Price of Mitsubishi i-MiEV announced for the UK

With the first deliveries due to happen in the beginning of 2011, Mitsubishi has already announced the on-sale price for the United Kingdom of the brand’s first Electric Vehicle, the i-MiEV.

The price has been fixed considering the government’s recently announced Consumer Incentive Scheme, reducing the price of qualifying electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. With a price set at 38.699 including VAT, the final price of the i-MiEV will be £33,699 including VAT.

Although compared with the price of other cars the i-MiEV might be considered an expensive vehicle, for example the sub-compact Colt starts at £8,999, Mitsubishi indicates other advantages of the electric vehicle in the UK: for example the consumption of £115 fuel costs for 12,000 miles driving (£0.96 pence for a full charge); the lowered costs in terms of mechanical fixes, with only approximately 4 working parts compared to over 300 in a typical internal combustion engine; exemption of road tax (approximately £300 per year; lower rate of VAT for domestic electricity, amongst others.

Lance Bradley, Mitsubishi Motors UK’s Managing Director, said: “These are exciting times for the motor industry in the UK. This is the biggest change in the automotive industry since it began some one hundred years ago, so to be able to offer our zero emissions car for this price is a truly great achievement.”

He added, “We are aware that, by their very nature, any new technologies always command a premium, which has been true for anything from plasma televisions to cars. Others make price claims and estimations, but we have a real vehicle that is available now and is proven in the real world.”

The first orders of the i-MiEV have already started in January at Mitsubishi’s Electric Vehicle Centre in Central London.