Mitsubishi Motors Green Lights i MiEV Electric Car
Tue, Apr 14, 2009
Mitsubishi Motors is accelerating its drive toward greater environmental responsibility and reinforcing its Drive@Earth global sustainability initiative by announcing today its commitment to develop the pure electric, four-passenger Mitsubishi i MiEV for global markets.
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.
“Electric vehicles are one branch of the automotive landscape and we are dedicated to providing these technology-sourced solutions as an important path for the world’s clean-air options,” explained Kurihara, who stood alongside a Left Hand Drive i MiEV during his address to journalists at the New York International Auto Show. “We believe the i MiEV delivers on the promise of sustainability, suitable range, performance, and innovative packaging and styling.”
The award-winning Mitsubishi i MiEV is expected to be the world’s first practical electric vehicle offered by a major automobile manufacturer when fleet sales begin this July in Japan.
Source: Mitsubishi Motors Green Lights i MiEV Electric Car
Comments on the I-miEv
As mentioned in my previous entries, the impacts and damages of pollution are serious on a global scale. Not only does it affect the environment and the public’s health – it also has the potential to change the world drastically. Everybody has the responsibility to preserve the environment; it’s not just one person’s duty. People can invest in smarter and ‘greener’ choices to better our environment. So it is worthwhile to look at some innovations that help to reduce pollution and purify the air.
One innovation that I like is the I-miev. When talking about pollution, one issue and probably the most common topic that arises are cars and the fuel emissions that they produce. As we know air pollution has huge impacts not only on the world as a whole, but also on everyone’s health. Polluted air could firstly cause different disease to people, most importantly to affect new born babies’ lives. Finding solutions to reduce air pollution is critical now. Vehicle emission is one of the biggest factors that has direct impact on air, and also could cause many problems such as globalwarming. Inventing in hybrid cars can well reduce this problem.
Hybrid Cars 101
Hybrid cars blend the best of the conventional car with the best of electric cars for a winning combination. Uniting the cleaner energy of the electric motor with the long-range power of the gasoline engine yields a hybrid automobile with lower toxic emissions with better fuel economy-sometimes up to 30 miles a gallon or more than conventional cars. Another green innovation would be electric cars. Electric cars are 100% emission-free, having no polluting by-products; therefore they are cleaner than hybrid automobiles. They secure their power from batteries, the sun or hydrogen fuel cells. Battery-powered electric cars are cleaner, and are more fuel-efficient. Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells are emission-free, lightweight, compact, and three times as efficient as gas engines, have excellent ranges, easy refuelling and are totally safe. They produce even lower emissions and higher efficiency than hybrid cars.
Mitsubishi has realized that pollution is a social problem, and that’s why they create smart cars like the I-miEv. The I-miEv is smart, efficient, and stylish.
What this means for the car industry
I strongly believe that the car companies should think globally and environmentally to design more environmental friendly cars in order to help making our world greener. As the population of car driving is keep increasing nowadays, car companies should work on how to reduce vehicle emission and other pollutants that are caused by cars. Not only Mitsubishi is doing a great job considering the environment with its hybrid cars, Audi is also planning to promote its environmental protection electric cars, E1 to E5. Audi already passed obviously has promoted a series of environmental protection electric car the plan, in which including a section small metropolis automobile, section miniature MPV as well as two section race cars.
There are many other companies in the industry that have started to address the issue of pollution. For example Honda, Toyota… Here are the top 30 environmental-friendly cars.
So smart cars are the solutions to pollution?
I think when it comes to transportation and its role in the environment – it will never be perfect. The fact is, the commute that we use to get from point A to B will harm the environment in one form or another, no matter what. Driving, unfortunately is not something that we could just take away from the world. Once an innovation or technology like driving is introduced into the system, things change, and we become dependent with the convenience and luxury of driving.
This Mitsubishi car is not actually “good” for the environment. I mean, how is introducing yet another car on the road going to make the air we breathe any better? The I-miEV and other ’smart’ cars require lot of the same methods as the traditional car, to produce it.
With that said, I however believe that there will always be better choices in the way we commute and travel. We cannot make the air any better, but what we can do, is improve the situation of pollution – before it gets even more problematic. These cars also represent the awareness of car industries to be more responsible in developing new vehicles – and that is a critical step.
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