Mitsubishi sprints ahead with i-MiEV sales launch on July 31

Mitsubishi announced today that it will begin taking orders for its zero-emissions car, the electric i-MiEV, on July 31. As soon as tomorrow, it will deliver the first few hatchback models to several electric power corporations in Japan. Individual buyers will receive them as soon as next April, the company says.

With a pricetag of about $49,000 in mind, Mitsubishi says its target is to sell 1,400 cars in the next year and 5,000 in Japan between 2010 and 2011.

For a while now, the i-MiEV has had the distinction of being the first all-electric vehicle out of any marquee name manufacturer to be mass produced. The company already plans to launch the car in Oregon, where the state’s primary utility, Portland General Electric, has agreed to build a large network of street-side charging stations.

Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV can reportedly travel at up to 80 miles per hour when its lithium-ion battery pack is fully charged — a process that takes between 12 and 14 hours via a standard wall outlet. Of course this time would be much shorter at the higher-voltage charging stations.

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