Trawling the internet the other day, I saw an article proclaiming Australia’s cheapest electric vehicle is a 10-year-old Mitsubishi i-MiEV. The headline struck me in particular – because I bought it.

Actually, I bought the sister car of this i-MiEV from the same dealer: 25,000 km on the clock for a somewhat ludicrous seventeen grand plus rego.

The i-MiEV is diminutive enough that I can drive it through just one of the double gates at home, and of course, just like the original Mini, it makes everything else in the car park look like a totally unnecessary behemoth. Especially the horribly compromised, hopelessly heavy, dual cab 4wd grocery getters.

It’s not just the easy parking, note the size of the tyres.

I could wax on with the numbers motoring geeks love: 180 Nm of torque might be a bit abstract, but let’s just sum that up as ‘fun’ in an electric car barely weighing a ton.

How Much Power?

If you mash the accelerator to the floor, the iMiev motor will deliver a peak output of 47 kilowatts.

In car terms, that’s pretty modest. A Nissan Navara pictured above has three times the power. A prime mover has 10 times as much power, with torque that would twist the iMiev like a damp tea towel.

Now compare that to an average household. The electricity service from the street delivers 230v x 63amps = 14.5 kilowatts. Your average 6.6 kW solar power system on the roof will, at best, deliver 5 kilowatts.

How Much Energy Storage?

Home batteries start at about 6.5…