Mitsubishi Rebrands Its i-MiEV The i, Plans For Fall 2011 Rollout

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Mitsubishi Rebrands Its i-MiEV The i, Plans For Fall 2011 Rollout

The EV wars, they be heating up! Or at least they promise to heat up, a year from now or so. We've already got the Leaf coming out, the Volt (though not strictly speaking an EV) on its heels, Honda's Fit EV (oh yeah, and that Toyota) coming in 2012, and now Mitsubishi is entering the game in a modest way with the i EV.

The i will be available next fall, with pricing "around $30,000," and certainly less once you apply the EV credit. Interestingly, they're not going big, and only plan to sell 20,000 of the things over the next few years. A Mitsubishi spokesman told Autoblog that "the main purpose of this car for us is to get us in as a stakeholder in the electric vehicle game and to help pave the way for our future products." Meaning that the i is just a prototype, essentially. Better and more consumer-oriented cars will likely follow in 2012.

It shares some of its DNA with the i-MiEV, which we heard would be rolling out to US markets in 2011, as the i is. But some body changes have been made, and of course the MiEV has been dropped from the name. I'm guessing because they did focus groups and only 15% of consumers know how to pronounce "i-MiEV". I'm sure I don't. The name seems to live on in their electric bike series, though.

Some specs on this little guy:

• Range: 85mi


• 16kWh battery charge


• 16hr charge at 120V, 8hrs at 240V (quick charger available)


• 63hp equivalent


• 2584lbs curb weight

No info on top speed or 0-60, since really, as long as it goes 60 at some point, that's all you really need to get around the city.

Here's the press release:

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