subject: Will The I-miev Find A Home? [print this page] It's small, offers an alternative to using petrol fuel and is one of the quirkiest looking cars yet to roll off a forecourt - excusing, of course, concept cars - but with all that's going for it and its initial success in its homeland, the Mitsubishi i-MIEV may have trouble finding a home outside of Japan.
On paper, there's a whole world of reasons to want the i-MIEV on your drive or even plugged into the wall socket of your garage. Firstly there's what can only be described as unheard of low running costs - the manufacturer claims that a mere one hundred and fifteen pounds of fuel will last you a jaw-dropping twelve thousand miles. Run that next to the ever increasing cost at the pumps and it's easy to see why the manufacturer is shouting so loud about that.
When it comes to that other cursed motoring cost, there's also reason to like the i-MIEV; it's exempt from road tax.
Given its small and quirky styling it's got that undeniable look of a city car so its exemption from the congestion charge - which could otherwise wind up to the tune of 2k a year - is also going to go down well with city dwellers.
What about the fact that you have to stick it into a plug socket? They also have an answer for that - it'll benefit from the lower rate of VAT for domestic electricity. Hell, it's only got four working parts too - there's usually more than three hundred in a combustion engine - so servicing should see your wallet stay just as packed as it was before.
However, it's the state of the wallet that means the i-MIEV may struggle to get off the forecourts when it hits European dealerships. You can expect a bit of jazz and ads about the fact that the government will fork up 5k toward the cost, but the cost itself would mean you want at least twice such subsidy: the i-MIEV will be hitting the market at a cool 33,699 pounds. And that's after the subsidy from the Consumer Incentive Scheme.
Yes, it looks good. Yes it's a genuine alternative to filling up on unleaded each week. Yes, it's very innovative; so much so it's part of the name - the i-MIEV is the Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle. However, at that price it would take about thirteen years for the lower running costs to offset the extra buying cost.
Thirteen years. Does anybody actually own a car for that long?
Then there's a host of other considerations; will the battery pack last for thirteen years? What are we looking at in residual value? Will insurance costs be lower? As many pros as there are for the i-MEIV there're just as many cons and elements that hinge on the unknown.
If it's to find a home without doing so for a considerably lower price - similar sized cars such as the Citroen C1 start at around 8k - outside of those earnest and enthusiastic celebrities to whom money is no objective when it comes to being smug and seen to be helping the environment.
I haven't even touched on whether the manufacturing process is even slightly green. As for the average motorist, though, while they deserve a lot of credit for pushing electric vehicles to the mass market, Mitsubishi are unlikely to find the i-MIEV high on anyone's buying list.
