How’s this for a big (small) surprise? Mitsubishi is bringing the 2022-2023 Japan Car of the Year outside its home country for the first time. To be shown alongside its new B-segment SUV, the Mitsubishi ek X EV will share the limelight as a show car.
A joint-development with Nissan, the Mitsubishi eK X EV features an optimized EV layout allowing it to have the same level of spaciousness and comfort of a kei-car while cramming in an EV motor and battery. The onboard 20-kWh lithium-ion battery allows for a maximum cruising range of 180 kilometers. Providing movement is a 47 kW (63 horsepower) electric motor. While the peak power is modest, it does generate a healthy 195 Nm of torque—more than, say, a Mitsubishi Mirage.
The eK X EV can be charged using both conventional AC or DC fast charging. A typical household outlet will top up the battery in about eight hours, while using a fast charger takes just 40 minutes to reach an 80 percent charge.
Moreover, it employs a cooling system using the air conditioner refrigerant in the drive battery to control temperature rises in the battery, a high charge level can be maintained even after repeated high-speed driving and quick charging.
No word whether Mitsubishi will sell the eK X EV outside of Japan, but an Indonesian-assembled EV, the Mitsubishi Minicab-MiEV will be shown alongside it. The Minicab-MiEV uses an EV system from the world’s first mass-produced EV, the i-MiEV. The single motor generates 41 horsepower from 2,500 to 6,000 rpm and 196 Nm of torque from 0 to 300 rpm.
In addition, thanks to placing the drive battery under the center of the floor, the EV components are installed without sacrificing capacity, thus ensuring a large cargo space (payload capacity is rated at 350 kilograms). Furthermore, this battery placement gives the vehicle a lower center of gravity, resulting in steering stability and ride comfort.
The Minicab-MiEV is targeted at “last minute” logistics companies.
"A joint-development with Nissan, the Mitsubishi eK X EV features an optimized EV layout allowing it to have the same level of spaciousness and comfort of a kei-car while cramming in an EV motor and battery. The onboard 20-kWh lithium-ion battery allows for a maximum cruising range of 180 kilometers. Providing movement is a 47 kW (63 horsepower) electric motor. While the peak power is modest, it does generate a healthy 195 Nm of torque—more than, say, a Mitsubishi Mirage."
ReplyDelete"The Minicab-MiEV is targeted at “last minute” logistics companies."
For sure, while the Mirage (aka Attrage for Mirage G4 only) has been on sale for eleven in a half years (2012 was the Mirage's debut year for the 2013 model year to think), it seems given how the Mirage is also a completely slow seller in every "Western" market (especially after Mitsubishi Motors left the British and Irish markets two years ago in 2021) could mean that the possibility of the [Mitsubishi] eK to be marketed in all of Southeast Asia might be considered as an end to the Mirage's eleven in a half years old lifespan since given the fact that Mitsubishi no longer markets the Lancer since 2017 (except for China) just as Mitsubishi too doesn't market the current ASX (which is for Europe only and its based on a deeply unreliable Renault crossover), Eclipse Cross (which is based on an out of date Lancer chassis) and current-generation Outlander (which shares platform with the Nissan X-Trail but also the unreliable Renault products) in all of the Southeast Asian market either.
The eK on the other hand, could be an ideal replacement for the "Cold War"-era L300/Delica (aka Hyundai Porter and Ford Husky in South Africa) as the latter is too old-school for this "generation" but as Nissan previously sold a Kijang/Tamaraw competitor in the Philippine market before with the Ford Fiera-based Nissan Bida could also mean that a Nissan version of the eK might be sold in Southeast Asia along with its Mitsubishi counterpart too — which could also believe that both the eK and Sakura could outpace the also antiquarian Toyota LiteAce (based on out of date Daihatsu Hijet) and Suzuki Carry (which is even outdated) but one big problem is that the eK and Sakura are only offered as vans and not pickups due to its front-wheel drive platform (especially smaller front-wheel driven cars are less likely to turn into unibody pickups unlike those Italian Fiat cars being sold mostly in Brazil in Latin America for example.)
I would ask Nissan to bring in the Sakura (twin of this Mitsubishi) also, based solely on looks - my opinion. At any rate, this is welcome news as it gives us hope that smaller EVs from a mainstream manufacturer might be offered soon, seeing how recent EV launches are way pricier than anticipated.
ReplyDelete"seeing how recent 'EV' launches are way pricier than anticipated" - Simply of course, that could be one of the key problems facing Nissan ALONE in the Southeast Asian market even before it (Nissan) got involved with buying Mitsubishi Motors in 2016, however due to the impact of the 24-years old "alliance" between Renault and Nissan means that such a move for Nissan to accept its offering of smaller cars (like the Sakura being based on a Japan-only Mitsubishi microcar) could rather be captured with a funny but unsual image - given how Nissan's decline in Southeast Asia could be stemmed from Nissan's love for making cars that rather look bulkier while they instead get expensive (as hence the reason why half of Nissan's products sold in Southeast Asia like Navara and its Terra SUV sibling instead get lost to other competitors in sales especially in Thailand).
DeleteOne thing for both Nissan and Mitsubishi to keep their microcars selling well in Philippines and the rest of the Southeast Asian region could be as based on the following shown below:
1. Labour costs and even research and technical development could rather go forward to Indonesia since its not only Mitsubishi's main market overseas together with Thailand, but also given the popularity of five-door microcars there (in the Indonesian market thanks to Toyota's Daihatsu only) means that differences between the Nissan and Mitsubishi twins could rather go in effect like what happened to the Mitsubishi Xpander when the latter got rebadged as the Nissan Livina - as a result the Xpander became a strong seller while the Livina twin go bust.
2. Expecting Nissan to bring a microcar in Southeast Asia may not be subjected to tax issues in addition, as both Sakura and eK are exclusive to the Japanese market, then as the Daihatsu Hijet (aka Toyota Lite Ace) and Toyota Raize being one of the few Japan-bound products to be sold more in the Southeast Asian region (thanks to Toyota's reputation there) means it could be extremely difficult for both Nissan and Mitsubishi to review their interest in bringing their microcars into Southeast Asia - concerning the image of Nissan in that region.
3. That means, Nissan and Mitsubishi could find a way to sell their microcars in Southeast Asia by offering them instead with models only powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs), due to the fact that many motorists in Southeast Asia and even the Middle East (as having said that before) strongly and deeply favours cars that are only equipped with engines powered only by fossil fuel like diesel - thereby given how Toyota refused to sell the Lite Ace as an "EV" (because it may just give Toyota's reputation a suffering) means the eK and Sakura in Southeast Asia could be instead sold both as only ICE-powered cars... (Nissan's French owner Renault already signed a deal with Geely last year so the eK and Sakura in Southeast Asia could be sold only with Geely technology and have them compete with the Wigo of Toyota and Brio of Honda...)
Holy crap, this comment is longer than the article itself
Deleteout of topic. how about the mitsubishi colt which just recently has a global debut
ReplyDeleteWell, forget about the Colt since the current one you mentioned is based on a Renault Clio and with the latter officially not available in Southeast Asia means the Clio isn't reliable as the Toyota Yaris (particularly the European, Japanese and Australian/New Zealand) and the Suzuki Swift either - remember the time Renault sold cars in the Philippines (with a different distributor named "Tropical Motors") and they only managed to do less than any small-scale Japanese carmaker like Mazda? (In addition the current Mitsubishi Colt is only for the European market plus Malta and Cyprus and not the UK nor Ireland since Mitsubishi already left those markets in 2021.)
DeleteAlso given how Nissan practically sells the Almera that slowly compared to other competitors, that is in Thailand's case with the Almera being outsold by the Toyota Vios (aka Toyota Yaris ATIV) and Mazda's Mazda2 there, then I imagine that a successor to the Almera for the Southeast Asian market only would refuse to employ the kind of platform that the "Alliance" (as in Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi plus Dacia and etc) is already doing. And while Nissan and Mitsubishi already become part of Renault's technical partnership with Geely (https://www.carguide.ph/2023/07/official-nissan-mitsubishi-geely-to.html) therefore it could be free for Nissan and Mitsubishi to maintain their partnership with Suzuki (which has been ongoing for years but its more limited to Japan) so that when Suzuki already released the next-generation Swift (which could still share the same platform with the current Ertiga and other Suzuki cars) probably Nissan and Mitsubishi could just go AWOL (absence without leave) from the "Alliance" with Renault in exchange for (Nissan and Mitsubishi) dealing with Suzuki to rebadge half of their products as Nissans and Mitsubishis - although Suzuki is already under Toyota's umbrella then it could expect that bringing Nissan and Mitsubishi into that relationship means Nissan, Mitsubishi and Suzuki still partners with each other over JATCO ("Japan Automatic Transmission Company") since that company also provides a variety of automatic transmissions for both Nissan, Suzuki and Mitsubishi cars...
Kei cars wont sell in PH. Its too small and too low. Besides we dont really need more cars on the road. We need more trains and walkways to encorage people to commute.
ReplyDelete