After 12 years, Mitsubishi kills the i-MiEV electrical automobile

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV, as seen when we tested it in 2011.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV, as seen after we examined it in 2011. (credit score: Jonathan Gitlin)

It should be canceling season in Japan proper now. First we came upon the surprising information that Honda is withdrawing from Formulation 1 on the finish of 2021. Now, it is the flip of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electrical car. Nikkei reviews that the automaker is asking time on this diminutive battery EV this yr, quoting an unnamed government as saying, “we did not have the funds for and personnel to proceed investing in EV improvement.”

Not like the Honda information, the one actual shock right here is that the i-MiEV was even nonetheless in manufacturing. Mitsubishi has solely managed to promote 32,000 of them since 2009, and right here within the US gross sales of the i-MiEV resulted in 2017.

Because it occurs, the i-MiEV was the primary automobile I reviewed for Ars Technica, means again in July 2011. The specs had been hardly earth-shattering—a 50kW (66hp) electrical motor and 16kWh of lithium-ion battery storage, and a spread of simply 70 miles (112km), which ought to put all of the complaints in regards to the e-tron vary into some context. It wasn’t notably low cost, both: the i-MiEV we examined clocked in at $31,125. (That is $35,935 in 2020 cash.)

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