REPORT: PSA says it's not working with Mitsubishi on plug-in hybrids
Mitsubishi i MiEV - Click above for high-res image gallery
PSA, the parent company of Peugeot and Citroën, this morning denied a report that came out in the Japanese Nikkei business newspaper about a new tie-up with Mitsubishi. The paper had reported that PSA and Mitsubishi would be collaborating on plug-in hybrid vehicles. The two automakers are working together on battery EVs with Mitsubishi supplying a version of its iMiEV to the French company, along with lithium ion batteries for other applications.
However, PSA says that it is developing its own plug-in hybrid technology. This is likely to be based on its Hybrid4 through the road hybrid system that debuted last fall at the Paris Motor Show. This system uses a conventional gas or diesel powertrain driving one axle with an electric motor driving the other. It is mechanically simpler than a power split hybrid and easier to implement. Mitsubishi is also working on its own plug-in hybrid system targeted for a 2013 release.
Gallery: i MiEV
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yanquetino 9:05AM (7/09/2009)
I say... good for Mitsubishi! Let PSA do their "own" thing in the "hybrid" quagmire.
I have said many times that a pure EV like the i-MiEV is the real solution. It makes no sense to also haul around a "backup" ICE in the vehicle every day while commuting, day-in-and-day-out, adding weight and complication, reducing space and electric range, just to solve what amounts to a mere psychological problem: range anxiety.
On those rare occasions when one needs to drive "over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house," Mitsubishi could easily offer a "long ranger" trailer as an accessory, like AC Propulsion developed for the RAV4-EV:
http://evnut.com/rav_longranger.htm
After all, the parent company already manufactures its own generators:
http://bit.ly/R9FxJ
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