According to a report from Japan’s Nikkei business daily, Mitsubishi is developing a pure-electric light truck that will be launched onto the market in the second quarter of 2013.
Mitsubishi has been one of the first carmakers to enter the EV market with its iMieV, an all-electric city car that like the Outlander SUV has also spawned PSA Peugeot Citroen variants.
Speaking of the Outlander, the report states that a plug-in hybrid version of Mitsubishi’s crossover will also hit the market at the same time as the electric truck.
The PX-MiEV II concept that was unveiled less than a month ago at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show may give us some clues to the Outlander’s replacement as well as its powertrain setup.
The plug-in hybrid is powered by a 2.0-liter MIVEC gasoline engine with an output of 94HP, and sports two 60kW (80HP) electric motors, one at the front and the other at the rear. Power is transferred to all four wheels via the acclaimed Lancer Evolution X’s Super-All Wheel Drive that is mated to a new twin-motor AWD system.
The Japanese carmaker has an ambitious plan to launch eight electric or plug-in hybrids and become a global EV leader by 2016.
The i-MieV will go on sale in the States next month as the “i”, while the 2013 hybrid crossover will be a global product. It is still unclear, however, whether the electric light truck, which as Nikkei says will be priced at around 1.5 million yen (US$19,200) after government subsidies, will be available outside Japan.
Story References: Autonews
Mitsubishi Concept PX-MiEV
