Continuing with our pledge to not leave the Mitsubishi out of our reindeer games coverage of the EV and hybrid scene, consumers in Japan who have bought or expect to buy an i-MiEV will be pleased to know that soon they’ll be able to buy a box that lets them run their house’s electrical appliances from the electricity supplied by their i-MiEV.

Mitsubishi is calling it the “MiEV power BOX” (I am getting so so tired of cutesy caps use – it’s a rEaL pItA to tyPe) and when plugged into a fully charged i-MiEV, it can supply 1,500 watts of electrical power for up to six hours, about what an average Japanese household would use in a day. I suppose in a power outage, you could use your EV to keep your food from spoiling, but when there’s a power outage, what are the chances of your EV being fully charged? If your power doesn’t come back on, how are you going to recharge your car? You’re stuck. Also, while the press release mentions a possible role EVs might play in the “smart grids” of the future, there is no mention of the MiEV power BOX being smart-grid capable. The MiEV power BOX is a dealer accessory in Japan, priced at ¥149,800 (~$1,800 U.S. today). No word yet on availability in North America, though i-MiEVs themselves are now starting to arrive at NA dealerships for demo use. Brown Mitsubishi, in the Toledo area, has a demo on the lot and expects to receive their initial order of 10 retail i-MiEVs in April. The i-MiEV has a MSRP of right around $30,000, before the US federal tax credit of $7,500. I’ll just note that the sales manager at the dealership told the Toledo Blade that those ten cars are all the i-MiEVs they expect to sell in 2012.

Press release and specs below?

Mitsubishi Motors to Launch MiEV Power BOX 1500 Watt Power Feeder for its Electric Vehicles

Tokyo, March 9, 2012 – Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) announced today that it will bring to market on April 27 the new MiEV power BOX power feeder which is capable of supplying large amounts of electrical power from an electric vehicle (EV). Supplied by a Mitsubishi Group affiliate, the MiEV power BOX will be offered as a dealer option for the company’s i-MiEV *1 and MINICAB-MiEV EVs and will carry a manufacturer’s recommended tax-inclusive price of \149,800.
*1: Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle

The MiEV power BOX is an adapter that plugs into the i-MiEV or MINICAB-MiEV’s quick charging connector and is capable of supplying up to 1500 watts of AC electricity from the power stored in the vehicle’s drive battery. It has been designed mainly to power household electrical appliances either when away from home or in an emergency. When connected to a fully-charged 16.0 kWh battery-equipped model the MiEV power BOX can supply 1500 watts of power for between five and six hours, equivalent to the amount consumed by an average Japanese household in a single day.

Much attention is currently being focused on the storage capabilities of high capacity EV batteries as a power source for use in major disasters and other emergencies. This comes at a time when solar power, wind power, and other recyclable energy sources are being promoted and the near-future implementation of “smart grids” which will allow the more effective use of electrical power. More and more people are looking to the EV both in terms of its traditional role of addressing environmental issues and also as a means of addressing ever-growing pressures on the demand and supply of energy. To meet these expectations MMC is pushing forward research and development into related technologies, one of which is the MiEV power BOX.

MiEV power BOX specifications

External dimensions (not including projections)	395mm x 334mm x 194mm
Connecting cable length	1.7m
Weight	11.5kg (unit 9.5kg, cable 2kg)
Voltage	100V AC
Max. power output	1500W (15Amp)
Output terminals (100V AC socket)	One

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

Now that Nissan have their Leaf EV in the works, Mitsubishi have the iMiEV in development and GM are rushing out the Chevrolet Volt, Toyota seem to be feeling a little unarmed in the next stage of green motoring. The NY Times updates us on Toyota’s plans to sell plug in hybrids in about 2 years quoting Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota Executive Vice President, as saying “Toyota believes that plug-in hybrids are a realistic solution among vehicles using electricity.” Funny, because not long ago Toyota had a different stance on electrification. In any case, Toyota remains highly conservative in its approach to electric vehicles. In preparation for a mass market launch, Toyota are leasing and renting 600 plug-in hybrids: 230 for Japan, 200 for Europe, 20 for other countries and 150 for the United States. This will provide Toyota with much needed feedback on how to improve the vehicles, a process GM plans on doing with its Volt contemporaneously with its California consumer rollout.

The new plug in hybrids boast a 57km/l (134 non-EPA mpg), can travel up to 23 kilometres (15 miles) on a fully charged lithium ion battery and with the aid of the combustion engine, can travel up 1400 kilometres (870 miles). Mr Uchiyamada said that the price for the plug in hasn’t been set yet, but hoped to limit the extra charge (no pun intended) for the plug in model to less than 1 million yen ($11228). $11K on top of $23K for a Prius? That gets you a number that’s dangerously close to the Volt’s rumored MSRP of $35k-40k, without the Volt’s 40-mile EV range. Besides, there are already plug-in conversions for the Prius, like A12′s Hymotion, which offer some plug-in performance for about $10k; Toyota will have to handily beat their performance to make a solid case for the OEM plug-in. On the other hand, maybe the fact that Toyota’s testing its plug ins before its mass-market rollout counts for something. Besides, unlike most first-generation mass-market EVs, Toyota’s Prius hybrid is solidly profitable. Rather than race to get ahead, Toyota are building slowly from there.