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Mitsubishi Will Reduce The Price Of The i-MiEV

Topics: Mitsubishi i-MiEV

Mitsubishi Will Reduce The Price Of The i-MiEV

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
December 6, 2013

In January of this year it was announced that Nissan were going to drop the price of their all-electric Leaf in an effort to boost sales. Although EVs are selling they are not selling as well as the makers would like and all the manufacturers with similar products are cutting prices to gain a bigger slice of a very small cake. This time it is Mitsubishi who will be reducing the cost of the I-MiEV and by quite a lot.

The i-MiEV offers distinctive looks, low running costs and zero emissions. However, its use of the latest battery technology - which even so still has such a long way to go - makes it prohibitively expensive to buy and lease. In fact, it costs around the same as the best-selling and, crucially bigger, Leaf.

With the excellent Renault Zoë to compete with as well, amongst others, the I-MiEV is a rare sight. There’s nothing wrong with the car - owners seem to be very happy with it. It does what Mitsubishi say it can do but you still come back to same old story. Ninety miles to empty, seven hours to top up and so on. Green-minded people will save money on running costs but, because of the very high purchase price, it is touch and go whether they’ll get much of their outlay back later, especially given the concern about EV residuals. So, although the Japanese company will reduce the price, the i-MiEV will still be way more costly to buy than most of the super-economic petrol city cars.

DriveWrite is starting to wonder, despite the humungous R&D costs shelled out by car manufacturers, whether the EV will ever catch on at all. I’ve driven the Zoë and it’s brilliant, but I wouldn’t buy one even if I only did local urban mileage. I like the concept of the electric car and, in a vague sort of way, support the efforts to bring it on but frankly, I have to wonder of it is really ever going to happen.