What's the news?
Mitsubishi has achieved its objective of winning the Electric Modified Division at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. The MiEV Evolution III driven by Greg Tracy set a time of 9 minutes, 8 seconds, the second fastest time overall this year. Hiroshi Masuoka's MiEV finished in 9 minutes, 12 seconds for third place overall.
Commenting on his performance, Greg Tracy observed that Mitsubishi could have delivered the fastest time up the hill. Brake fade in the latter part of the course was blamed for time lost near the top of the 4,301-metre high course. One advantage electric vehicles have over their internal combustion counterparts is that there is no drop in performance due to the thin air at high altitude. Tracy also gave credit to the S-AWC (Super-All Wheel Control) for keeping the MiEV Evolution III stable on the slippery road surface. The system works by monitoring the vehicle's attitude and controlling the torque at each wheel to maintain control. Lessons learned at Pikes Peak will be fed back to refine the system for use in future production vehicles.
Anything else?
Mitsubishi's next generation of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles will also benefit from the experience gained in competition. Motors and batteries used in the MiEV racing cars were based on those used in the company's production electric vehicles.