Mitsubishi i

Here's the first practical, ready-to-go, volume-built, fully certified electric car for Australia. Sadly, it's still not practical for most of us. But it isn't aimed at most of us. It's a pioneer. And once the price falls, it'll make a lot of sense as the small car for many two-car urban households.

Because the petrol-powered Mitsubishi i is a proper car, so's the electrified one, called i-MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle, if you must). Crash-tested, it's a full four-seater with aircon and what motor traders call ‘all amenities'.

Compared with the standard i, the rear engine, transmission and fuel tank have been removed, replaced by the motor and electronics. A thin bank of lithium ion batteries is under the floor. It's all properly production-tested, so you can drive through deep water unharmed.

We are fans of the i for its design and packaging. The electric one compromises nothing on the space, but is more fun to drive. It's nippy off the mark, as electric vehicles tend to be, and there's a simple one-speed transmission. As the added battery weight is so low down, it's smoother-riding and more stable than the standard car.

Those slim batteries are supposed to give a range approaching 160 kilometres, implying a 80-kilometre commute and recharging at home. Hmmm. It ran out for me at 80 kilometres total, mainly because it was a cold day, which batteries don't like. So you'd have to trickle-charge at the office, or commute just 40 kilometres. Which is actually all most city-dwellers do.

A standard mains socket will charge it overnight - if you have a garage. Can't go trailing an extension lead up the street, can you? Which emphasises that until charging points are built into a proportion of parking bays, widespread EV use is but a dream.

Mitsubishi's fast charger will do 80 per cent of a charge in 20 minutes. But it needs three-phase electricity, and is the size of a big fridge-freezer. It'd be useful for fleets, though.

So this is, for now, a car mainly for those who want to look green and will pay big to do so. But in the next two years, Mitsubishi plans to scale i-MiEV production up to 20,000 a year, cutting a third or more off the price. No one else has EV plans as big and as soon as that.

Paul Horrell