Mitsubishi's electric vehicle will retail for around $30,000 12/06/2010
Japanese automaker Mitsubishi recently announced the suggested retail price for the I, its new electric vehicle due out in North America sometime in 2012.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Mitsubishi I, which is known as the MiEV in its native Japan, will cost approximately $30,000. This price is roughly 10 percent lower than the cost of the Nissan Leaf, a competing Japanese all-electric vehicle slated to debut in North America later this year.
The source reports that the I's battery is rated at 16 kilowatt-hours, which is 40 percent smaller than the battery in the Leaf. Representatives for Mitsubishi claim that the new electric vehicle will be able to travel over a range of around 80 miles on a full charge.
The carmaker's main focus is to deliver an electric vehicle that is as cheap as possible rather than to extend the car's range, Yoshikazu Nakamura, the senior executive officer in charge of Mitsubishi's electric vehicle program, told the source.
The source reports that the North American version of the car will be wider and have a bigger bumper than the Japanese version due to crash test requirements.