Peugeot announces that its iMiEV will be called the iOn
Peugeot iOn EV - click above to enlarge
Peuegot has announced that the re-badged Mitsubishi iMiEV that will sell starting in 2010 will be called the iOn. The new iOn, which of course uses lithium ion batteries, follows a 1994 Peugeot electric vehicle concept of the same name. The new car will be available late next year and Peugeot has committed to offering the electric city car to both retail and fleet customers from day one. No pricing has been announced yet, although it will likely rely heavily on subsidies from European governments to make it affordable. The iMiEV that recently launched production in Japan is going for an eye-popping $47,000 before tax incentives (around $31,300 after incentives).
Peugeot will show the iOn next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Mitsubishi has claimed the iMiEV has a range of 100 miles per charge, but that is based on the notoriously optimistic Japanese 10/15 driving cycle. Peugeot has dropped the range estimate to just 80 miles based on the somewhat more conservative NEDC test, although even that number is probably farther than most most real world users will get.
Gallery: Peugeot iOn EV
[Source: Peugeot]
press release
The new Peugeot electric car: iOn "Zero Emissions"
Peugeot, the pioneer and 1st worldwide manufacturer of electric vehicles will be launching the ion at the end of 2010. Its performance and 130 km operating range is obtained in particular due to the use of lithium-ion batteries, which will provide an efficient response to the challenges of urban mobility and respect for the environment.
With the ion, which will be presented to the world for the 1st time at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Peugeot is incorporating the latest automotive edition into its model range.
With the 106 produced between 1995 and 2003, Peugeot, the pioneer in electric vehicles, remains to this day the manufacturer having sold the most "zero-emissions" cars in the world.
Supported by this history, the Lion Brand intends to continue as a major player in the new market of electric vehicles. Therefore, from the end of 2010, Peugeot will be amongst the first to launch a new all-electric vehicle
in Europe: the iOn.
From launch, this electric vehicle developed in cooperation with Mitsubishi Motor Corporation (MMC), is aimed at both retail and fleet customers (authorities, local organisations and large companies, etc.) due its specifications which are particularly suited for use in an urban environment.
Lithium-ion batteries rechargeable in six hours and 80% recharged within thirty minutes
The town will therefore be the favourite playground of the iOn. With four doors and four seats, a length of 3.48 m and a turning circle of 4.50 m, this all-electric Peugeot vehicle will develop a maximum power output of 47 kW (64 bhp) and a torque of 180 Nm, thus offering reliable levels of performance (maximum speed of 130 km/h). Equipped with a totally comfortable operating range (130 km standard European cycle), the lithium-ion car batteries are rechargeable in six hours using a conventional 220 V socket or recharged to 80% capacity within thirty minutes, thanks to its fast charging system.
These specifications allow this "zero-emission" city car to offer a good level of versatility, comparable in performance and comfort to a small conventional combustion engine vehicle.
Its respect for the environment par excellence, its compact size, safety and simple operation will be its best, but by no means only attributes. In fact, onboard it will also include some innovative services, thanks in particular to the "localised communication unit". This unit not only authorises the emergency call system for which Peugeot is a leader in terms of deployment throughout Europe (location of vehicles at the time of an accident and triggering the dispatch of suitable emergency services) but also authorises data transfer (battery status, distance covered, distance to travel before maintenance is due, etc.) thus providing assistance in the business management of fleet vehicles.
A further illustration of the brand's environmental strategy Ion illustrates Peugeot's commitment to integrate the new automotive edition by offering lots of solutions suited to the different needs of urban mobility.
This car also represents one of the key factors of the Brand's strategy to reduce the environmental footprint and dependence on fossil fuels. As such, from the end of 2010 onwards, customers will discover some
additional solutions within the model range:
 the iOn coming at the end of 2010, is an all-electric vehicle for everyday urban use.
 The 3008 HYbrid4, arriving in spring 2011, will be equipped with technology offering a versatile range of use (147 kW / 200 bhp, 4-wheel drive, etc, with CO2 emissions reduced to 99g/km).
These products will complete a range of combustion engines with some even higher performance engine units in both diesel HDi FAP and petrol variants (VTi and THP technology); engines which are already particularly well placed in their respective segments: 107 with 106 g/km of CO2, 207 with 99g, 308 with 120g, 3008 with 130g and 407 with 129g .
September 2009
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mark Kiernan 4:04PM (9/07/2009)
$47k = 32k euro, so I expect some good incentives from both Peugeot and national and local governments, should come in at about 20k (hopefully) which would make it a very good investment.
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David Martin 4:12PM (9/07/2009)
The first few thousands of this sort of vehicle will go to utilities and government and quasi-government institutions, which are fairly price insensitive, and can finance high up-front costs.
Mass production and cost reductions should be possible in the 2012-2015 time frame.
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Ray 4:25PM (9/07/2009)
How do these guys come up with the number of 106 as the most production EV's ever sold in the world? The Rav4 sold 328 units in 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV
They may mean from the ground up and Rav4 was a ICE car with a EV drive train. Seems misleading. Car companies would never mislead anyone.
In 2003 the Rav4 EV sold for 42k, 29k after incentives new with a range of 120 miles.
Damn guys you can't make all the R&D up in the first year. 47k for the Peugeot? 80 mile range? Seems as if they don't want to sell many. Price is high as their will not be many available right away or never. Who knows? Hope the Leaf is better priced and comes out in more numbers.
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why not the LS2LS7? 4:26PM (9/07/2009)
I think Tesla has sold over 100 too.
GoodCheer 5:29PM (9/07/2009)
I suspect the $42k MSRP of the Rav4EV was not a reflection of the actual cost to produce them. I imagine they came up with a price at which they could sell enough of them to satisfy CARB.
I'm not convinced that Mitsu will be selling these at a profit (in fact I strongly doubt it), but they have been trickling money into R&D for many years, and the MSRP may just cover their variable costs of production, and be what they think the market can stand.
As you say, after the first few thousand (or first few 10,000s) going to fleet customers, costs may come down.
Chris M 9:32PM (9/07/2009)
Tesla Motors has already delivered over 600 Roadsters to their customers, at this rate they will have produced and sold more Roadsters than GM built and leased of the late lamented EV-1 by the end of this year.
I think you misinterprated what they said: "With the 106 produced between 1995 and 2003, Peugeot, the pioneer in electric vehicles, remains to this day the manufacturer having sold the most "zero-emissions" cars in the world." They were talking about the Model 106, not "106 EVs".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_106
Apparently, Peugeot converted some Model 106's into "106EVs", they had a range of about 40 miles. I haven't found any information about how many were made, but I doubt it was really a world record number. Maybe the most sold in France by a French automaker?
kert 1:55AM (9/08/2009)
Actually MIEV isnt a ground-up EV either, its originally a Mitsubishi i petrol kei-car.
Wave54 7:49PM (9/08/2009)
I can't find the original article, but PSA (Citroen, Peugeot has produced over 5000 EVs, ending production in 2005. That puts them at or near the top of the list, at least for today.
Partial article: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-62332695.html
List of production EVs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_production_battery_electric_vehicles_(table)
why not the LS2LS7? 4:26PM (9/07/2009)
$47K for less than 80 miles? Not me, bub.
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Mark Kiernan 4:49PM (9/07/2009)
I agree, considering the Model S is a much better car for a few extra 000. It will really depend on how much the local governments can sweeten it. Personally for me if I can get a good car for 20k (euro) it means that I have recovered any cost over a 5 year period. I normally drive a car for 10 years.
Ray 4:50PM (9/07/2009)
Oh, after some research I see that the 106 is a model name and they produced many of them.
PSA Peugeot Citroen recently announced that it has manufactured its 5,000th electric vehicle (EV), a white Citroen Saxo which was produced at the company's Heuliez facility in Cerizay, France. The company began production of the EVs at the plant in 1995, producing 2,200 electric versions of the Citroen AX and Saxo and 2,800 electric-powered Peugeot 106s.
Well in that case good job Frenches!
Hey why not the Ls... check out my car, I have updated the many glitches that have been ironed out. Guess EV are not perfect yet, especially mine.
http://www.evalbum.com/1892
why not the LS2LS7? 5:40PM (9/07/2009)
That's cool that you're posting about an EV you actually own. Sounds pretty usable (within reason) if it would just hold together. Rather a bummer that the thing can manage to leak fluid from the transmission when as you point out, it doesn't even really have a transmission!
Your charging situation is messed up. 2A at 110V is so wrong. My friend's first EV had an off-the-shelf charger that had to be programmed for his car, maybe yours is misprogrammed?
Do you plan to charge this from 110V regularly? Or are you working on getting 220V in your garage?
David Martin 5:22PM (9/07/2009)
With the overwhelming majority of French electricity coming from nuclear power France has plenty of surplus power off-peak.
Petrol is also around $5.50 per US gallon, and cities congested and densely populated.
These factors combine with French ability to action long term plans as demonstrated by their nuclear achievements.
France with countries such as Korea, Japan and China should be at the forefront of the electric car revolution.
Conditions in areas such as the US and Australia are far less favourable.
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jake 5:48PM (9/07/2009)
US is far better than China. The US grid has slightly less than 50% coal (it's decreasing) so it's not too bad. China is roughly 70% coal. Sure, it might help the city smog to some degree (and it's pretty horrible, esp. in Beijing) but unless China drastically reduces coal usage, it's not a very good candidate for EVs.
David Martin 6:15PM (9/07/2009)
Jake,
in an ideal world China would generate more of it's power using sources other than coal.
They now have the world's most dynamic program of building nuclear plants, and will shortly be mass-producing them.
The cost of the excellent Westinghouse design built in China is around $1500 kwh installed, and they are being built on time and to cost.
They are also investing in a great deal of renewables power.
Considerable effort is also being put into cleaning up coal plants, with many old, inefficient and polluting plants being closed in favour of much larger and cleaner new ones.
Point source pollution like this is much easier to clean up than that from millions of autos.
There is no way that China can use oil at anything like US or European levels - that amount of oil will never be produced.
On top of that their cities are far more compact than US cities and they are the home of much of the production of batteries and electric motors.
Look at the low cost of the BYD electric cars.
Since they are at an early stage of moving to an automative society, they are much more amenable to relatively basic and inexpensive cars, including many which would not pass US safety regulations, or only as NEV's.
Incidentally, in most of the world, including France, there is no objection to going around in very light vehicles such as electric trikes, and they are common already in light petrol versions.
The US seems to me to be about the least favourable environment for introducing EV's.
Liquified natural gas vehicles would seem to make a lot of sense there.
XYZ 6:28PM (9/07/2009)
I don't know what's wrong with the Australian government. With so much sun and land available it is a shame that not ALL power is created by this energy source. I see this as the most favorable condition. Plus, getting in on time could even give you a business advantage in building those solar panels. But all Australia can do is selling of their resources instead of creating a new and better industry.
XYZ 6:33PM (9/07/2009)
...going nuclear is scary. I still remember when Tschernobyl blew up. It was shocking. No mushrooms to eat, no safe milk or chocolate for years and I was not even close to that plant. I don't see nuclear power NOT as clean energy as there is still no solution for the waste plus all the danger that goes with it. Having Chinese building nuclear power plants gives me the $#1+$.
David Martin 7:03PM (9/07/2009)
Chernobyl was built without any containment vessel.
No present reactor design does this.
At Three Mile Island the vessel worked well, and no-one died at all.
In the West there has never been a proven death from civilian nuclear power other than in ore mining.
You can't improve a perfect record, but still safety and reliability are ever getting better.
In practise restrictions on nuclear power has resulted in coal burn, including in countries like Germany which have spent vast sums on renewables.
This has not only led to massive carbon dioxide emissions, but has been proven to have killed many thousands a year.
Solar PV production has led to very large releases of pollutants in China - it uses some very nasty chemicals indeed, with a half life of forever.
In Australia the only relatively cheap form of solar energy, solar thermal, would use vast quantities of water for cooling right where it is in shortest supply, in dry areas with good solar resources.
Playing on the public's understandable concerns, Greenpeace et al have grossly over-represented the dangers of nuclear power, and grossly inflated the ability of renewables to replace fossil fuels.
This must delight the coal industry, which is fully aware that the only practical way to replace coal for base load is to use nuclear power.
France has got most of it's electricity for many years at low cost and perfectly safely from this source.
Try costing out how much a solar set-up for your houe, without subsidy and without relying on selling power when the sun is shining back to the grid at vastly infalted prices and buying it back just when the grid is already straining it's resources would cost.
In hot, sunny areas solar can realistically hope to help cope with peak load for cooling.
As for replacing coal for base-load, forget it.
Johannes 5:45PM (9/07/2009)
I can't speak for other european countries but here in Denmark EV cars er subsided by exemption from the usual tax ranging from 80% to 150% of the car's cost until 2015.
Which makes an EV around the same price as an ordinary car.
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Mark Kiernan 6:02PM (9/07/2009)
Damn you Danes ;)
In Italy we will be exempt from road tax (big wow 200 euros), but some regions may give pretty good incentives.