TheCostaRicaNews.com
On Friday February 25, the Mitsubishi i MiEV, a 100% electric vehicle, went on sale in Costa Rica. Veinsa, a car distributor, is the one who brings the i MiEV to the country.
The vehicle is fully electric and powered by a lithium ion battery, and for both these reasons the car is called 100% environmentally friendly. The battery can travel 160 kilometers on a full charge and its maximum speed is 130 miles per hour. It takes 6 hours to recharge the battery, but in fast charge services (which do not currently exist in Costa Rica) it only takes 30 minutes.
Costa Rica is the first country in America where this vehicle is sold. Japan was the first country to put it to the test in 2009.
The President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, was the first person to test drive the car on the premises of the National Training Institute (INA by its Spanish acronym) in La Uruca, during a ceremony in late February . During this same event, Mitsubishi and Veinsa signed an agreement with the INA in which they committed to participate in the training of mechanics in Costa Rica.
The base cost of the vehicle is $61,500. The corporate manager of Veinsa, Ariel Aizenman, said “This is a very modern technology, so the price seems high, but the savings are even more so. We hope that as demand increases, price will go down.”
An important question is if the government of Costa Rica is willing to drop the vehicle tax, due to the ecological importance that they have recognized. In response to this, Laura Chinchilla said “The costs of these vehicles are not inflated by government taxes – for an industry that still cannot bring down the cost of the technology, even without taxes this is a car that does not reach the middle class sectors.”