Mitsubishi drops i-MiEV price to £23,990 in UK

Mitsubishi has reduced the UK launch pricing of the i-MiEV electric car to £28,990 - or £23,990 after the UK government’s £5k consumer incentive is taken into account.

Mitsubishi originally priced the the first ever mass-produced electric vehicle at £38,699 before the £5k incentive.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is an all-electric version of the i four-seater, with the combustion engine and fuel tank replaced by a 63bhp electric motor and a large battery pack.

Mitsubishi is keen to highlight the low running costs of the car to potential buyers. The iMiEV has a range of 90 miles and costs 96 pence per charge; Mitsubishi claims it will cost £144 for 12,000 miles of driving.

The i-MiEV is exempt from road tax and the London congestion charge, and attracts no benefit-in-kind company car tax. Mitsubishi claims it also has low servicing costs; it says the car's powertrain has only four moving parts compared with over 300 in a typical internal combustion engine.

Over 2300 i-MiEVs have been operating on Japanese roads since full production started in July 2009.

UK models have been involved in end-user trials with UK customers in the Coventry and Birmingham area since mid-December 2009.

US motorists warm to electric car invasion

Four out of 10 US adults are keen to test-drive an electric vehicle (EV), a new study has found, suggesting manufacturers in the emerging sector could be pushing against an open door.

The online study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) found 40 per cent of American adults were likely to test-drive an electric vehicle, lured by promises of improved environmental quality and potential cost savings.

Meet Obama's point man on electric cars

David Sandalow starts his five-mile commute each day by unplugging an orange extension cord connecting his toyota hybrid to an outlet in his brick carport.

His Prius, which was converted two years ago to allow him to recharge the battery from an electric outlet, gets more than 80 miles per gallon and lets him drive 30 miles on a single charge. He fills up his car with gasoline about once every month or two, an oddity in a transportation sector long dominated by the internal combustion engine.

"If you're thirsty, you can get a Diet Coke or orange juice or water. If you're hungry you can get a hamburger or hot dog or a fruit plate. If you want to drive someplace, you only have one choice. You can use gasoline or petroleum-based products," says Sandalow, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for policy and international affairs. "That doesn't seem strange to us ... but it's odd. It's strange that we are utterly dependent on this one fuel source for mobility."

If American consumers begin to shift to electric cars this decade, Sandalow will be one of the government's driving forces behind the change. Crafting policy from the vantage point of an electric car driver himself, the former Brookings Institution scholar has helped shape the Obama administration's ambitious plan to pump billions of dollars into partnerships aimed at developing cars running on electric power, creating an advanced battery industry and helping communities prepare for the transition.

President Barack Obama has pledged to bring 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to U.S. highways by 2015, and turned to the nascent battery industry as one of the hallmarks of his economic recovery plan. Electric vehicles built by general motors and NISSAN are arriving in showrooms later this year and every major auto manufacturer is working on an electric strategy, encouraged by federal funding and tax incentives.

Obama pushed a $2.4 billion grant program to develop next grneration batteries, which could lead to 500,000 batteries a year by late 2014. A 2007 energy law, meanwhile, has led to billions in loans for automakers to retool their plants for fuel-efficient vehicles, including electric cars.

Sandalow, 53, served in the State Department and at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. He was tapped for the Energy Department's top policy job after studying oil dependence, electric vehicles and climate change at the Brookings Institute.

Sandalow has helped the administration speed the development of electric cars and offer incentives for consumers and communities to begin taking steps to transition off conventional vehicles.

His plug-in Prius differs from the standard Prius hybrid, which is powered by a gasoline engine and an electric motor and typically offers drivers better mileage in slow-speed and stop-and-go driving. Standard hybrids do not allow motorists to recharge a battery by plugging into a standard electrical outlet.

Sandalow discovered the merits of electric cars while studying oil dependence at Brookings. His 2007 book, "Freedom From Oil," included a series of hypothetical memos from different Cabinet agencies with suggestions on how a future presidential administration could help the U.S. move away from imported petroleum.

He concluded that electric cars and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles represented the quickest way to begin making the shift. With more than 240 million vehicles on the road, it will take years to turn over the fleet, but he noted that drivers with short commutes — like his own daily trip to the Energy Department from his home in Washington — could use electric power, recharging at night when electrical loads are low.

Following his research, Sandalow decided to get his Prius, a gas-electric hybrid, converted into a plug-in hybrid at a Gaithersburg, Md., auto dealership. The $9,000 conversion, which was developed by Massachusetts battery, included the installation of a large battery inside the spare tire well underneath the trunk and a charging outlet in the bumper.

The conversion allows Sandalow to recharge his battery from a standard 110-volt outlet in about six hours. His family owns another car but Sandalow says his plug-in Prius is used for long-distance travel as well.

Sandalow estimates running the car on electricity costs the equivalent of about 75 cents a gallon of gasoline. "Electric cars are quiet, they're cheap to drive, they've got great pickup and I think they're patriotic, also," Sandalow said. "That combination, I think, means they're the technology of the future."

Administration officials are working with states and cities to help streamline permitting for home charging stations and develop public charging stations for those who want to recharge their cars away from home — all for a new generation of motorists.

Student-Built Electric Car passes 300 MPH Aiming for Land Speed Record

(click to enlarge)

The Venturi sponsored Buckeye Bullet, an all-electric landspeed racer built by students at Ohio State University, set a speed of 307.66 MPH in the mile this afternoon at the Bonneville Salt Flats — and they're going again.

Using a slightly modified version 2 of the streamliner, the VBB 2.5 uses the same powertrain as the previous VBB2 but with the Hydrogen Fuel Cell used to set a world record of 302.877 MPH now replaced by A123 supplied prismatic battery cells.

The steel box tube framed and carbon fiber enclosed car is powered by a custom built 3 phase AC motor with a claimed 700+ horsepower (514 kw), driving the rear wheels via a slightly modified (longer final drive ratio?) 6 speed transaxle.

The Izaro Motors GT-E, Because the World Needs More Electric Supercar Concepts

Yet another electric (or hybrid) supercar has been announced, this time by Spanish Izaro Motors. The car, conceptualized above, would ride on a basalt fiber / magnesium / aluminum chassis and is called the GT-E; of course it is, because E is for Electricity. I'm surprised they didn't paint it green to symbolize how good it is for the environment.

After all the success that can be found in the electric supercar segment... never mind, I'll just believe it when I see it.

According to a mixture of internet-translated texts and faith, it will be available in hybrid and electric flavors putting out numbers that are as lofty as its dreams of production. Here they are anyway: 416 / 495 horsepower (hybrid and full-electric, respectively), 100km/h (62 mph) in under 4 seconds, a top speed of 280 km/h (174 mph), and a price of approximately €55,000-€60,000 (before reservation).

Driving range will be 250 km (155 miles) for the electric or 690 km (429 miles) for the hybrid.

16 Chinese companies team up to form "Association of the Electric Vehicle Industry"

According
to a report
from
China's
Global
Times,
16 of the countries state-owned companies will meet next week in Beijing to formally announce the creation of the "Association of the Electric Vehicle Industry." The association will work on setting unified standards for electric vehicles (EVs) and hopes to improve upon core technologies to make the nation's EVs more competitive in the global marketplace.

The Global Times reports the association will include, but is not limited to, the following companies:

China First Automobile Works Group
Dongfeng Motor Corporation
China Changan Automobile Group
China Dongfang Electric Corporation
China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock
China National Offshore Oil Corporation
Beijing Nonferrous Metal Research Institute

The association's initial goal will be to build an effective information-sharing system that allows automakers, battery producers, governments and other manufacturers to freely communicate about EV advancements without the risk of leaking vital information to outside companies or countries.

The Top Ten electric vehicles you can buy right now (for the most part)

69diggsdiggI think all the news of the Tesla Roadster and the Chevy Volt that came out since last summer has reminded a lot of people that there are some serious contenders to the gasoline engine. The electric vehicle (EV) community certainly thinks 2006 was agood year for EVs. In fact, the past has seen some truly cool EVs, and the list of retired EVs is long and, for some, emotional: the EV1, the Ranger EV, the RAV4 EV and so on. But there should be no time for mourning and instead a look toward the future. Actually, we don't even need to guess what great EVs are coming down the pipe, there are already some wicked cool EVs available today. If you're ready to get off the gas in 2007, consider one of these, the Top Ten Electric Cars of 2007 (Aside from the Roadster, which certainly deserves the Number 1 spot, the list is in no real order)