Hume Building Society and Baker Mitsubishi
Bring First Electric Vehicle to the Border

Andrew Saxby, CEO of Hume Building Society and Martin Baker, Director of Baker Motors today announced that their neighbouring businesses have combined to bring the first electric vehicle to Albury-Wodonga. The vehicle, a Mitsubishi i-MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle), will be one of very few to arrive in a shipment to Australia from Japan later this month. “We have been keenly watching the development of vehicles powered by something more sustainable than fossil fuels and, to their credit, Mitsubishi is first to market with such a car. We believe people in Albury-Wodonga will be just as excited about the first electric vehicle as we at the dealership are”, said Martin Baker.

3:41 PM 15/11/2010 Andrew Saxby said “Hume Building Society has already embraced solar power, recently installing a large generating plant at its headquarters in Olive St, Albury. To run a car entirely from green energy means that there is absolutely zero carbon emissions and zero fossil fuel usage during the running life of the car.” Hume and Baker Motors will receive an i-MiEV electric vehicle for use on their company fleet, with employees and staff amongst the first Australians to experience the ground-breaking zero drive-time emissions technology on a daily basis. At this early stage the i-MiEV is not available for sale to the public with the first vehicles being leased directly from Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited. However Baker Mitsubishi and Hume propose to promote the vehicle extensively in the local area so everyone will get a chance to see it. The i-MiEV’s electric motor is smaller, produces more torque at low revolutions and is quieter than a similarly-powered turbocharged gasoline engine (according to MMC in-house tests). Most importantly, the i-MiEV’s motor is cleaner, producing zero drive-time CO2 emissions. Utilising a large-capacity lithium-ion battery system and a compact, high-output electric motor in place of a traditional gasoline power train, the i-MiEV has some impressive technical specifications for a zero drive-time emissions vehicle. Producing 47 kW of power and 180 Nm of instant torque, the i-MiEV’s permanent magnet synchronous motor is supported by a revolutionary lithium-ion battery from Lithium Energy Japan. The i-MiEV has a range of up to 160 kilometres, a top speed of 130 kilometres per hour, and recharges in less than eight hours from a standard 15 amp power point.