Mitsubishi To Go Electric in 2010

TOKYO May 11, 2005; Yuri Kageyama writing for the AP reported that scandal-plagued Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Wednesday it will start selling electric cars in 2010, an attempt to showcase its technological prowess and fix its battered brand image.

The Tokyo-based automaker, struggling to regain customer trust after repeated cover-ups of auto defects, showed off a mini test vehicle equipped with motors embedded in the rear wheels that run on a lithium-ion batteries.

"For a company with small sales like ours, this is a way we can assert a meaningful presence," Tetsuro Aikawa, who oversees product development and environmental research, told reporters at the company's headquarters.

Sales of Mitsubishi cars have suffered since the automaker acknowledged five years ago it had been systematically hiding auto defects from authorities.

Its global production in March dropped 11 percent from the same month a year ago -- the 11th straight month of on-year declines.

Aikawa said the planned mini-electric car, which will be available for test fleets next year, has a cruising range of 93 miles on a single charge and can be recharged in a regular home.

Mitsubishi is targeting housewives who drive to pick up children from school, go grocery shopping and won't need to travel long distances, Aikawa said, adding that they are expected to enjoy owning a car that never needs to fill up at a gas station.

Officials said the electric car will cost slightly more than a comparable gas-engine vehicle but they hope to keep prices down through government aid available for buyers of ecological cars. Although the price isn't decided, it may sell for under 2 million yen ($19,000), according to Mitsubishi Motors.

The company is undecided on overseas sales for the car.

Electric vehicles have been available in small numbers around the world, but they have been too expensive to catch on in big numbers. The fact that they need recharging has been another obstacle preventing them from becoming widespread.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. has succeeded in the market by pushing a different kind of ecological technology called hybrid, which switches back and forth between an electric motor and a gas engine. Hybrids like the popular Prius run on regular gas.

All the world's major automakers are working on another clean technology called fuel cell vehicles, which run on the energy produced when hydrogen stored in a fuel tank combines with oxygen in the air to produce water.