Mitsubishi Increasing Production of iMiEV

This week has been a good one for electric cars: Tesla has received more than 500 orders for their Model S that was just revealed last week, which is far more than expected (reserving one costs $5,000), Detroit Electric announced they would have an affordable electric sedan on the market in less than a year and now Mitsubishi is having to increase production of the iMiEV because of strong demand.

The iMiEV won't begin leasing in Japan until this summer, but orders have come in so quickly that they're upping their production. The carmaker had planned to produce 2,000 cars this year, but is now planning on making 5,000. Some reports say they may even be shooting for 20,000 by 2011.

The demand for these cars is exciting and I'm hoping it's a sign that there will be continued and increased demand over the next few years as more and more electric cars are introduced.

via AP

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written by Lou Grinzo, April 04, 2009

I think we're about to see a stunning example in the US of just how wrong the conventional wisdom about Americans and plug-in cars was (and largely still is). Too many "experts" have this weird idea that Americans won't go near anything with a plug, or will, at the very least, be very slow to adopt them. I'm convinced that as soon as Americans see what it's like to live day in and day out with a PHEV or EV that they will LOVE them, and the biggest problem manufacturers will have is keeping up with demand.

The lower fuel and maintenance costs will be a big plus, obviously, but no one should underestimate the "stick it to the oil companies" effect. Many consumers will derive a lot of utility from being able to drive right by gas stations and not care what the price of gasoline is doing this week.

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written by Ken Heslip, April 04, 2009

Yes. Electric cars are back to save the car industry. But do they deserve it after how they treated it in the past.

Mitsubishi are not a good global citizen
written by Simon, April 06, 2009

Mitsubishi are the black sheep of Japanese manufacturing. Their quality standards are far below even Mazda. Witness the law suits in the US and elsewhere for failed safety components, paint peeling off and fading on three year old cars, engine failures... the list is very large (Google is your friend).

Worse, Mitsubishi are raping rainforests in the Solomons, PNG and elsewhere in Melanesia for paper production. Mitsubishi a major coal mining player.

These guys are not good global citizens, their MIEV should be boycotted.