i-MIEV 240+ Km e-range

I am not sure anyone would want to ride 5 hours on the highway non stop in this thing. The range is fine if people charge at night at home and the employer has chargers. It still is a small car and maybe more suited for urban use.

I fully agree with HB. The majority do not need 3-ton 15 mpg monsters or trucks to drive to work and/or go shopping. Common sense will eventually prevail, even in USA.

Is the M Nickle and the G Lithium? Is that the reason for the big difference in price/power and the little difference in weight?

"In June 2011 Mitsubishi announced the introduction of lithium titanate oxide SCiB battery technology for its two new models of electric vehicles, the i-MiEV and Minicab MiEV. The SCiB technology was developed by Toshiba, which stated that its SCiB batteries can withstand 2.5 times more charge/discharge cycles than a typical lithium-ion battery. In addition, recharging via CHAdeMO takes about half as long as it takes using a typical li-ion battery, allowing the SCiB battery to reach 80% capacity in 15 minutes, 50% in 10 minutes and 25% in 5 minutes. In terms of performance, the SCiB battery offers a higher effective capacity than a typical lithium-ion battery, which combined with more efficient regenerative charging during braking or coasting downhill, allows the SCiB battery to deliver 1.7 times the driving range per charge of a typical lithium-ion battery of the same size."

We don't need large SUVs for shopping, but they have a role, albeit in limited situations for proper off road requirements for forestry and agriculture work and in countries where sealed / level roads don't exist. Of course people with the usual anti-SUV rhetoric forget this. Hence efforts to price or regulate out SUVs discriminate against the few who do actually need them. For the record, I wouldn't go near an SUV because they are very expensive and thirsty and impracticable. They are not very big inside (as much of their bulk are wheels and bonnet) bad to park and poor for handling. But then I suppose people in the US have got used to cars that are like supertankers to drive. Even if fuel prices dropped dramatically, I'd be happy to hang on to my car, because i'd just spend my saved money elsewhere.

Unfortunately small EVs have their limitations. I don't fancy having to take a long road-trip in one, having to stop every 90 miles or so to recharge. Given that we have to queue at petrol stations, even for a 3-minute fill up, I can imagine people having to wait a good hour or so to get anywhere near a charge point on the highway, assuming of course there is some take up of the technology. And of course limited charge points against possible high demand will translate into high charging prices, just for the service. Visit any motorway service area in the UK and you'll realise the horrific mark-up on items such as fuel - almost $1 per gallon in some cases, just for being conveniently on the motorway. So, this will be fine for the few who hop around town. Although for many there are good alternatives such as buses, trains, bikes and shoe leather and care is needed to make sure that EVs don't compete and undermine the viability of public transport in cities because of their percieved cheaper running costs. But lets also remember that public transport etc, however good it is will never provide accessibility for everyone, so EVs will be valuable to people who do need to make a cross town trip which would be difficult by other means - again there needs to be care not to dicriminate.

For the longer inter-urban journeys, especially roadtrips that involve carrying a lot of luggage for holidays (e.g. camping trips) and for those trips where getting a train would too impracticable or inconvenient, this is where the more conventional car comes into its own. Lets not forget there's other liquid fuel technologies coming forward. So it will be a very long time before the ICE loses its role and value, and they will become cleaner and more efficient as time goes on, as they are beginning to already. So again care is needed not to discriminate against people, perhaps the majority in this case, who think of these trips as a key driver behind their buying decisions.

In essence, whilst EVs have a role, they are not yet a panacea for replacing the whole vehicle fleet. Other types of vehicles and modes of transport have their roles. It's therefore foolish to discriminate and also wasteful in terms of throwing subsidies, and using valuable resources at replacing cars that have a good few years left in them or trying to cover areas with buses that will run near-empty (which would be worse for efficiency than cars). Careful thinking is needed then about policies for transport and car technologies. We'll wait and see.

" 'This results in more deceleration energy being recovered and increases the single charge cruising range by about 20%.'
Hmm this could be the whole gain from regen, not the improvement itself, right?" said yarross

I agree; This is probably empty PR - or they system was really poor before.

"Common sense will eventually prevail, even in USA." As it did for Thomas Paine.

Two interesting things I read on this elsewhere.

First "Mitsubishi will buy the smaller-capacity lithium-ion batteries for the i-MiEV's 'M' grade from Toshiba and continue using batteries made by its joint venture with Mitsubishi Corp and GS Yuasa Corp for the 'G'."

Second, Mitsubishi's President is quoted as saying the cost of the batteries for the iMIEV has halved in only two years and cell prices are set to continue in that direction.

The ranges are based on the hugely optimistic Japanese cycle.
For the lower spec version 40 miles may be more like it.
Pretty useless, IMO.

If you'll remember our exchange in the previous post about the i-MiEV using SCiB batteries, this was kind of my point. Their energy density is so low that they can't not provide the range that the Yuasua's do, making them less attractive for many.

That said, the smaller battery fits my particular driving profile better and I would definitely buy it over the longer range one because of the price difference.

Modular battery packs make sense. There was one other that was going to offer two models, it may have been Tesla. They would start by selling the full model and a year later offer one with fewer batteries.

The interesting thing about the smaller Scib pack is that it will last decades, and the motor in the car wont wear out either.. it may be passed down to the grandkids in some families.

40 miles range and widespread chargers in parking lots will make it a very practical everyday city car... and the kids wont have much room to neck in it :)

I say bring the cheap iMiev to the US also..