Mitsubishi Motors Corp has slashed the price of its i-MiEV electric minicar in Japan by up to $9,100, aiming to boost sluggish sales as makers of electric vehicles face slower-than-expected acceptance of the technology.
Japan's sixth-biggest carmaker, which started selling the i-MiEV in 2009, said on Thursday it was dropping the price of its top of the range i-MiEV by around 25 percent, or 900,000 yen ($9,100), to 2.9 million yen.
With government subsidies, the model can be bought in Japan for around 2 million yen, it said.
Mitsubishi Motors also cut the price of the entry level i-MiEV by 190,000 yen to 2.5 million, which with subsidies can be bought for about 1.7 million yen.
Electric vehicles have not caught on as fast as some expected, due to concerns over their driving range, the lack of a charging infrastructure and customer resistance to paying too high a price premium over similar-sized gas-powered cars.
Source: NewsOnJapan
