What's holding back i-MiEV?

It's not enough that a company planning to bring an electric vehicle to market has to overcome the inertia of century-old internal-combustion culture.

There's also a broad range of rules and regulations to negotiate -- and even Australian Design Rule homologation is just one chapter of the story. There are additional legislative measures in the works, covering the very infrastructure the electric vehicle needs in order to take to the road.

During a presentation co-chaired by Origin Energy and Chargepoint Australia yesterday, Mitsubishi spokesman Ashley Sanders told how being a pioneer in the automotive industry can involve setting precedents for others to follow.

In his capacity as Mitsubishi's Product Manager for the i-MiEV project, Sanders explained that his position description also encompassed the establishment of Australian standards for -- basically -- connecting a household electrical lead to a car.

There is a precedent of sorts: aftermarket conversions for ambulances require two different electricians, a 12-Volt auto electrical sparky and a 240V household sparky. It's a little bit like that for the i-MiEV too, but more complex still.

"There's work at Standards Australia, which I'm involved in," said Sanders, "standardising things like interoperability of charge points, plugs and couplers for vehicles -- and charging infrastructure and other standards that need to be raised into the Australian market."

According to Sanders there are international regulations covering crashworthiness of electric vehicles (UN ECE R94) and electrical safety for motor vehicles (UN ECE R100), but nothing from the local bureaucrats.

"We don't have standards currently, in the Australian market, and we're working very hard to bring standards into being so that manufacturers -- not only of vehicles but also of charging infrastructure -- have some certainty to work towards."

Despite the lack of "certainty", Mitsubishi has a clear path marked out for the i-MiEV, with the company's Foundation Customer Group oversubscribed already. Globally too, MMC (Mitsubishi Motors Corporation) is embarked on a strategy of offering electric vehicle derivates of every model in the company's range, starting from this year. At least some of those will reach us here too -- and the other car companies will only sit back and watch so long. Sanders perhaps put it best in conclusion...

"Over the next few years, we'll see a stream of EVs coming into the market from all major OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers -- car manufacturers] and my message today really is the future is now."