The all-electric Subaru Stella, on sale in Japan from July 2009

Good to see more electric cars on the road!

Good news. Sounds like a great commuter car. $48K sounds like alot, but when you think of all that gas you don't buy, then it may not be as expensive as it sounds. Electricity is cheaper than gas, and electric motors are highly efficient, compared to the internal combustion engine.

Thanks for posting Sam;

I think of more interest would be the wattage drawn to charge the battery in 8 hours or the faster method and that depends on the area you live in and how much conventional fuel is burnt to make the necessary electricity to do the job.

In Japan, electric power is commonly supplied to households at 100 Volt. With a higher voltage, recharging will be quicker. In North America, 120 V is common, but higher voltage is often available at request. In most other parts of the world, power is distributed to households at 230V.

Generally, it costs a lot less to drive a car on electricity, compared to driving a car on gasoline. In many cases, recharging may also be more convenient and less time-consuming than making an extra trip to a gasoline station.

Even when the electricity came from coal, it's still cleaner to drive an electric car than a gasoline car, so a lack of renewable energy supply is no excuse to delay electric vehicles. A gasoline car will emit more greenhouse gases than a coal-fired power plant will do to supply the electricity needed to drive an electric car the same distance.

Thanks for commenting, Quintessence!

Good point, Steve, such a car is a lot cheaper to drive and maintain than a gasoline car. People who live, say, 50 miles away from their work could charge the car at home overnight and again at work during the day. They now spend a lot on gasoline, which is more expensive in Japan, so I expect a lot of interest there from corporate fleets.

Sam. I don't think I ever lived more than 20 miles from where I worked. Had this been available at that time, I certainly would have considered buying one. Now, I live about 5 miles from my part-time job. I use very little gas. I may never own one of these cars now, but I'm proud that I was one of the early hybrid customers. Part of my reason for buying a hybrid in 2001 was to help boost a fledgling product. I hope Subaru sells alot of these cars.

I agree, Steve, as I've often pointed out, 80% of cars are driven for 50 miles or less daily.



Purchase cost of electric cars is still high, partly due to battery cost, but also due to low volumes, which could change rapidly. With further innovation, mass production and economies of scale, electric cars can be expected to become cheaper than gasoline cars, since electric cars have less parts; the motors can be in the wheels, so there's no need for a differential, axle, or shaft. There is no need for a gearbox. There's no need for the starter motor, alternator and traditional battery of gasoline cars. This also means there's no need for maintenance on those items. Apart from the purchase price, cost of driving a car is an important consideration.



Electric cars don't need a regular change of engine oil, filters, gaskets, hoses, plugs, belts, there's no catalytic converter or exhaust pipe to replace. There's not the vibration of gasoline cars causing wear and tear, nor the heat, so often there's no need for a radiator to cool things down.

Here's an example of the innovation taking place in the development of lithium-ion batteries.

Hitachi has over the years sold some 600,000 lithium-ion batteries with a power density of 2,600 W/kg, mainly to car makers and railway companies.

A new lithium-ion battery with a power density of 3,000 W/kg will be mass-produced soon, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2010.

Meanwhile, Hitachi is showcasing its recently-developed lithium-ion battery (pictured above), which has a power density of 4,500W/kg.

If they start building these cars with ultra-light, carbon composites, not only will the range increase, but the manufacturing process will be simpler too. The higher cost of materials will be offset by the simplification of manufacturing. Of course, costs will diminish as such cars are mass produced. There are alot of options!!!

Yes, and carbon composites can be stronger than steel. If the carbon was supplied by CO2 air capture and the necessary electricity came from renewables, it would be carbon-negative as well.

It's an interesting vehicle but still not there yet.

What we need is a framework of feebates to assist the shift to electric cars. Fees on fossil fuel could fund local rebates on clean and safe ways to produce energy. Furthermore, fees on sales and/or registration of gasoline cars could fund rebates on local purchases of and conversions to electric cars.

I think the idea of feebates is interesting as well, but in these tough economic times adding another surcharge on top of fossil fuel would not sit well with most folks particularly if the vehicle only produces 56 miles on one charge and is limited to a top speed of 62 m.p.h.. Until car manufacturers figure out a battery that can last longer and provide more power, the market will not respond.

Technically, the range of such cars can be extended by adding further batteries. As shown on my above comment on the Hitachi batteries, power density is improving each year. The problem is that, for now, this would add too much extra cost.

Subuaru must see this range of 56 miles as sufficient for the market it currently targets, which is Japanese fleet customers. In Japan, many people travel by train, especially if they do travel longer distances. Of car drivers, 60% need less than 30 minutes to commute to work or school. If you take into account that the roads are busy in Japan and that regenerative braking is especially effective in city driving with its 'starts and stops', then this 56 miles radius looks sufficient.

As to the 62 mph (100 km/h) speed limit, that conforms with the maximum speed on Japanese roads. Technically, I'm convinced that the car could easily achieve a higher speed. It's a myth that electric cars lacked the power to drive fast.

For Japan it probably may work and from what you're saying it's pretty much designed for that market.

The Japanese “Next Generation Vehicle Promotion Center” subsidy of up to $14,267 is an investment by Japan to ensure that it will have a car industry in future. By contrast, the Bush administration has driven the car industry into bankruptcy by sustained efforts to sabotage its future. What I'm saying is that the Obama administration should implement a framework of feebates to facilitate the shift to clean technologies such as electric cars.

Just in case there still was someone who thought that electric cars were slow, who do you think wins the race, the Corvette or the 1972 Datsun 1200 with electric motor and batteries?



Clue: The Datsun can do 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds. Also note the KillaCyle electric bike. It can do 0-60 mph in under 1 second, can do the quarter mile in 7.89 seconds and can reach a speed of 174.05 mph. It used only around $0.07 worth of electricity for each run.

Impressive figures!

A competitor of the Subaru Stella is the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which will also go on sale in Japan next month. Mitsubishi expects to distribute some 1,400 i-MiEV models in fiscal 2009 on a maintenance lease basis, mainly to corporations and local authorities. Mitsubishi plans to start sales of i-MiEV to individuals in April 2010 and will start taking orders from next month.

Mitsubishi quotes research showing that the vast majority of cars in Japan are driven for less than 60 km (about 37 miles) daily. Nonetheless, the i-MiEV will have a relatively large 16 kWh battery, giving the i-MiEV a range of up to 160 km (about 100 miles) on a single charge. The larger capacity also means that it will take longer to fully charge the battery. A full charge will take some 7 hours from a 200-volt domestic outlet, or 14 hours from a 100-volt outlet, using the cables supplied with the vehicle, while a "quick charge" (to 80% of its capacity) will take some 30 minutes at quick-charge stations that are currently being established throughout Japan.

The i-MiEV will cost 4,599,000 yen or $47,011 (including consumption tax). The above subsidy of up to 1,380,000 yen ($14,092) would bring the price down to 3,219,000 yen or $32,904.

Source and photo credit: Mitsubishi

Note that the yen has meanwhile become cheaper, which also makes the Subaru Stella a bit cheaper in $US than mentioned in the article. More than a year ago, I discussed the i-MiEV in the article The Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Minivan

As said above, the i-MiEV will carry a price tag of 4,599,000 yen (including consumption tax) when it goes on sale next month, while a subsidy of 1,380,000 yen can bring the price down to 3,219,000 yen. Mitsubishi plans to cut the price by more than half to less than 2 million yen ($21,000) as government incentives and tighter emission rules boost demand for fuel-efficient cars, reports Bloomberg. The company will cut the i-MiEV’s price tag by the “mid-2010s”, President Osamu Masuko said at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo. The price target includes tax breaks and subsidies from the government, he added.