iMiEV coming to UK in November for £20,000-£25,000
by Sebastian Blanco on May 16th 2009 at 12:39PM 
Mitsubishi i MiEV - click above for high-res image gallery
Mitsubishi has increased predicted production rates for the i MiEV but there's still a question if supply will be able to meet demand for the electric jellybean. Company officials briefed us on the global strategy during the New York Auto Show last month, and now we know a few more details about how things will play out in the UK. 50 of the all-electric city cars will be headed to the UK this November, and another 150 are supposed to reach the country by the first half of 2010. According to Register Hardware, the car will cost about as much or a little more in the UK than it will in Japan (where it will sell for $30,000): somewhere between £20,000 and £25,000 (which converts to around $30,323 - $37,905). As previously stated, the price includes the battery pack.
Gallery: New York 2009: iMiEV
[Source: Register Hardware via All Cars Electric]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jake 1:16PM (5/16/2009)
A little more than I expected, but usually in the UK the cars do cost more (when it gets over to America the prices are closer to just replacing the pound sign with the dollar sign than with converting between the two currencies), so taking into that account, it'll likely be more like $20-30k rather than $30-40k.
Reply
Yanquetino 2:25PM (5/16/2009)
Jake: I hope you're right about the price. Personally, however, I'd be willing to pay $30-$40K for the vehicle if that's the best price that Mitubishi can offer --at least until production ramps up to thousands per year.
Tyler Durden 2:09PM (5/16/2009)
Ladies and Gents,
We're about to head into an accelerated / unprecedented period of positive change - related to the automobile - in the world. This change will push the oilers out as alternative enery vehicles become the norm.
New products, new competition, fresh faces, new ideas.
It's going to be so much fun.
I love the world and the environment as much as the next guy, but part of my pure ecstasy will come from seeing people (who profit from the poisoning of our world) suffer (really suffer) as purchasing habits change for the better.
Reply
Mike!!ekiM 4:34PM (5/16/2009)
We will see.
We will see have far the oil industry will go to fight this off.
I wish I had your optimism.
Matt 4:28PM (5/16/2009)
What's the range on this thing, and when do they plan on getting them to the US?
Reply
Mike!!ekiM 4:38PM (5/16/2009)
It looks good in White.
I could see myself driving that thing.
Reply
Rishard 6:53PM (5/16/2009)
At the NY Autoshow the prices discussed were closer to 20-25k which had me wanting one right then and there. Over 30 and I'll have to think about it.
Reply
al 6:41PM (5/16/2009)
That is very expensive, considering the normal petrol i £9,149.01, and that is from the website, not counting what discounts you can get from dealers.
You could get a Mini, and morre than 8000 litres of petrol for the same price.
Reply
jharlan 6:59PM (5/16/2009)
I think they are a little optimistic about demand at that price. Auto demand is kind of elastic, and with all the new EV manufacturers coming online in the next couple of years I expect small EVs will have to expect a small car price. In other words, one shouldn't have to pay a Buick Lucerne price for a glorified golf cart. (Man can I see the hate coming out now!)
Reply
GoodCheer 10:15PM (5/16/2009)
At the risk of troll-bating.... gas powered golf carts at least have start-stop ("micro-hybrid" though I object to the term) technology. So that makes them more sophisticated than a Buick Lucerne, right? I'd rather have a 'glorified golf cart' than a dumbed down one.
harlanx6 11:03AM (5/17/2009)
Good point, Goodcheer, but there is no glorified golf cart I would rather drive than a roomy, comfortable and surprisingly economical Buick, but that is a personal choice. I think you are going to have some great choices in EVs soon, but still, $30K+ for an iMiev is a little hard to take, when $30K can buy an extremely well equipped Prius or Fusion and an Insight is much cheaper. Some will choose the iMIEV, for personal reasons, but my point is at that price I can't see much volume. I think they are mostly being chosen by people spending other peoples (read taxpayers) money. The poor old taxpayer has to speak out because he has few advocates in government.
Yanquetino 9:56PM (5/16/2009)
Sigh... this objection to the price of an EV comes up all the time in this forum.
Does anybody really expect emerging technology to come cheap? I mean, what did folks pay for the first calculators, DVD players, cell phones, laptops, iPods, or flat-screen TVs? Surely you can't expect a few hundred EVs to compete in price with the tens of thousands of ICEs coming off the assembly line!
And so many forget that an ICE will likely cost just as much in the long run, given the escalating price difference between gasoline and electricity. No, I don't know for certain what prices will be in the future, so I can only project 'guess'timates. Yet with that caveat in mind, when I calculate driving 12,000 miles per year, over a ten-year period, with an inflation rate similar to recent trends, I foresee that the operating costs for an EV would be about $13,000 less than for an ICE that gets 30 mpg.
Yeah, some would prefer to pay that amount of money over time at the gas pump, rather than up front at the showroom, but... let's not forget that, unlike the EV, the ICE will also be spewing out about 76,000 pounds of C02 into the atmosphere over that ten-year period.
Just not worth it to pay a higher price for the EV? Let's just keep putting our money into the Middle-Eastern "drug" dealers' pockets instead? I wonder what our grandchildren will have to say about that a few years from now.
Reply
mister nomer 12:06AM (5/17/2009)
Yanquetino says "Sigh... this objection to the price of an EV comes up all the time in this forum."
'Cuz smugness don't pay the MF-in' rent, dude. = ))
Look, we both want less greenhouse gas emissions but there's nothing wrong with each of us trying to get a deal that makes sense.
What's wrong with someone fresh out of college, living in an apartment, buying a cheap ICE car with decent MPG and then buying some carbon offsets? What's wrong with a retiree living in a condo buying a hybrid?
If ICE/hybrid car + maintenance + cost-of-gas + offsets is
mister nomer 12:08AM (5/17/2009)
If ICE/hybrid car + maintenance + cost-of-gas + offsets is
mister nomer 12:11AM (5/17/2009)
... is less than or equal to the cost of an EV what's the harm in that?
Our objective is to persuade people to use less gas not hang scarlet letters on 'em (It's not exactly a long term growth strategy of inclusiveness). = )
The best way to get people to use less gas (and provide us with the benefits you mentioned) is to pass a gas tax hike (along with an offsetting tax decrease for working class folks) and let people make the choices that make the most sense for them.
Thank you for your time.
Yanquetino 10:20AM (5/17/2009)
mister nomer: "What's the harm in that?" I think I already tried to point that out. To little avail.
mister nomer 5:26PM (5/17/2009)
No it's not to no avail.
In the U.S. at least, there's approximately 300 millions cars. In a good year, we buy about 16 million of them. Even if every car sold is an EV it's going to take over 18 years for everyone in the U.S. to have an EV.
And we both know that EVs aren't going to cross the one-million-sales-per-year mark, let alone make up a majority of cars sold for awhile because EVs are still relatively expensive and still don't meet the needs of a large number of people.
So, in the meantime, our best chance to lower the amount of greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere is to encourage everyone to do the best they can.
People who can to buy an EV should go for it. Everyone else should try to buy a hybrid or a high MPG ICE, take a look at carbon offsets, and use public transit for commuting to work.
We can do waaaaay more good by recruiting millions of people to do these things than by having a few thousand people buy EVs and pat themselves on the back for it.
What's the harm in that? = ))
moogy 10:31PM (5/16/2009)
I agree 20K to 30K is a more reasonable starting point. 30K to 40K is just to high for that type of car.
Reply
Snoopy 10:45PM (5/16/2009)
Has anybody come up with a good calculation of the real world costs of purchasing, charging and maintaining an EV compared to the costs of purchasing, fueling and maintaining a standard car?
That may give people a better idea of the costs.
Reply
Chris M 4:17AM (5/17/2009)
It gets complicated, because it can vary depending on the local cost of petrol and the local cost of electricity, and how much you drive.
Initial purchase cost is higher, but the per mile fuel cost is much lower for plug-ins. Where I live in California, the per mile cost of driving electric is about 1/3 the cost of driving a hybrid, and 1/5 the cost of driving a gasser. In Britain, fuel taxes are much higher, so the ratio would be even better.
And don't forget the London Congestion Charge - EVs are exempt.