Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Hinterland Times gets the first retail all- electric car in Australia. Business manager Faith Baigent and Editor Michael Berry receive their new i-MiEV from Garry Crick Mitsubishi Sales Manager, Darren Hearnden (centre).

NEVER BUY the first product of a new technology or you’ll end up with a lemon. Well, that’s what they say. But I’m a real supporter of renewable energy technology and I believe that someone has to be the first to put their toe in the water.

I can’t exactly put my toe in the water, but I’ll come to that later.

Mitsubishi is the first car maker to get an all-electric model onto Australian roads and by chance, the Hinterland Times is the first commercial business in Australia to acquire one.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is certainly cute – a five door small car with features we now take for granted – from satnav to aircon and blue tooth. And I guess it doesn’t hurt that some people already confuse its shape with the Mercedes A Class.

The i-MiEV has no engine to speak of, just a neat electric motor under the boot and a swag of 88 lithium-ion batteries where the petrol tank should be.

Faith’s test drive in Brisbane revealed an astonishingly nippy and responsive car, and so quiet it was scary. It will certainly be scary for lazy pedestrians who might not hear it coming.

I must say it’s nice to be first to get one, but we want this electrical driving experience to be practical too. So we will blog our monthly travels with the Mitsubishi i-MiEV on our Hinterland Times website: (www.hinterlandtimes.com.au).

We will let you know how the car performs. We might also discover if electricity is a serious contender to fossil fuel or the car turns out to be a cute toy.

We intend to run the i-MiEV in our business – so up and down the hinterland hills, to the Coast and back, and maybe to Brisbane – interviewing people, chasing down ads and delivering magazines.

But there’s the rub. This car can travel up to 160 km without a recharge, but given there are no quick charge stations yet on the Sunshine Coast, there will be no trips to Brisbane from Maleny for the time being.

This car is unforgiving if the batteries go flat. Forget filling a can with petrol. When the i-MiEV stops it means towing home.

Now, I am not a tech head so don’t expect data flow about this car. I will quote only this from the i-MiEV brochure because it sounds important:

“There is no clutch between the motor and gearbox which makes the design much simpler than a conventional internal combustion engine powered vehicle, and allows the high level of torque to be transmitted minimising loss through drive train restrictions.”

I think this means the i-MiEV is very very nippy, and I’ve told you that already…

We take delivery of our i-MiEV the week this edition goes to press and then we need to fit hand controls. I mentioned putting toes in water earlier and, as I am a double leg amputee, I will need hand controls to drive it.

This technology is so incredibly cutting edge that Mitsubishi are flying someone from Adelaide to show us, and Garry Crick, how to operate and maintain the car.

We’re now looking forward to that first night when we plug the car into the garage and know that in the morning the i-MiEV will have a “full tank”.

How much will it cost to run? Ah well, we’ll let you know that as the weeks go by. And by the way, please suggest a cute name to replace the rather techno i-MiEV acronym Use our blogsite and there’s a prize for the chosen name.