Yuasa and Mitsubishi Want 5x More Li-Ions

Apparently Mitsubishi is confident that the i-MiEV is going to be really popular. Not a bad assumption considering the popularity of the Smart Car, the fact that the i-MiEV is the vehicle of choice for renewable charging station testing, and the small matter of Japan’s postal service itching to go all-electric for their fleet. I wonder if their UK survey brought back signs of high demand as well.

At any rate, the company along with Yuasa have decided that their battery plant needs to be a whole lot bigger…before they’ve even put out a single battery! So Yuasa is now hunting for a space to build this much larger plant.

Their new plant will be open by April of 2009 and can produce 2,000 batteries, but they then plan to boost production to 10,000 a year “shortly afterward.” This along with Toyota’s new battery plant for the Prius goes to underline the consumer push for EVs and electric hybrids. Now we just need to be able to buy the cars…waiting….waiting…waiting…

Via AutoblogGreen, Businessweek

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written by Ben, August 08, 2008

I wouldn't call it a pretty car, but I love the MIEV concept of situating a smaller motor directly at each wheel, doing away with a lot of the mechanics (that is, moving parts to introduce inefficiency, and break) of conventional cars. I'd love it if these came to the US so I could buy one.