Mitsubishi has been putting a lot of eggs in the i MiEV basket, and with good reason. Mitsubishi recently announced that the vehicle would be on sale in the North American market and that the car has already sold out its 2009 production run on pre-orders alone.

Currently, the i MiEV is only for sale to corporate and fleet clients in Japan, but in the next few years the company will be selling the car to individuals in Japan, Europe, and North America. Originally, the company was planning on building about 20,000 units per year, but now Mitsubishi will be building at least 30,000 units per year by 2013.

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This morning at the New York International Auto Show, Mitsubishi announced that they would be beginning sales of their i MiEV electric car to the public in the near future. The car, which will begin to roll off the line in Japan in July expects to reach production goals of 2,000 units in 2009 and 5,000 in 2010.

Since Mitsubishi announced the car’s sale to fleets they have already gotten purchase orders for all 2,000 units that will be produced this year. This is a strong indicator of desire in the Japanese for small, electric cars. That’s why Mitsubishi has finally announced that it will sell the car to individuals in Japan and other markets as the vehicle becomes available there.

Mitsubishi has plans to sell the car in both Europe and North America, but those sales are slowed by lack of production capacity to satisfy all markets. However, in a not so shocking move today, Mitsubishi has announced that they will release their electric car in the United States before 2012.

The car is currently selling for about $40,000 in Japan, and we should expect a similar price in the United States. If you’re interested, check out my i MiEV test drive. This car really is ready to go on the world market.

For a few months, the Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car has been one of the new vehicles about which I have been truly excited. The i MiEV itself is being rolled out by the company over several years around the world, including in the United States.

However, one of the biggest complaints about the i MiEV is the small space and lack of styling, which is where the i MiEV Sport Air comes in. Sure, it may not be much bigger, but one thing about car buyers is that if you wrap the vehicle in a sexy exterior things like interior size seem to matter much less.

The new i MiEV Sport Air concept is not only sexier, but has a bigger engine (up to 60 kW from 47) and a range of 120 miles. We don’t yet know if the battery pack is any bigger, but according to Mitsubishi this model incorporates some solar panels to help extend the range. If it became reality, which would you pick: the standard i MiEV or the Sport model?

Source: ABG