Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Mitsubishi, LA Auto Show
Here’s a line from Mitsubishi’s press release dated April 9, 2009:
Ending months of heightening speculation, Mitsubishi Motors North America President and CEO Shinichi Kurihara confirmed the i MiEV (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) is being developed for sale in world markets, including the United States.
Reading that, doesn’t it seem that Mitsubishi is saying that the i-MiEV will be for sale in the U.S. someday? That’s what we thought. Turns out, that’s not exactly what Mitsubishi confirmed eight months ago, according to David Patterson, Mitsubishi R&D of America’s chief engineer of mobile emissions, regulatory affairs and certification. When we took a spin in an i-MiEV with Patterson today, he said that he wishes Mitsubishi would confirm that the i-MiEV would someday go on sale in the U.S., and he’s been pushing the company to just say it already. “What we announced in New York was that we would bring an electric vehicle to the United States. That’s the announcement that I was able to convince them to make,” he said.
Granted, in his speech yesterday, Masuko simply said that an electric vehicle would come to the U.S., and didn’t say which model it would be.”I think President [Osamu] Masuko wanted to make that [i-MiEV] announcement yesterday,” Patterson said, but he believes that the company hasn’t decided which electric vehicle they will sell here. At the very least, Patterson is confident that whatever vehicle we get, it’ll be cool. “Trust me, it gets better than this [the i-MiEV],” he said.
Gallery: LA 2009: Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Live photos copyright (C)2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.
Our travel and lodging for this media event were paid for by the Auto Alliance.
LA 2009: Mitsubishi will bring an EV to U.S. in 2011, but it might not be the i-MiEV originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
0 comentários:
Enviar um comentário