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More than 100 years after the first electric cars arrived in Australia the first of a new wave of plug in cars have arrived a gap of around 110 years between generation one and two. The first of the new generation electric cars to hit our shores arrived on Friday in Brisbane Mitsubishi's i-MiEV.
Two of the full-production cars came into the Port of Brisbane for an extensive pre-sale evaluation program and will be on loan to the motoring media, government fleet assessors and private fleets. The cars were met by Queensland's Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Kate Jones and Mitsubishi Australia's president and CEO Robert McEniry.
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV has the ability to to introduce a new era of environmentally sound motoring to Australia, said Mr McEniry. The arrival of these vehicles brings the possibility of having large numbers of zero drive-time emission vehicles on our roads one step closer to reality.
i-MiEV which stands for Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle, is a city commuter that releases no emissions. Mitsubishi describe the vehicle as perfect for commuting over common distances in a city landscape. It reaches a top speed of 130km/h and has a range of around 160 km from a single charge.
Mitsubishi state this range may vary depending on a number of factors including use of air-conditioning, driving style, road conditions and the number of passengers.
It is literally a plug-in electric vehicle. It is rear wheel drive with three driving modes: Drive, Eco and Brake. It takes about seven hours for a full battery charge from normal 15 amp domestic household power supply. While the car is new to Australia it has been on sale in Japan since July 2009. The car has been recognised internationally for its pioneering technology and contribution to environmental protection. The defined use of the i-MiEV as a city commuter hints at the reason why electric cars ceased production in the first place. The following are examples of electric cars from the early part of the 20th century.
The first electric car was produced by a Scotsman, Robert Anderson around 1832-9 and in 1835 two Dutchmen one designed it the other built it came up with a small electric car. By 1842 there were practical electric cars available with the American Thomas Davenport and Scotsman Robert Davidson both using non-rechargeable electric cells or batteries.
The French later invented a better storage battery in 1965 and by 1881 Frenchman Camille Faure improved the storage battery even further to the extent electric vehicles became a common sight. But, the limitations were distance. By the late 1890 Great Britain and France were well behind the development of electric cars and in 1899 a Belgian electric car set a world land speed record of 68 mph(104 km/h).
The Americans were late to enter the electric car field, but when they did it was significant. In 1897 the first business use of electric vehicles took place when a fleet of New York taxis were built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. In 1899 and 1900 electric cars outsold all other types of cars in the United States. At this stage of North America's history the horse and buggy still ruled and only the cities had good roads. With the popularity of cars increasing authorities started to build better roads between the cities and these were ideally suited to cars powered by the internal combustion engine. In time the electric car could not compete in performance, distance, price or versatility of petrol engines.
The i-MiEV is the first of many plug-in electric vehicles set to hit our shores in the next two years with all major manufacturers set to release cars here. Following the Arab oil scare of the 1970s electric commercial vehicles were brought to Australia for evaluation, but not sold through dealerships.
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