Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has formally recalled its i-MiEV electric vehicle in Japan.
Sales and production of the EV minicar, which is also sold as the Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero in Europe, along with the Outlander plug-in hybrid crossover sold only in Japan, have been halted since a manufacturing glitch caused one of their lithium ion battery packs to melt and another to catch fire in March.
The production of the Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero has been temporarily suspended due to lack of demand for the diminutive, but very expensive, electric cars, according to Japanese business daily, Nikkei.
The two models are actually made by Mitsubishi in Japan, as the i-Miev, and then sold under the badges of the two French companies. A recent price cut of £5,000 to £21,216 does not seem to have helped much, given that the much larger and far more convincing Nissan Leaf is priced at £25,990.
