Overpriced EV of the Day: Mitsubishi MiEV

by Edward Niedermeyer

June 6th, 2009 7:33 AM

overpriced ev of the day mitsubishi miev

Mitsubishi has announced Japanese market pricing for its MiEV electric car, and it’s a staggering ¥4.38 million, or $45,660 according to Automotive News [sub]. And what does that buy you? 100 miles of lithium-ion powered range, 4 doors, a 14 hour charge time on 100-volt power (seven hours on 200 volts and 30 minutes on a high-output quick charger) and LED headlights. Unlike Subaru’s $40K+ Stella, however, the MiEV is headed stateside. Eventually. Hopefully the staggering price-point will have come down a bit by then.

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4 of 13 comments

Tech98 on Jun 06, 2009

Dead ringer for a Tata Nano. At 20x the price.

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TonyJZX on Jun 06, 2009

i would hazard a guess the tata nano would end up costing you less to run any which way you cut it

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V6 on Jun 06, 2009

the price shown is pretty much means nothing to me without showing what other cars are for sale at that price in Japan. does a camry cost that much? is it 3-series money? 5-series money? etc etc

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Canucknucklehead on Jun 06, 2009
@Canucknucklehead: You can’t build a couple million without buyers. If this car were the same price as as say, a Yaris, I would snap one up in a minute. That is not going to happen until the economy of scale kicks in. If Toyota, for example, sold only 1,000 Corollas a year, each would cost $50k. Electrics make perfect sense in Asia and Europe where most drives are very short. I rarely drive more than 40km a day so it would also be ideal for me.

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