Mitsubishi i-Miev electric car £33,699 price shock

New technology is always expensive when it first goes on sale, but the £33,699 price announced by Mitsubishi for its i-MiEV electric car seems high, especially when compared to a ‘clean diesel’ such as the 83.1mpg, 90g/km car VW Bluemotion Polo at £14,500.

Mitsubishi accepts that the price of the i-MiEV is high, but if a sustainable source of electricity is used to charge its batteries, the i-MiEV can be described as zero-emissions motoring. It is expected that strong demand will mean the cars maintain a high re-sale value.

£5,000 discount on electric cars

The launch of the £5,000 government-sponsored electric car grant coincides with the first deliveries of the i-MiEV to British customers in January 2011. The i-MiEV would cost £28,699 if this Consumer Incentive Scheme is taken into account.

The i-MiEV will compete for sales with other electric cars due to go on sale next year including the Fiat 500 EV the Nissan Leaf and BMW’s Mini-E, which is currently undergoing testing.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “The market for electric cars will remain small while they remain more than twice the cost of comaprable petrol-powered cars, but it’s easy to forget that twenty years ago a mobile phone cost thousands.”

i-MiEV production to triple

Mitsubishi this week announced it is to triple production of the i-MiEV, over the next three years.

The company plans to build 9,000 i-MiEVs before April 2011, 18,000 the following year and 30,000 in the year after that. 1,650 drivers have placed orders for the i-MiEV, although only a fraction of these have been in Britain.

The iMiev has a top speed of 81mph and range of around 90 miles on a full charge, which would take approximately eight hours from a household electrical supply.

A fast charger supplied by the Tokyo Electric Power Company is able to restore 80 per cent of the battery’s power in 30 minutes – making it ideal for installation at motorway service stations or supermarket car parks.