Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £9,149 to £9,149
Planet friendly, cheap to run.
Interior looks cheap, range fluctuates, seats feel flimsy and unsupportive, expensive lease.
A real electric car that's great for the city and kind to your bank balance.
You can't accuse Mitsubishi of doing things by halves. On the one hand it has a range of performance cars, SUVs and pick-up trucks with enough carbon dioxide emissions to send any planet lovers' blood pressure into orbit. On the other is the i-MiEV, a plug-in electric version of the Mitsubishi i city car.
The i-MiEV (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) is billed as the next stage of development for the i. The body is identical to the regular i, but the power comes from a 47kW motor powered by a pack of 88 lithium-ion batteries. This actually increases the top speed and improves the 0-60mph time.
Better performance isn't the i-MiEV's only trick: it's cheap to run too. A full charge from the mains should yield 100 miles of driving, costing just 45 pence. Additionally, thanks to its zero tail pipe emissions, VED will cost nothing and in some London boroughs you'll get free parking.
Mitsubishi, however, is hoping the i-MiEV's success will be sealed because it's the first all-electric plug-in vehicle to go on sale from a mainstream manufacturer. Unlike current rivals, it's a proper car, not a quadricycle. And it has room for four adults, despite diddy dimensions of less than 3.5m long and 1.5m wide.
The only downside is uncertainty over price. Rapidly fluctuating exchange rates at the end of 2008 means that Mitsubishi is planning to initially lease the cars. And while £750 a month might seem pricey, the firm is confident there'll be enough early adopters, techno-obsessives and wannabe planet savers to satisfy supply.
