Mitsubishi scores one for electric vehicles

Mitsubishi has gone to the top of the class. Originally rejected by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional development and Local Government (DITRDLG), the company's i-MiEV has now been approved for operation on public roads in this country. Mitsubishi claims it's the first time a passenger-carrying electric vehicle has achieved Australian Design Rule (ADR) compliance.

After the initial rejection by DITRDLG, Mitsubishi was forced to postpone the planned drive program laid on for local media, since the journalists would not have been legally permitted to drive the car on the road. Now however, the company has been able to reschedule as a consequence of the government's blessing.

If Mitsubishi has its way -- and the Australian buying public approves -- the i-MiEV (more here) is expected to go on sale in less than two years. On that basis, the company is already ahead of the pack in introducing a commercially viable battery-power vehicle to the local market.

ADR certification doesn't come cheap, so it's arguably a leap of faith on Mitsubishi's part, when the importer hasn't even determined that sales of the zero-emissions vehicle will go ahead in Australia. It's also possible to draw the inference from the car's ADR compliance that the probability of the car going on sale in Australia -- even ahead of the local market research the company will conduct -- is significantly better than 50 per cent.

"We wanted to have full -- 100 per cent -- certification, so you can actually get some sort of registration for evaluation vehicles only, but we wanted to have full certification, so that's why we waited," says Senior Manager Corporate Communications at Mitsubishi, Lenore Fletcher.

Subaru had not been able to secure even a level of approval for its Plug-in Stella to be driven by journalists (more here), so the Mitsubishi result is a real coup.

"We actually had this [drive program] set up about three or four weeks ago -- and then we had to wait," says Fletcher.

"It is a process that you do have to go through and because it is a new vehicle... It's never straightforward. We're very pleased to take all the tests that were necessary -- and get that compliance."

Unlike the electric Stella, the i-MiEV appears to have been developed from the word 'go' as a prospective export market earner. Therefore, the Mitsubishi was presumably closer to ADR compliance than the Subaru would be anyway.

"[Sale of the i-MiEV] hasn't been approved for anywhere in the world yet -- except Japan -- but they're in the processing of doing a feasibility study in the UK and in Europe... and in the US, so it's going to be world standard, basically," explained Fletcher, who corroborated her own remarks by pointing out that the i-MiEV shown in Geneva was left-hand drive -- a sign that Mitsubishi has the car in mind for markets other than RHD Japan or the UK. The more markets the company hopes to enter with the tiny electric vehicle, the wider the cross-section of differing design legislation standards the car must meet.

Fletcher believes that with the i-MiEV's certification, the Australian industry has passed a new milestone and Mitsubishi can take credit for that.

"We are just absolutely rapt to [promote] what we believe is the first electric vehicle to have that [ADR certification]."

It's not yet certain though, that the i-MiEV will go on sale, although the portents are there.

"We're very keen to see the results of this study that we're doing -- around Australia," says Fletcher. "That'll be very interesting, the feedback, because we're talking to users and we're talking to the sort of authorities who will be involved in this process when electric vehicles start to become more prevalent."

No doubt some of the feedback is likely to touch on the price of the car. As we've reported previously (more here), Blade Electric Vehicles can supply a converted Hyundai Getz powered by an electric motor and lithium-polymer batteries for $39,000. Also, Subaru has provided a ball-park figure of $45,000 for the Plug-in Stella and Mitsubishi itself has revealed that the i-MiEV is expected to sell in Britain for £35,000 (more here).

While British pricing isn't necessarily indicative of how the i-MiEV would be priced in Australia, there's little doubt that the electric Mitsu won't be cheap.

"We can't comment on price yet, because we haven't even had the program approved," Fletcher responds.

"There are so many ways to answer this. First of all, it's like plasmas (TVs) when they first came out. They were about 20 grand. Now they're about $1100. That's sort of a really good analogy to think about. We're going to start off with very low volumes being produced. Obviously as [the electric car] gets more and more accepted -- and there's more and more infrastructure -- the price will go down as well.

"So yes, it is going to be more expensive, because new technology always is. Exactly how expensive it's going to be will really depend on many things. For instance, if you have a look at what's happening in Japan -- and how they're going about it -- there are all sorts of different things to mitigate the costing of the actual vehicle. The Japanese government is providing some incentive, some tax relief, for the vehicles to ensure they start to become more prevalent."

In other words, expect Mitsubishi and other interested parties to lobby the Australian federal government for tax concessions in line with carbon emissions trading.

"Also, interestingly, electric or energy suppliers are providing some funding to mitigate that pricing, of the vehicles," Fletcher continues.

"So it would depend entirely on what infrastructure is available here in Australia, who would come to the party and how that would work."

Would the oil industry and its retail partners in Australia branch out into electric power resupply for road transport? That would make sense, in light of the Australian scenario -- a service station on every street corner.

On the subject of infrastructure generally, Fletcher is almost censorious of the slow progress made in this country. She doesn't come out directly and say as much, but points out that Paris already operates 200 fast-charging stations in the central business district and London boasts 20.

"It will happen, and these sorts of things need to be looked at here, for application in Australia, but there's no shortage of people interested in getting involved [here] either."

Fletcher does admit that our "reliance on brown coal" has been a stumbling block in the widespread adoption of electric power for personal transport, but also expresses the hope that issues such as that can and will be overcome. She also believes that as society tunes into a new energy-buying paradigm, market forces will foster an escalating migration to green energy.

"You can buy all the green electricity you want now, as people become more and more aware of it, that [green energy availability] will increase as well."

This is just one element of a rising tsunami of cultural and social change that will sweep through every facet of our lives in the future. For example, the uptake of electric cars like the i-MiEV can be expected to have a far-reaching effect on consumer buying habits and that, in turn, will change the very face of society, potentially.

"At the moment," says Fletcher, "most people have a car in the garage that can take seven people across Australia -- and they use it to go five kilometres to school everyday."

"This car [the i-MiEV] will change that. You will have this car in your garage and you'll go hire the other car, when you want to go across Australia once a year."

The i-MiEV drive program is locked in for Tuesday of next week. Watch out for our review shortly.