We have been involved with Electric Vehicles since the 1960’s. In the 70’s we made a total of 150 Electric vehicles for Electric Power companies- using Lead-Acid batteries. We continued our development of Lead-Acid powered EV’s through the 80’s, but in the early 90’s decided to switch to Lithium-ion. In 1998 we converted our FTO sports car to an EV-to test our Lithium-ion Batteries. This was followed by an EV version of the Eclipse sports car in 2000 –again with Lithium-ion batteries. Also during 2000 we produced the MEEV-II (Mitsubishi Eco Electric Vehicle) an all aluminium space framed two-seat City car. It was a just a concept car –a show model for the Tokyo Motor Show. I would now like to explain some of our recent history. In the case of MIEV, we started development just three years ago, back in May 2005. In the beginning, we produced the Colt EV MIEV with two rear in-wheel motors. Later the same year, in August, we went to a four individual motors drive system for the Lancer Evolution MIEV (Mitsubishi In wheel Electric Vehicle). The following year, in October 2006 we changed again and this time to one single motor driving through a differential to two rear wheels. This is because the “i” MiEV is very compact A segment vehicle. We found people do not want a high performance vehicle, so we changed from using four separate motors to one single motor drive system. This has brought us to a more affordable arrangement. Also, we do not need the additional development time period to develop an in-wheel system. For we want to introduce such an Electric vehicle as soon as possible to the real market.
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