Plug-in car here soon

Mitsubishi i MiEV: from show concept to production. Photo Gallery

Mitsubishi goes straight to electric power.

Australia will have its first plug-in electric car by the end of next year.

The baby Mitsubishi i MiEV has just been confirmed for local sales, with a showroom target in the final months of 2009 and a starting price in the $30,000 range.

The company plans to skip the hybrid phase of future car development and go straight to a plug-in, with a claimed top speed of 180km/h and a range of 200km.

“Mitsubishi don't make hybrid cars. They make electric cars. And we will have one here as soon as we possibly can,” says the managing director of Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Rob McEniry.

“We will have the i-car initially. But it doesn't go into volume production until next year.

“How many we get depends on the reaction by some of the key fleets in Australia, and governments. We would dearly like to have a number of them here in 2009.”

The news comes as several European manufacturers, including BMW and VW, confirmed they were also getting ready to build electric production cars.

Mitsubishi's i MiEV has only been a motor show concept until recently, both as a standard car and a sports model, but Mitsubishi is pushing ahead with a solid production plan for the aluminium-framed baby. It has an on-board power pack, using lithium-ion batteries, with three motors.

One turns each of the front wheels, with the third powering the back axle. The power pack is in the rear of the car, creating maximum cabin space despite an overall length of just 3.4m.

“Mitsubishi is determined to retain their leadership position in electric cars,” McEniry says. “Mitsubishi, if you look ... is very environmentally focused. And with the products we have, and the products that are coming, it will be a position we strengthen with our brand.

“Having an electric car as a clear technology demonstration ... would naturally be very good.”

McEniry will not talk specifics on pricing or deliveries but says the i MiEV will not be cheap.

“Some of the hybrids were very expensive to start with,” he says.

“But that changed as they became more accessible, and this should be the same.”

“Initially, because those sort of vehicles are at the cutting edge, they will be sold through a lease arrangement. At the moment they have them running in Japan with test fleets, like government departments and electrical utilities.

“That would probably be the way to go here, too, and to protect our intellectual property.

“I would definitely like to be first with an electric car. In a similar way to the Lancer Evolution, it demonstrates the leading technologies that Mitsubishi has and the importance of them.”

An electrical connection has been forged between Mitsubishi in Japan and PSA Peugeot-Citroen in France. The two groups are planning an extended collaboration on an electric powertrain for upcoming small cars, looking to cut development times and costs.

They have already joined forces in several other areas, recently establishing a joint factory at Kaluga, near Moscow, in Russia.

PSA Peugeot Citroen says the new agreement fits its “strategy and ambition” plan, covering 2010-2015, while Mitsubishi believes it is ideal for its electric car plans.

PSA claims world leadership in electric cars, with sales of more than 10,000 vehicles.

Apart from the new French connection, Mitsubishi has also linked with the Yuasa battery company to develop the high-performance lithium-ion batteries it will fit to the i MiEV.

Last week Mitsubishi provided 10 of the i MiEV electric vehicles for use at the G8 Summit in Japan. It showed off its capabilities to transport the various world leaders and media at the event.

They were part of an overall display of future fuel technology vehicles shown by a number of Japanese manufacturers.

Mitsubishi is continuing fleet tests of the car with several Japanese power companies.

The program will soon extend to the US, where fleet testing will also be conducted.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, Germany's biggest carmakers, now want to launch electric cars.

Specialists in high-end, mostly high-emission machines, German companies have built a reputation for making exciting cars but ones that are heavy polluters and consume a lot of fuel.

That branding has become a liability as oil prices climb ever higher and environmental regulations are tightened amid growing fears about global warming.

After Daimler and VW, which want to roll out electric models in 2010, BMW announced last week it would begin to test several hundred electric models of its Mini brand.

BMW did not say when it planned to sell such vehicles, however, nor did it indicate if the BMW brand would also offer an electric car.

“It remains completely open,” a company spokesman says.

He says BMW's first hybrid cars, that use a traditional petrol engine combined with an electric motor, should arrive in late 2009.

VW's Golf Twin Drive hybrid petrol-electric and diesel-electric test vehicles have a range of 50km in electric mode.

“The future will most certainly belong to the electric motors refueled at the electrical outlet,” VW boss Martin Winterkorn says. “On the way to this future, our TDI [diesel] and TSI [petrol] engines are now being merged with electric motors and extremely efficient battery systems to form a new drive system.”

In France, Renault has vowed to be the first manufacturer with a full-scale rollout and is aiming for several European countries in 2011.