Mitsubishi i-MiEV News
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For the first time in 80 years or so, major automakers are building and selling plug-in electric cars in the U.S. How are they letting people know about their new cars? Advertising, of course. Our colleague Richard Read looked at four electric-car TV ads, analyzing what made them work and what messages they tried to convey. Gas bad, electrons good Remarkably, three of the ads, from three different carmakers, conveyed identical messages: Gasoline is bad and dirty, electricity is clean and better...and wouldn't you want a car that plugged in rather than burning nasty, filthy petroleum? That...
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Best Buy Adds Onstar, Electric-Car Chargers; Are Cars Next?
If you haven't been keeping an eye on Best Buy, you may have been stunned by their recent announcements at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). First, on January 6, Best Buy announced that it will offer General Motors' OnStar system (conveniently packaged within a rear-view...
Jason Hendler -
Mitsubishi Launching Eight New Electrified Cars By 2015
Later this year Mitsubishi’s battery-powered i-MiEV will finally go on sale in the U.S., having already gone on sale in Europe and Japan and making an appearence at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last November. However, it’s hard to get excited over Mitsubishi’s zero-emission...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Big Crash, Small Electric Car: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Barrier Test
It's both true and not-so-true: Small cars are dangerous in a crash. It's true, in that the laws of physics indicate a heavier object will have more momentum than a lighter object when they collide, meaning the small one gets displaced. But it's not so true if you're looking at absolute levels of...
John Voelcker -
2012 Mitsubishi i To Go On Sale Across Europe
The U.S. EV market will become wider next year with the appearance of the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" electric car, itself wider than those available across international markets. Early reports suggested the American market wouldn't take well to the original's Japanese kei-car dimensions and relatively low...
Antony Ingram -
2011 Nissan Leaf? Far Too Boring In Japan...
If it ever really needed to be said, Japanese car tastes can be... "alternative", to put it in polite terms. As well as their Kei-Jidosha class of city cars that are absolutely miniscule compared to U.S. monsters, the country has produced some fairly crazy production cars over the years. That trend...
Antony Ingram -
After several years of taunting and many months of speculation, the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show is finally the venue chosen for Mitsubishi to show off their U.S.-specification 'i' electric car to an expecting public. We've featured the Japanese-spec 'i' several times, as the company has shipped examples around the world for demonstration purposes and to run user trials. Journalists quickly discovered that the version they were testing wouldn't quite be up to the requirements expected of cars on American roads, so we were pleased when Mitsubishi announced that the U.S. would be getting a...
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2010 LA Auto Show: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Electric Minicar
It was the first electric car sold in volume anywhere in the world, starting more than a year ago, and now the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" is officially coming to the U.S. market. The U.S. version was unveiled on Thursday at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, though Mitsubishi provided few new details on how...
John Voelcker -
2010 Los Angeles Auto Show: Guide To Electric Vehicles
We took a look a few weeks ago at the five electric cars we reckoned you should do your best to see at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Our list included the 2011 Nissan Leaf, 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Coda Sedan, the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV and the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Our opinion hasn't changed -...
Antony Ingram -
First Photos: 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Car, U.S. Version
First came the sketch, now come the photos. Mitsubishi has released the first official images of the U.S. version of its 2012 i-MiEV electric minicar, just a week before the car is unveiled at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. The company also released some specifications for the little i-MiEV...
John Voelcker -
Wider 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV For U.S. Market: First Sketch
We've been waiting eagerly for more details of the modified U.S.-spec 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car. Now, Mitsubishi has started the long tease. The company tweeted a sketch this morning that shows a wider, slightly more angular i-MiEV that still preserves the now-familiar shape of the...
John Voelcker -
2010 Paris Motor Show: Green Car Roundup of Production Models
The fall's first big European auto show, the 2010 Paris Motor Show, officially kicks off on Thursday, which is when all the press conferences happen. But the industry has been leaking out selected images, teasers, and occasionally full details on the concepts and production cars that will appear...
John Voelcker -
Don't want a 2011 Chevrolet Volt or 2011 Nissan Leaf? Fear not - there are a raft of other EVs waiting in the wings to satisfy your desire for something different. If you live in the U.S. though, you'll have to wait until late 2011 to get your hands on Mitsubishi's 2012 i-MiEV. For EV fans in 14 European markets, potential buyers will be getting the car as soon as December this year, with prices starting at less than 30,000 Euros ($38,000). That's still a lot of money of course, especially considering that the price Mitsubishi are quoting takes government incentives into consideration. The...
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What Range Anxiety? Daihatsu EV Does 623 Miles On One Charge
Last October, Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas set a new distance record for a production battery-powered vehicle: a hugely impressive 313 miles in a 2008 Tesla Roadster. That's around 70 miles more than the EPA's rated range for the world's best -known EV. Unfortunately for them, not even a...
Antony Ingram -
Electric Car Buying Guide
We've been watching it roll closer for years, and now it's all but here: A new era of electric cars. Just three or four months from now, the first highway-capable electric vehicles sold in volume by global automakers will appear in showrooms in California and other regions. By the end of 2011...
John Voelcker -
Five Things Consumers Want To Know About Electric Cars
According to a recent report by Nissan, most consumers signed up to buy the 2011 Nissan Leaf are already electric vehicle owners or hybrid drivers. In short, early adopters are mainly enthusiasts who already know the ins and outs of driving electric. But what about the general public? We've sat...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Mitsubishi i-MiEV Could Come With Sub-$30,000 Sticker
With any new technology there’s always a steep initial price as low supply and even lower demand play a delicate balancing act that will eventually determine whether the technology lives or dies. The same is true for electric vehicles (EVs), which are still considerably more expensive than...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Japanese Firm Lets EVs Refill Faster Than a Gas Car
What can you do in three minutes? Boil a egg? Buy a Coffee? Check your Mail? Visit the bathroom? Thanks to Japanese based JFE Engineering, you can now add half-charging your EV to the list, courtesy of its ultra-fast charge station. Designed to comply with the CHAdeMo standard developed by Tokyo...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Nissan has been criticized by consumers and EV owners alike for the online questionnaire that accompanies the signup process for reserving a 2011 Nissan Leaf. As part of the process, Nissan tries to ascertain if potential customers have a lifestyle compatible with the Leaf's range, recharging requirements and specifications. While many advocates and industry professionals support Nissan's decision to question prospective owners before selling them a 2011 Leaf, some consumers complain that Nissan's questions are too personal--and possibly elitist. Some EV enthusiasts have even cited the...
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Electric Vehicle Range, In the Real World: What You Need to Know
At the moment, drivers of cars from the 2011 Mitsubishi i-MiEV to the 2010 Mini E are struggling to achieve the official mileage-range figures. So far, only Tesla's 2010 Roadster seems to be able to deliver on its range promises, and that's just when driven conservatively. Why are we hearing so...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Bill Clinton: Feds Should Subsidize Buyers' Switch to Electric Cars
Former President Bill Clinton recently visited social network digg.com for a special Earth Day interview that touched on electric-vehicle policy and legislation. He answered user questions about many ecological and environmental topics--including third-world development and global warming--as...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Mitsubishi Makes i MiEV Available For Lease To Japanese Customers
Leasing May Make the Electric Vehicles More Popular In the Market
Jonathan McGrew -
Nissan Ups Ante With U.K. Factory For 2011 Leaf Electric Car
Nissan has upped the ante on its bid to become the world's leading electric-car maker, by announcing a third global factory for production of their 2011 Leaf electric car. The small northern U.K. city of Sunderland will become the third site across three continents to be tooled up to build the...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Making EVs is Easy; Making GOOD EVs Is Hard, and Costly
We're now well and truly on the road to plug-in vehicle nirvana, with the 2011 Nissan Leaf, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, and various other plug-in and electric vehicles due to hit the market within the next couple of years. But there now seem to be hundreds of car companies, enthusiastic business...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield