Everybody is creating a lot of buzz about EVs and Zero Emissions Vehicles, but Mitsubishi seems to be the only one with a reasonably readily available 'working model'.
First off, pictures of the official production i-MiEV have already been shown and key highlights include the LED head-lights and tail-lights, which should smarten up this kawaii contender to no end!
Some quick and nasty pictures first
This is the socket for regular charging. The other end has been modified into the conventional 3-pin plug you find everywhere in Singapore, which effectively means all you need is either an extension cord or a wall-socket to charge the vehicle.
'B' engages the brake regenerative mode which charges the batteries when the car is going down slopes (like a kind of 'engine brake' effect).
A pretty simple instrument cluster that's really quite self-explanatory: left side shows the state of the battery; right side is the trip meter; centre shows speed and the amount of power being generated by the batteries-> i wasn't paying attention but i reckon the needle goes into the blue zone when B is engaged or when the car is using the braking effect to regenerate battery charge. (please correct me if this is wrong)
Flash Symbol for Quick Charge; but the infrastructure isn't available here in Singapore yet, but at least it's easily adaptable thanks to the 3-pin socket.
There's quite a lot to like about the car: it's cute and it drives better than its ICE counterpart (that's Internal Combustion Engine in EV gobbleygook). Versus the regular 660cc iCar, the i-MiEV is capable of quite an indecent turn of speed and due to the configuration of the battery cells, the handling is quite balanced and the car remains reasonably composed and stable while cornering and at higher speeds.
No comments:
Post a Comment