishi story. Making it a hybrid will significantly lower the price of this baby. We won't speculate on that actual price right now. Mitsubishi will wait to give pricing, though. I remember when I was chomping at the bit to buy my 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS. It seemed like Mitsubishi announced Lancer and Lancer GTS pricing about 5-7 days before the car hit the showroom where I bought mine. I was the 2nd person in Arizona to own a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS.

Throw me in now on buying a 2013 Mitsubishi i-MiEV plug-in hybrid. I can't wait to buy one AAMOF! More information will come as we get it-I'll find it if anyone in the U.S. can. BTW-that is an ultra-competitive beat-me-to-it temptation to ya-I just want the information ASAP, that's all.



Really, I don't have to have an all-electric car that bad. With the ICE engine to give the car more range we'll be sittin' pretty for extended range! And, this will give time for American cities and companies to build more re-charging infrastructure up for the masses. Really, really monumental news to this SE Arizona padre's automotive future. And, there's a new Mitsubishi dealer in downtown Tucson named Jim Click Mitsubishi that I can buy from. Or, I can go to Ideal Mitsubishi in Sierra Vista to get one. It will come down to price and whomever offers the cleanest and tightest service agreements to me. Also, we will get the customer loyalty price rebates. Actually, I really love the agreement my wife and I signed at Avondale Mitsubishi 9 miles west of Phoenix on our '08 Lancer GTS. It offered the anti-theft package, a great money-saving service agreeement and a great every-6-month wax and protectant contract for a great price that has saved our Lancer's paint from being chipped up. Our paint job just has a few nicks-easy to fix chips that I already have the paintbrush from Mitsubishi to use to fix it with.

Chomp-chomp-chompin'-at-the-bit!