iMiEV electric car - Greenlivingpedia

The iMiEV electric car (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) is a Japanese-designed electric car first produced in 2008 based on a small petrol car model. In April 2008, it became the first factory made electric vehicle to be approved for use on Australian Roads ^[1]

The is a pure electric plug-in vehicle, and can be recharged in about 7 hours. The engine uses no petrol and does not produce any greenhouse gas emissions when it is used, and if recharged using renewable energy, emits zero emissions.

The car will be manufactured in Japan. As of April 2009, about 20 prototypes have been constructed. The first production run of 2,000 is expected to roll off the assembly line towards the end of 2009, and go on sale in Japan by June 2010. No availability date is known for Australia yet.

The specially made lithium ion batteries hold approximately 16 kWh of electricity which yields a range of up to 160km.^[2]

Other features include:

Plug in charging, 1 fast charging socket (30 minutes) and one normal 15 amp socket (7 hours)
Purpose built electric motor, no gearbox
Top speed of 130 km/h (speed limited)
Possible initial cost in the $30,000 to $40,000 range
The cost per kilometer to drive the i MiEV is one third that of a comparable petrol vehicle.
Approximately 30% of the CO2 emissions of a petrol minicar, even taking into account CO2 emissions at power plants that generate the power needed for charging it.