Mitsubishi presented an all-electric car on the 2008 New-York Auto Show. While the cars which use gas as fuel were forbidden to drive at the show the little iMiEV was running around the hall watching its competitors in their booths.

The miniature four-door car can make it up to 80 miles if the battery is fully changed. Right now it takes 14 hours for it to be charged from an American 110-volt outlet or 7 hours from a 220-volt in Europe. The manufacturers plan to make quick-charging stations which will allow the battery to be charged in 30 minutes.

Mitsubishi plans to sell iMiEV for $25,000-30,000 in Japan. If the electric mini-cars will be in demand, they plan to bring them to U.S. and Europe after 2010.

The company started designing iMiEV in 2005. They put a 5x3-foot lithium-ion battery made by GS Yuasa Corp. under the seats of already existing gas i minicar. Right now iMiEV can run on electricity only. The production of this car is limited by a number of batteries produced by GS Yuasa Corp. In 2009 Mitsubishi plans to make 2,000 cars and in 2010 – 5,000.