I bet I know what you’re thinking: “But I thought the 2011 Mitsubishi MiEV only does 100 miles per charge?” Well, brace yourself because it’s actually old news that I had a hard time finding information on. The skeptic in me gets the feeling Mitsubishi are trying hard to forget this event ever took place.

You see, Mitsubishi actually set this record over ten years ago. Way back in 1999 Mitsubishi took a standard gas-powered FTO and converted to run on electricity. Simple stuff: I’ve done it myself.

They used a high-tech (for the time) Manganese Lithium-Ion battery which clocked in at 881 pounds (400 kilograms), then threw on a few basic aerodynamic modifications. Nothing too out-there, just a spoiler and belly-pan like many home-converters do.

Then, after 24 hours of the most severe “hyper-miling” you’ve ever seen, the team at Mitsubishi were able to achieve 1300 miles (2142 kilometres) on a single charge at their test track. The record hasn’t been beaten since.

As you can understand Mitsubishi were immensely proud of this event. At the time, there were press releases and announcements made on Mitsubishi’s website. The media picked up on this achievement too and spread it around the world. All was well.

Then the mood changed. General motors started crushing their EVs, Honda crushed theirs, Toyota tried the same (and mostly failed) and Mitsubishi tried hard to scrub the internet clean from lingering news of this incredible record.

Try a “google search” on this event now, and all you’ll get is scraps of second hand news. Even Mitsubishi’s own website only vaguely mentions the event once with no details and no figures. That’s all they want you to know.

But why? Why is this such a taboo subject for Mitsubishi? Surely they should be proud – unless they’re hiding something of course. Thing is, I’ve always had a feeling that Mitsubishi aren’t really they keen on electric cars just yet.

Yes, I know they’re building one (known as the MiEV) for the mass market, but it’s not that impressive in the scheme of things. First of all, despite ten years of lithium battery improvements, the upcoming MiEV can still only achieve 100 miles per charge. Not only that; it’s bloody hideous.

Something’s just not right there. Even during the guts of the recession in 2009 Mitsubishi still made a profit of $51 million US – and that was without a single electric car sold to the public.
This leads me to believe Mitsubishi are still ultimately focused on their internal combustion engined fleet of vehicles at this moment, with a new models being designed & manufactured as I type.

Yes, eventually they will have no choice but to adopt an all-electric range (as will all car makers), but I believe that eventuality is still more than 20 years away. There’s just too much money in internal combustion to throw it all away yet.

It seems their win-win solution in this case is to make an electric car with the same 100-mile range as the vintage Baker Electric from 1910. This will appeal to the green crowd, while simultaneously making their gas and diesel vehicles look better too.

Then the last step is to try to erase the long range EV achievements of the past so people are none the wiser. They needn’t worry; the general public is naïve with short memories. Right?