Mitsubishi Motors has brought forward the on-sale date of electric cars in Japan, a local paper said.
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The usually-accurate Nikkei business daily said the automaker would begin sales to individual customers from summer 2009, according to Reuters.
The automaker had planned to sell the zero-emission i-MiEV mainly to fleet customers from next summer and to individuals no later than 2010.
A spokesman in Japan told the news agency the company was still studying timings and a 2009 roll-out remained possible.
Another company official was quoted as saying Mitsubishi planned to offer 2,000 electric cars in the first year of launch – double original proposals – but did not detail customer type.
The i minicar-based models would be priced at JPY2.5-3m (US$23,420-28,100) and recharged by connecting to a household electric socket, MMC had said earlier.
MMC last month said it would consider working with PSA Peugeot Citroen on electric powertrains.
