Mitsubishi eyes Middle Earth for 'early' electric car roll-out
E-vehicle to be demo'd next year
'Leccy Tech Mitsubishi's auto division is to demo its "zero-emission" electric car in New Zealand in a bid to see if the country's ready for 'leccy motoring.
The i MiEV - it stands for Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle - will be shown off in Middle Earth next year. The timetable's a little vague: "sometime after February 2009", Mitsubishi said.
The motor maker will be commercialising i MiEV in Japan during 2009, and it said releasing the car "early" in New Zealand would be simplified because, like Japanese motorists, New Zealand drivers sit on the right side of the car. So there's no need to convert it first.
Mitsubishi's i MiEV: zero-emission motoring
So do Australians and Brits, we'd add, and we hope that'll persuade Mitsubishi to try the i MiEV out over here too.
Next February's test drive will be backed by New Zealand's state-owned power company, Meridian Energy, which is undoubtedly keen to see locals' gasoline dollars flow its way rather than into the pockets of Big Oil.
The i MiEV is powered by lithium-ion batteries.
Bootnote
Want to try out i MiEV for yourself? You can do so right now, sort of. Mitsubishi has produced a paper version you can print, cut out and glue together. You can download it here (PDF).
OK, it won't give you the feel of the thing on the road, but even allowing for printer ink, it's got to be even greener than the real thing. Just make sure your office stationery comes from renewable sources, OK?
COMMENTS
Petrol prices
Petrol's now about the same price in Iceland as it is in the UK - the Lonely Planet must be a little out of date.
Looking forward to this car and those that follow it. Praying to the great FSM for better battery tech.
Zero Emissions?
Am I the only person who thinks that companies selling electric cars as 'Zero Emission' is frankly lying through their teeth? For me, and I appreciate I may be misinterpreting this, the phrase zero emission suggests that in running the car, you (that is to say the car, I doubt car manufacturers can be held responsible for your beer / curry session the night before) produce no harmful emissions, which , lets face it, simply isn't true. Ok, so nothing is produced at the point of use, but if we all switched to electric cars tomorrow, we'd need huge quantities of electricity to be produced, which means more sources of generation.
So what are the options here? Well, the NIMBYs have vetoed nuclear power which produces very few emissions, the odd accident aside, renewables are not yet reliable enough and the whole country would be covered in wind farms, again which the NIMBYs would veto anyway, so looks like we're back to good old gas and coal, which are hardly good for the environment, and will result in Russia basically owning the UK.
Mark my words, the electric car will be the death of us all.
Mines the one with the unread copy of "How to Make Friends and Influence People" in...
All for leccy, but...
I'm all for clean green (apart from the copious amounts of oil used to grease it) leccy cars but why can't they build good looking ones? They always look girly and soft. Make it look like a man's car, maybe men will buy them.
Also, get that torque sorted. If I can't tow that one ton of gravel home to line my driveway I don't want it.
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