Mitsubishi prices i-MiEV electric car at about $30,000

Mitsubishi says it, too, will have a pure-battery car in the U.S. before long -- well, fall of next year. Called i-MiEV (innovative Mitsubishi Electric Vehicle), it'll be more than a year behind the Nissan Leaf's planned U.S. launch late this year.Even so, it'll be among the first wave of true electrics aimed at showroom shoppers rather than fleet operators. Mitsu forecasts a price of about $30,000 before any government clean-car incentives are applied. Nissan's Leaf is $32,780 before the federal $7,500 tax credit. Nissan notes that at least three states -- California, Georgia and Oregon -- offer their own tax credits.

GM says it'll have the Chevy Volt electric sedan out this December, roughly same time as Leaf. Volt runs entirely on electricity, but unlike the others it carries a small gasoline engine that kicks in to run a generator for power when the batteries get low. Leaf and i-MiEV both claim about 100 miles on a charge. Volt is 40 miles, then the gas engine takes over.

All those are best-case mileage predictions. Use the A/C? The lights? Drive uphill? Scale back your range expectations.

Mitsu's i-MiEV is small and cute. We'll give you a full report -- as full as possible after a few days on U.S. streets in a Japan-market version, in a Friday Test Drive column coming soon to a USA TODAY near you. (Toll booths are tricky when the driver sits on the right-hand side of the car, we can tell you that much.)

The MiEV ("My EV," get it?) uses a lithium-ion battery pack beneath the floor in the center of the car, and 63 horsepower electric motor also rated at 133 pounds-feet of torque. The little four-door, rear-drive sedan weighs 2,376 lbs., giving it a dismal burden of 37.7 lbs. per hp. But it seemed suitable for suburban scooting where the 0-t0-30 mph time is far more important than the hot-rodder's beloved 0-to-60 time.

The fat charging cord looks almost like a gasoline hose, and plugs in about where you'd stuff the gas nozzle. Mitsu says it would take about 7 hours to recharge on a 220-volt circuit, a dreadful 14 hours or so on the common 110/115-volt circuit.

The automaker sees it as a second or even third car for folks.

-- James R. Healey/Drive On