Recently, the electric vehicle has been receiving particular attention as an ultimate eco-friendly car. That's because the electric vehicle emits no CO2 while being driven. Of course power generation emits some amount of CO2 to charge battery. But electric vehicle doesn't while being driven, which is its advantage from all the other vehicles including plug-in hybrid vehicles. In addition, CO2 emmision on power generation can be reduced to zero by using nuclear power, wind power, geothermal heat, photovoltaic power, etc., and it will make the electric vehicle an ultimate eco-friendly car.
It's a quiet driving, because there is no engine equipped and no exhaust sound produced. No sound produced makes drivers comfortable while driving or neighborhoods are not annoyed in the early morning or late at night when the sound transmits easily.
The electric vehicle's accelerating performance is more than that of the gasoline-powered turbo engine vehicle. The electric vehicle can generate nearly twice of torque, which indicates the accelerating power, compare to the gasoline-powered vehicle. In addition, unlike the gasoline-powered vehicle which generates the maximum torque unless increasing the engine speed with an accelerator pedal's on, the electric vehicle's feature is to produce the maximum torque just when you put on the accelerator pedal. Therefore, the electric vehicle can run very smoothly with a great accelerating power. It can also run smoothly free from any shifting gear shocks, because the transmission is not required by using a great-torque motor as a power source.
You can charge the battery of the i-MiEV anywhere if there is any electric power source. So, you do not have to go to the gas station. There are three ways of charging such as using 100 volt and 200 volt of household electric source and quick-charge station. When the battery has almost run out, it takes about 14 hours for 100 volt and 7 hours for 200 volt, and the quick charge can charge up to 80% of the battery capacity (for the battery protection reason) for about 30 minutes. The electricity costs required for single full-charge is only 400-500 yen, which differs in the electricity contract plan. Anyway, you can charge the battery in the same manner as that of mobile phones. So, you could imagine you use an electric vehicle in the daytime and then charge its battery in the nighttime. I believe you'll rarely come back home with the run-out battery, so you could charge the battery while you are sleeping in most cases. Moreover, another big difference from the gasoline-powered vehicle is that you can charge the battery while you are at your destination spot. For example, when you go to the shopping malls where the quick-charge stations are provided, the battery charge will be finished while you are shopping.
Some people may be concerned about the battery exhaustion. We have set the 10-years' replacement-free as a target level of the battery. However, since the deterioration of batteries is actually inevitable, we have been developing the battery, paying much attention to the battery material and the charging method. As a result, we have delivered the battery with the 5-year warranty, and you can use it basically 10-years' replacement-free with relief.
