Three mia vehicles qualify for govt grants

Date: 22/2/2012

Three vehicles from mia electric have qualified for the government's plug-in car and plug-in van grants.

The enterprise welcomed the initiatives, noting the van grant is particularly useful as the vehicles are suited to electric because they are used commercially.

All three mia vehicles are powered by an 18kW electric motor that delivers top speeds of 68mph and have lithium iron phosphate batteries that can be completely charged in five hours.

They were debuted at the EcoVelocity motor show at Battersea Power Station in 2011 and will go on sale later this year.

Richard Deslandes, Head of UK Sales at the company, said: "Our vehicles are designed specifically for inner-city environments and commercial vehicles account for a significant proportion of traffic in urban areas."

He added that the box van is a "key component" of mia's range of motors, while the cars were designed by former head of design at Volkswagen Murat Gunak.

Among the other vehicles qualifying for the plug-in van grant are the Renault Kangoo ZE and the Vito E-Cell from Daimler Mercedes-Benz.

Posted by Nick Anderson