PSA goes electric

The must-have addition to any manufacturer’s range at the moment is an electric or hybrid model. PSA Peugeot Citroen is about to go down this route, but will be taking a shortcut. Instead of spending millions of Euros to develop its own model, it is simply going to use a version of Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV.


Mitsubishi will supply 100,000 cars, split between Citroen and Peugeot, over a five or six year period. It’s not just PSA that will benefit from the arrangement. As with any new technology, Mitsubishi recognises additional volume is key to bringing down average costs.

The versions for the French brands will get slightly different styling, most probably around the nose, and different interiors. Apart from re-tuned suspension settings, technically they will be the same as the i-MiEV.


That means the Citroen and Peugeot models will be powered by their lithium-ion batteries only. Unlike cars - such as the Chevrolet Volt - that also have a petrol-powered engine to act as an onboard electricity generator, i-MiEV can only be recharged by plugging it into the mains.

Limited top-ups will though come via regenerative braking, which converts kinetic energy otherwise lost while braking into electricity. It’s a similar principle to the KERS system seen on some Formula 1 cars in 2009.


Plug-in charging takes between six and seven hours, although when ‘quick chargers’ (which are still being developed) become available, the batteries will be 80% charged in 30 minutes. With an anticipated range of 100 miles / 160 km and a top speed of 80 mph /130 km/h, that should be fine for urban use, although longer journeys will need a bit of forward planning to avoid flat batteries.

Those performance figures should also mean eligibility for the forthcoming OLEV Plug-in Car Grant (see this post).

Mitsubishi will launch the i-MiEV in Japan next month. The Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Citroen models are all then expected to go on sale in Europe before the year end, with the United States getting the i-MiEV only sometime during 2011.

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