21st Jan - Mitsubishi to use Toshiba Battery For Commercial Electric Vehicle

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will use Toshiba Corp.'s lithium-ion batteries for an all-electric commercial minivehicle it will release in the autumn.

Toshiba will produce lithium-ion batteries for the Minicab MiEV at its Kashiwazaki plant.

Loaded with the new battery, which the carmaker chose for its long life and reasonable price, the Minicab MiEV will be capable of traveling up to 100 kilometers on a full charge.

The vehicle is expected to be priced at about 2.5 million yen, but the actual cost will likely fall below 2 million yen when government subsidies are included. Mitsubishi aims to sell 10,000 of the cars a year, targeting mainly parcel delivery firms and small businesses.

Toshiba will manufacture the batteries at its plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.

Mitsubishi worked with GS Yuasa Corp. to produce lithium-ion batteries for its i-MiEV electric passenger vehicle. The automaker is trying to reduce battery costs -- which account for more than half the price of the car -- by using different battery suppliers for different car models.