Green Options

Uh-oh. I guess I’m not the one who has been waiting impatiently for my i-MiEV. The EV I want has sold out all of it’s 2009 production in Japan. In just 60 days!

After the official launch of the Japanese market for its urban electric i-MiEV in July this year, Mitsubishi now has orders for all 2,000 of the cars scheduled for production in fiscal 2009.

Peugeot has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi to begin building and marketing a new electric car in Europe based on Mitsu’s i-MiEV platform. The agreement builds upon a previous memorandum of understanding and solidifies the two companies as partners in next generation car technology.

The car is set to begin production and sale in Europe by late in 2010. Peugeot expects to sell 25,000 of the cars to the European market per year. Citroën, Peugeot’s sister company, will also sell the i-MiEV-based electric car under the Citroën brand.

With one of Nissan’s senior EV project engineers sitting next to me, it felt like I was being expectantly doted on by a protective parent as I drove Nissan’s EV-02 electric test car around a closed course Monday. Given that the EV-02 is only one of two such cars in the world, the reaction was perhaps understandably warranted.

Earlier in the day Nissan had held a joint press conference with Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, Portland Mayor Sam Adams, and representatives from Portland General Electric, to further affirm Oregon’s burgeoning relationship with Nissan to be one of the first and premier locations for the company’s late 2010 electric car launch.

Beginning this summer, a small EV from Mitsubishi will be available on the market in Japan. The i MiEV will be the first mass scale EV production car available from any major auto manufacturer. Although a seemingly unlikely coup, Mitsubishi has been quietly putting great effort into EV development for many years.

As the dust settles out from the 2008 LA Auto Show, Nissan has clearly emerged as the car company to beat in our transportation future.

From a green perspective, even though the Mini E is getting the most hype, the Mitsubishi i MiEV is one hell of a fun car to drive, and the Honda FCX Clarity is cutting edge, those are just cars. The true measure of a car company lies in its strategies, and, after Nissan’s recent media blitz, the company has shown that there is not a single other auto manufacturer out there who “just gets it” like they do.

After my test drive of the Mitsubishi i MiEV at the 2008 LA Auto Show yesterday, I walked away with the distinct feeling that Mistubishi has designed a sporty, relatively spacious, and well-thought-out winner of an electric car.

Mitsubishi is currently testing the i MiEV in California in collaboration with Southern California Edison. Additionally, according to Mitsubishi executive, David Patterson, the company is in negotiations to partner with Oregon after Nissan announced its new electric car partnership with the state on Wednesday. I guess everybody wants to get in on the Oregon action.

We all love the idea of electric vehicles (EVs) rolling quietly down the road, emitting nothing. But our passion cools when we ask: where does that electricity come from and why can’t it come from renewable sources?

Japan, the island nation that likes to think ahead about energy and water conservation, is researching the infrastructure needed to achieve wide use of EVs. Mitsubishi and the Tokyo Institute [...]