The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2009–2021
Mitsubishi's i-MiEV — first mass-market EV, sold 46,827 ever
The i-MiEV beat every automaker to market in 2009 with 62 miles of range; Mitsubishi sold under 50,000 in a decade and killed it.
Mitsubishi · 2021-03
What happened
Mitsubishi launched the i-MiEV in Japan in July 2009 — the first modern mass-production electric car from a major automaker, beating the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S by months. The 16 kWh battery promised 62 miles of range; the Japanese price was ¥4.59m, roughly $29,125 in the US where it launched in 2011.
The numbers never moved. Over nearly a decade Mitsubishi sold 46,827 i-MiEVs worldwide in total (including badge-engineered twins), and just 2,108 in the US across its entire life. The range — no better than a golf cart's by the mid-2010s — was outrun by every serious rival, and Mitsubishi never updated the platform.
US sales ended in 2017. Mitsubishi quietly stopped making the i-MiEV in March 2021 after 12 years on sale, leaving the electric field to the rivals it had beaten to market. Its successor arrived only in 2022 as a rebadged Renault-based car.
Why it happened
- Being first became being static: the i-MiEV's 62-mile range was competitive in 2009 and embarrassing by 2013, yet Mitsubishi kept selling the same car.
- The 16 kWh battery and tiny kei-car body were fixed by the first design, and the company never invested in a second generation, so the pioneer's lead decayed into irrelevance.
- Mitsubishi priced it as a normal car (¥4.59m) with golf-cart range, a combination that only ever attracted fleet buyers and early adopters in Japan.
The lesson
Mitsubishi won the EV race and then parked: 62 miles of range stayed frozen for 12 years while rivals tripled theirs. First to market means nothing if you never ship the second version.
Aftermath
The i-MiEV was withdrawn from the US in 2017 and ended production globally in March 2021, its place taken by a rebadged Renault Zoe. Mitsubishi's electric ambitions shrank to one compliance car and PHEVs, while the Leaf and Model S — which launched years later — went on to outsell the pioneer by orders of magnitude.
Sources
- The Drive — The 2009 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Was the First Modern Mass-Produced EV, and It Flopped, 6 July 2021 (July 2009 launch, first modern mass-production EV; 16 kWh, 62-mile range; ¥4.59m / $29,125 pricing; 46,827 global sales; 2,108 US sales; US exit 2017; production end March 2021)
- Mitsubishi i-MiEV — Wikipedia (launch timeline, badge-engineered twins, worldwide sales figures, US withdrawal 2017, end of production March 2021)
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