Mitsubishi reportedly doubling iMiEV output to 20,000 a year

Fresh off of successful trips to Monaco and New Zealand, Mitsubishi is getting ready to crank out more copies of the tiny iMiEV. Just how many people will want an electric-powered jellybean? Mitsubishi thinks about 20,000 a year. That's the number of iMiEV vehicles that the company will be able to make each year by fiscal 2011, if unsourced reports in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei are correct. 20,000 is about twice as many as Mitsubishi initially thought they would make each year. 2,000 are on the drawing board for delivery to corporate clients this year. Starting next fall, the lithium-ion battery joint venture between Mitsubishi and GS Yuasa will add another production line at its Shiga prefecture facility and the iMiEV will go on sale in Japan in fiscal 2010.

[Source: Nikkei via Marketwatch, Bloomberg]