£33,699 i-MiEV

According to What Car? magazine, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is going to cost a staggering £33,699 when UK sales start in January 2011.

You’ll be able to knock five thousand off that figure thanks to the OLEV Plug-in Car Grant, but even charging (no pun intended) £28,699 for a small car with a 100-mile range seems crazy. Perhaps those lithium-ion batteries give off some kind of vapour that addles the brain?



Mitsubishi reckons that users will save money when it comes to running costs though, claiming the electricity bill over 12,000 miles will be just £115. The i-MiEV will also be exempt from road tax.



But even with those savings, the figures just don’t appear to stack up. It’s difficult to see how customers will be tempted out of their ‘normal’ cars.



Looking at Mitsubishi’s own range, for example, a £14,849 Lancer Hatchback 1.5 GS2 is almost half the price of the i-MiEV - even after the government subsidy has been deducted.

Part of the problem is that the Lancer’s fuel costs won’t negate such a price difference.



It will, according to Mitsubishi, do 42.8 mpg (6.6 l/100km) on the combined cycle. So, assuming the UK petrol price rises to £1.20 per litre / £5.46 per gallon, you’d spend £1,531 per year on fuel by driving the Lancer 12,000 miles.



Over three years, that’s a total petrol cost of £4,593. A scarily large number, but even so you’d still be better off by over £9,200 buying the Lancer instead of the i-MiEV (ignoring depreciation).



Of course, the list price may ultimately be academic, depending on how Mitsubishi chooses to market the car. The 25 i-MiEVs that Mitsubishi has on trial in the UK are leased out at a more palatable £350 per month, so that may be the method used with production versions too.



Mitsubishi will doubtless be keen to see how competitors such as the Vauxhall Ampera, Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf are priced, not to mention the forthcoming i-MiEV-based electric cars from Peugeot / Citroen.