Mitsubishi i production

[imievnews]

Mitsubishi Motors North America has kicked off production of the US Mitsubishi i-Miev, which we all know is called the Mitsubishi i in the USA.

It's slightly larger than the Japanese and European models, and even the Canadian version.

The Mitsubishi i will be launched in Hawaii, California, Washington and Oregon in late November according to GizMag, although, I'll believe it when I hear it from Mitsubishi.

Next year, the rest of the United States will get the Mitsubishi i and Canada will get the Mitsubishi i-Miev.

The Mitsubishi i is powerd by a 49kW AS motor fed by lithium ion batteries stored under the floor of the car. The top speed of the Mitsubishi i is approximately 80 miles per hour, which is way faster than we'd want to go in this tiny little electric vehicle! The range is supposed to be 80 to 100 miles depending on the type of driving you do.

The North American version of the i-MiEV, the Mitsubishi i, is being produced at the Mizushima Plant in Japan and will have new bumpers, tire pressure monitoring, and active stability control. The Mitsubishi i also features smart airbags, which can tell where the passenger's seating position is and deploy the airbags appropriately. Aside from those features, the Mitsubishi i will be exactly the same as the Mitsubishi i.

 

[mitchell]

Great! Now all I want to know is when can I have my Mitsubishi i? I live in Washington state and I'm supposed to be one of the first areas to get the Mitsubishi i.

If the Mitsubishi i just started production, how did that teacher in Hawaii get awarded a Mitsubishi i free for a year? Maybe it was a Mitsubishi i-MiEV disguised as a Mitsubishi i? Or perhaps he received the first Mitsubishi i to come off of the assembly line, or it might even have been one of the pre-production demos of the Mitsubishi i?

 

[mitchell]

Here's a cool picture of a whole bunch of US spec Mitsubishi i electric cars lined up in Japan, ready for shipment, ready for someone to drive

 

[mvukovich11]

USA Delivery Countdown is now just nine days, the cars should be on a boat or on shore getting ready to be ship out to the dealers. Can't wait for the cars to hit the dealers sales floor.

 

[mitchell]

USA Delivery Countdown is now just nine days, the cars should be on a boat or on shore getting ready to be ship out to the dealers. Can't wait for the cars to hit the dealers sales floor.

Did you pre-order your Mitsubishi i? If so, have you heard any further details? Did your dealership tell you that US delivery is in 9 days?
Thanks!

 

[mvukovich11]

They have a count down counter on this website. 9 days 10 hours 24 minutes 10 seconds. I live in Northern Wisconsin and will order the car from Minnesota. I have reserved one. I'm hoping Mitsubishi will speed up the delivery of there cars across the country beginning in January of 2012.
http://mymiev.com/?cat=3

 

[rickmaz]

Yep that seems pretty accurate. I just talked with Cutter Mitsubishi this morning, and my pre-ordered "i" should be on Oahu around December 6th they said! I'll be flying over to pay for the car, then wait for it to arrive here in Hilo on the barge. Yea!

Of course I'll have to be charging it on 110V since BestBuy still doesn't seem to be selling the Eaton L2 chargers to folks on islands other than Oahu yet. I might have to just go with the Home Depot charger if they can't get their act together.

The good thing is that I will be able to take advantage of the Hawaii electric car rebates which are currently set to expire at the end of January. $4500 - car, $500 - charger.

The bad thing is that until I have a car registration and signed-off building permit with the charger installed, I can't sign up for Helco's reduced rate off-peak charging pilot program. So I may have to be paying 38 cents/killowat-hour until I get a charger installed, and then will only be paying 18 cents/KWh on off peak hours. A big difference!

 

[mitchell]

I love how that site has a big question mark beside the 'USA Delivery Countdown'!

Rick - December 6th is coming up pretty fast - let us know when you get it!

 

[mvukovich11]

I notice on the website http://mymiev.com/?cat=3
the counter is adding days rather then subtracting them.
The counter when from 18 hours to 3 days.