Source:
Sydney Morning Herald
An electric car looks set to go on sale in Australia next year for as little as $30,000 (currently $20,000 US). The top secret plan to sell the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, codenamed Project Green Drive, has been in the pipeline for almost a year led by a team predominantly in their 20s and 30s.
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"Clearly
companies and fleets that really have the resolve to reduce their carbon footprint,'' says McEniry. "Then I think the public will pick them up. In places like Sydney and Melbourne ... for city commuting they're ideal.'' Unlike hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius, which uses an electric motor in conjunction with a petrol engine, the i-MiEV runs purely on electricity, so emits no carbon dioxide (CO2). It has a 47kW electric motor (about 25 per cent less power than a Toyota Yaris) and can be driven for up to 160 kilometres on each charge. It can be recharged in a regular powerpoint in about eight hours, or for just 20 minutes in a dedicated higher voltage outlet.
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"There's been quite a bit of talk about EVs,''he says. "What we're saying now, though, is the future is here, now, today. "These cars are not just a golf buggy electric car. They're a fair dinkum four-seater.''
Mitsubishi is in discussions with two suppliers regarding recharging infrastructure and other issues surround electric vehicles. McEniry is also aware of the negative perception of running cars on electricity derived from coal-fired powerstations prevalent in Australia, but says Mitsubishi is looking at green energy suppliers as part of the project. There's also the issue of the electricity grid coping with cars being recharged; the heatwave in Melbourne this week led to widespread blackouts. Holden has committed to selling the Volt, a plug-in hybrid that runs almost entirely on electricity, by 2012.
Read more: http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleId=60453
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