Electric car yet to generate ACT sales

Australia's first mass produced electric car, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, has been on the market since August. But so far, just over five cars are being sold - Australia-wide - per month.

According to Canberra's i-MiEV dealer, Commonwealth Motors sales manager Peter Phillips, there are about 10 of the electric Mitsubishis currently driving around the national capital.

With a price tag of about $50,000 and an official range of about 150km between recharges, i-MiEVs in Canberra have mostly been purchased by corporate customers, such as ActewAGL.

But Mitsubishi's i-MiEV key account manager Mark Whyte said that if anything, sales of the four-door electric hatchback were going better than expected.

''There was never any expectation that we would be selling hundreds,'' he said.

Environmentalists and car manufacturers will be among those watching to see if 2012 proves to be a watershed year for electric vehicles in Australia.

Nissan and Renault are due to release electric models to compete with the i-MiEV and Better Place will launch its electric vehicle network in Canberra in the second quarter of the year. Along with recharge points in public, homes and offices, the Better Place network will include ''battery switch stations'' that will enable owners of battery swappable cars (such as the Renault Fluence ZE), to change their empty battery for a full one on the spot.

It is expected that stations will eventually be placed on the drive to Sydney and to the coast.

Better Place spokeswoman Felicity Glennie-Holmes said, ''Our aim is to put in the network that means customers can drive wherever they want, whenever they want.''

ACT Electric Vehicle Council board member Mishka Talent is not surprised that only a handful of i-MiEVs have sold this year.

''I think it's still a very expensive car for what its function is,'' he said, but added that prices were expected to come down as battery technology improved.

Mr Talent said it was early days in terms of the electric car network in Canberra and that there were still infrastructure questions to be answered. This includes details about how EVs will connect to the grid so that it does not become overloaded or incur extra costs for drivers.

Mr Phillips said that the i-MiEV was sparking consistent interest - if not sales - from potential customers and he was getting one or two enquiries a week about the car.

He said test drivers were ''fairly surprised'' about the car's power and that private customers tended to be older Canberrans in their 50s and 60s.

This reporter is on Twitter: @canberracamper