PARIS — Peugeot will launch an all-electric vehicle, the iOn, at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show and will put it on sale at the end of 2010. The company says it intends to be a "major player" in the EV market thanks to the plug-in iOn, sourced from Mitsubishi.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Peugeot and Mitsubishi signed a new cooperation agreement last week under which PSA Peugeot Citroën will purchase 25,000 Japan-built EVs, a Europe-spec version of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, to sell throughout European Union countries. There will reportedly also be a Citroën-badged version. The i-MiEV went on sale in Japan earlier this year.
The four-door, four-seat car is 137 inches long and through all-electric power makes 64 horsepower and 133 pound-feet of torque. Its driving range is 81 miles, and its top speed is 81 mph. The iOn is powered by lithium-ion batteries and can recharge completely in six hours or to 80 percent capacity in a half-hour.
Peugeot says the car was intended as an urban transport that will appeal to individual purchasers as well as government and business fleets. Among the Eurocentric features of the iOn will be a communication system with accident-response capability that also provides information about battery life and elapsed mileage.
Peugeot also promises that it will bring out the 3008 Hybrid4 in the spring of 2011. This one will be a four-wheel-drive hybrid diesel making 200 hp and will be paired with the Citroën DS5 Hybrid 4. A plug-in version of the Hybrid4 is coming in 2012, Peugeot says.
Inside Line says: Peugeot plugs in to the electric-car market in a quick and efficient way and puts itself at the leading edge of the coming European EV explosion. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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