Mitsubishi Reportedly Intends to Slash Price of i-MiEV BEV in Japan by 30 Percent
By Scott Doggett June 18, 2010
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to shave the price of its i-MiEV battery-electric car in Japan by 30 percent to around 2 million yen ($22,000) by fiscal 2012, The Nikkei business journal reported today.
The report comes less than three months after officials for Mitsubishi Motors North America said the Japanese automaker was hoping to bring its i-MiEV to the U.S. market next April priced below $30,000.
The automaker last July unveiled the i-MiEV targeted at mainly commercial users and priced at 4.59 million yen ($50,550). To spread demand to regular drivers, it pared back the price by roughly 620,000 yen ($6,820) in April. Combined with government subsidies, the price was brought down to 2.84 million yen ($31,270).
But Mitsubishi Motors sees the need for further price cuts considering the growing popularity of hybrids priced around 2 million yen, The Nikkei said. Factoring in Japanese-government subsidies, the i-MiEV will effectively sell for around 2 million yen ($22,000).
Volume production of lithium-ion batteries, the most expensive component in an electric vehicle, will lower costs sharply. A battery plant coming online in April 2012 will churn out 70,000 batteries a year, with the mass production cutting battery costs to under 1 million yen ($11,000) per vehicle, down from 2.5 million yen ($27,530).
Mitsubishi Motors will also work with the suppliers of motors, rechargers and other parts to reduce component numbers, making volume production easier.
The automaker is pursuing further automation of assembly lines as well. When production of electric vehicles kicked off, automated processes accounted for just 2 percent of total assembly. It quickly hopes to lift this to around 10 percent, on a par with regular gasoline-fueled vehicles, The Nikkei reported.
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