Mitsubishi i-EV

Just another pie-in-the-sky electric concept car, right?

Wrong, for two reasons. Firstly, we’ve driven it: CAR Online is the first to get behind the wheel of the Mitsubishi i-EV. Second, Mitsubishi reckons it can have it on sale in the UK as early as next year - though 2009 seems a safer bet – for under fifteen grand. That will buy you a properly engineered, four-seat city car with a decent boot, an 80mph top speed, a 100-mile range and a charge time of as little as half an hour.

What if I need to do more than 100 miles in a day?

Don’t buy it. But the vast majority of cars cover nothing like as much, and if Mitsu can bring the i-EV here for that price there will be so much interest from those whom the range suits, those with a second car and those who simply want to be seen to be green that the UK importers will sell every one they can get their hands on. And as we discovered, you won’t be deterred by its dynamics.