Spring of 2010 has just arrived, and cherry blossom is blooming over this weekend.
And it seems that Electric Vehicle seems start blooming in Japan.
Nissan has announced that their 100% Electric Vehicle "Leaf" has just started accepting pre-order from this April 1st, with the price of less than $30 thousand, after allowing for the subsidiary from the Government. It will run 160km per full charge. Yes, it is still more expensive than traditional gas vehicles. But Nissan is expecting that the cost of EV for 6 years would be same as the one of cars, given the cost of gas fuels. Its sales target of 2010 is aiming to sell 6 thousand in Japan.
Then, Mitsubishi is forced to discount its brand new EV "i-MiEV" by less than $25 thousand, aiming at 9 thousand vehicles in Japan within this fiscal year.
(Sorry to say, but I didn't realize that Mitsubishi could afford to spend such R&D cost, since we don't see much Mitsubishi vehicles in town nowadays.)
(Sorry to say, but I didn't realize that Mitsubishi could afford to spend such R&D cost, since we don't see much Mitsubishi vehicles in town nowadays.)
Similar to the other countries, EV is considered as strategic industry for future. And "Eco" is truly a buzz word to sell things in Japan, largely thanks to the subsidiaries from Government not only for the cars but also various type of products, such as home appliances, PCs etc.
Thus, it is very interesting to keep watching how much EVs are to be sold despite of current weak economic situation.
Nissan Leaf Mitsubishi i-MiEV
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