November 26, 2011 – Hydro-Quebec announced the 10 Boucherville businesses selected to participate in a trial of the all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV. The 10 vehicles will be delivered to their respective drivers in December.

The 10 businesses whose employees were selected to take part in the third phase of the trial (following a call for expression of interest issued last June) are: Astral, Boutique Mère & Mousses, Collège Èdouard-Montpetit, Bell, La Résidence des Berges, Bombardier Transportation, Les Entreprises Hamelin, Metro, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Sandoz Canada.

Employees from the selected business will test the all-electric i-MiEV in their daily activities. Like the participants in the first two phases of the program, they must drive an average of 50 km per day using both highways and local streets. They will have access to charging stations at their homes and workplaces.

“Hydro-Québec is proud to welcome these businesses to its program and offer them the possibility to test the first i-MiEVs designed for the North American market,” said Pierre-Luc Desgagné, senior director strategic planning at Hydro-Québec. “The needs and driving patterns of these 10 new participants will provide valuable information, in addition to what has already been obtained from the 20 current participants. All of this data will help us complete the Boucherville trial.”

The program will continue until the end of 2013. The initiative follows the Action Plan for Electric Vehicles unveiled by the Quebec government last April 7.

“It is with great pride that the city of Boucherville will have welcomed, since the beginning of the trial program, a total of 30 electric vehicles to its streets, collecting data that will help evaluate the needs of drivers of this type of vehicle,” said Jean Martel, mayor of Boucherville. “Boucherville will be the first city in Canada to take part in the country’s largest electric vehicle trial, along with Hydro-Quebec and Mitsubishi. We are happy to have contributed to developing a greener economy.”

In December 2010, as part of the first phase of the electric vehicle testing program, five i-MiEVs were delivered to the city of Boucherville, the Centre de santé et de services sociaux Pierre-Boucher and Hydro-Quebec. In June 2011, 13 Boucherville businesses took part in the second phase of the program and shared an additional 15 i-MiEVs.

Over the next three years, Hydro-Quebec will oversee road tests to evaluate the performance of 30 i-MiEV vehicles. The trials are designed to study charging needs, driving habits and driver satisfaction as well as the interaction between the vehicles and the electric grid.

The i-MiEV, which stands for Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle, is based on the Japanese i-Car platform. It is an all-electric, highway-capable, charge-at-home commuter car with zero tailpipe emissions. Capable of travelling 120 km on a single charge, Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV can be recharged in 6 hours using a 240V outlet (or 13 hours using a 120V outlet).