Mitsubishi Motors is extending its partnership with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen to electric cars, it has been reported in Japan.
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The [often accurate] Nikkei business daily on Monday said, without citing sources, that MMC, which is aiming to be the first major automaker to bring an electric vehicle to the mass market, will provide its French partner with technology for conversion of electricity into drive power and the prevention of battery overheating, according to a Forbes/Reuters report.
The paper said Mitsubishi Motors would supply lithium-ion batteries to Peugeot and the two automakers may also explore the possibility of forming a joint venture to produce electric vehicles.
The report said Mitsubishi, with GS Yuasa, has developed a next-generation lithium-ion battery that it says can store more energy in a small package, with improved safety.
The reports also noted that Mitsubishi’s prototype four-door i MiEV electric vehicle can run for 80 miles on a full charge and that MMC plans to begin selling the model in 2009 to fleet customers in Japan and to the general public by 2010.
Mitsubishi Motors Europe spokesman Daniel Nacass declined to comment specifically on the report.
“We talk with PSA about all kinds of things,” he said.
Nacass added that MMC had decided not to have one “big alliance” after its split from what was then DaimlerChrysler and was talking to other companies as well as PSA.
Nonetheless, the Japanese automaker and PSA have been sharing a Mitsubishi Outlander-based compact SUV model line and this month began construction of a joint venture assembly plant in Kaluga, Russia.
