As far as Tomoki Yanagawa is concerned, fully electric automobiles should be shovel-ready and available for purchase by 2015. Yamagawa is vice-president of sales, marketing and corporate planning for Mitsubishi Canada, and has been making the rounds to show off his company’s newest electric car, the i-MiEV.

The i-MiEV (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) represents the "pinnacle" of Mitsubishi’s green technologies, and, what with the current push to be greener than the other guy, the timing here is pretty good. This is a completely clean-running, zero-emissions vehicle, and according to the company, even taking into consideration its overall emissions and costs during construction, emits just 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide of a similarly-sized internal combustion car. When it hits the road in Canada - probably within a year - the i-MiEV’s expenses per kilometre will be one-third that of a comparably sized gas-engined car, and during re-charge, it’ll cost one-ninth of what it costs to fill up a conventional automobile.

Built on Mitsubishi’s "i" mini-car platform, the i-MiEV is propelled by a 330-volt, 16 kilowatt, 63 horsepower electric motor that is located in the front of the vehicle. It has a rear-wheel-drive layout, and its 22 batteries are of the lithium-ion variety. Mitsubishi is claiming that the i-MiEV will accelerate from zero to 80 km/h a second and a half faster than its gas-fuelled counterpart, which has been sold in Japan for the past five years or so, and it can reach a top speed of over 130 km/h. It seats four adults and weighs about 1080 kilograms.

More importantly, it will have a cruising range of at least 120 kilometres and can be re-charged via either a typical 120-volt or 220-volt household plug, or through a dedicated quick-charge system. When (and if) it comes on-stream in North America, this latter arrangement will be in the form of a small kiosk supplied by Mitsubishi (at additional cost), and will get the system back up to 80 per cent of a full charge in about 30 minutes. Using a 120-volt plug, re-charge time is 14 hours, and half that with 220 volts. All three systems have their own circuits and in the fullness of time, Yanagawa envisions quick charge stations located throughout the city....in parking lots and so on. "Most city drivers drive about 30 kilometres a day, so range and re-charging should not be an issue," he says. Just to be on the safe side, the i-MiEV also has a "limp-home" mode that will give you a few more kilometres if you drain the system completely. Unlike General Motors’ ill-fated EV-1, the i-MiEV will not suffer damage if the system is completely depleted. Yamagawa claims the Yuasa-made batteries will last at least 10 years or 150,000 kilometres.

Behind the wheel, the i-MiEV is simplicity itself. Just turn the key, wait a few seconds for the system to power up and then put it drive and away you go. It has all the usual conveniences, such as air conditioning, power windows, a stereo system and so on, and performance is actually quite lively. One of the intriguing things about electric vehicles is that torque and power are available almost instantly, with no "spooling up" or engine rpm build-up. The i-MiEV’s torque output is pegged at 133 foot-pounds, which is almost double that of its gas-engined counterpart. Aside from the fact that the model Mitsubishi had on hand for the media was right-hand drive, there was no drama or weirdness when underway. The i-MiEV easily keeps up with traffic, and has an "Eco" setting to help conserve even more power. It also features regenerative braking to recapture energy when decelerating. As an urban runabout, it would seem to do the job nicely. It’s far too early to talk about price, but unofficially, the i-MiEV will probably start in the upper $20,000 neighbourhood.

A few questions about the viability of this fully electric car remain, however. For starters, its purported range of 120 kilometres is based on driving the vehicle slowly, in perfect weather, on flat ground, with one occupant, and no accessories being used. As well, the i-MiEV’s performance in the depths of winter is still a huge unknown, occupant protection in a crash has yet to be determined, and the whole quick-charge re-charging stations scenario is very much up in the air. "We haven’t put the i-MiEv through any cold weather testing at this point," admitted Yamagawa.

In short, it’s all good, but what may work in Vancouver won’t necessarily cut it in Toronto, or Winnipeg, or Montreal.