Exclusive: Mitsubishi's iMiEV UK launch revealed
Five-door e-car to land here in November
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Leccy Tech The Mitsubishi iMiEV will go on sale in the UK this November, Register Hardware can reveal.
Mitsubishi's iMiEV: 50 of the £20k motors will arrive in November
Mitsubishi told us this morning that 50 of the five-door runabouts will arrive in the first batch, with a further 150 of the cars allocated to Blighty for the first half of 2010. Shipment numbers will increase if demand warrants it, of course.
The firm’s already talking about annual iMiEV demand hitting the 40,000 mark sooner rather than later – up from 30,000 cars the last time a number was mentioned back in April.
Each iMiEV will cost between £20,000 and £25,000 ($30,844-37,800/€22,339-27,900), depending on the vagaries on the Sterling/Yen exchange rate.
The cost of each motor will include the outright purchase of the battery pack - so no leasing arrangements – which will come with a ten-year warranty.
Sales and servicing will be available nationwide from selected Mitsubishi dealers, who’ll join the iMiEV programme in much the same way as Mitsubishi performance car support is currently available from its Ralliart dealers.
iMiEV Sport Air: alas has no definite production commitment
Mitsubishi told Reg Hardware that work on a commercial version of the iMiEV is already underway in Japan - as is development of the iMiEV Sport Air.
Though still officially a technology concept, the clever money is on the Sport Air making it into production during 2010 or 2011. ®
COMMENTS
Price
didn't Mitsubishi say back in 2008 that the iMiEV would cost about 4 million yen when it was released in Japan? That's about £27k, so its actually a little cheaper than expected in the UK. OK, iys still a lot for a small EV but if we Brits will be able to get hold of them for £20k, knock off the £5k Govt electric car rebate then that's a £15k purchase. You could claw that 5 grand back from reduced fuel and maintenance costs in a couple of years making it actually a more cost effective buy than the the regular petrol version.
High Prices and Suckers
The two go hand in hand. How many new gadgets launch for stupidly high prices only for those prices to be slashed once the supply of suckers has dried up?
They'll get takers at that price, people will be willing to pay that to be among the first to own one. And the few dozen morons who do cough the full £25K (minus the £5K rebate) will be furious when the price is 50% lower a year later. However they won't learn from the experience and will be right at the top of the waiting list to trade in their iMEV (at a massive loss) for the next bit of overpriced sucker bait to hit the market.
There's a woman in our village who goes through two or three new cars a year, while her hubby has been driving the same Merc for about a dozen years. I bet she'll get one.
@Geoff
At the beginning of dev of electric vehicles? Hardly. They held the land speed record a century ago.
The cost difference between two different cars in central London - with the congestion charge artificially affecting that (both Cit C1 and Mitsu i petrol versions would have been cc-free under the CO2-related proposals, whilst a 5.0 v8 Lexus is currently free...) - isn't hugely relevant, since central London has excellent public transport, so only a complete div would consider driving there regularly. B'sides, the parking costs would HUGELY outweigh any running costs.
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