New Electric Cars

There is a lot of action in the “electric car” scene recently. A few days after GM and Segway introduced their two-wheel two-passenger scooter-car, P.U.M.A., details on more electric cars have begun to surface.

One of these electric vehicles is Peapod, developed by Chrysler’s Global Eco Mobility unit. Peapod accommodates up to four people and goes as far as 30 miles on a single charge. Peapod is a Neighborhood Electic Vehicle. This means it cannot go on highways and its top speed is limited to 25 miles per hours legally. Peapod has a removable windowed roof to give you the feeling as if you are driving a convertible. It has an iPod dock on its dash and even a trunk for your needs. Peapod is expected to hit the roads by October and its price tag is expected to be around $12,000.

Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi, on the other hand, confirmed that its i-MieV (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) electric car will be presented to US market before 2012. A single charge of its lithium-ion batteries will take i-MieV up to 100 miles. Mitsubishi plans to produce 20,000 i-MieVs a year if its partner GS Yuasa can keep up with the demand for lithium-ion electric car batteries. There is no official word on how much Mitsubishi’s electric car will cost but it is expected to be around $30,000. Little pricey, huh?

Hybrid Technologies, who changed their name EV Innovations Inc., also introduced two new electric cars. One of them is the Wave, which has a 170-mile range on a single charge and is able to reach a top speed of 80 miles per hour. The other one, Inizio, has a top speed of 170 miles per hour and its range is 200 miles. The prices of these electric cars are $34,900 and $139,000, respectively.