Mitsubishi Hooks iMiEV Up With JDM Convenience Stores, Geek Squads, Brings USDM Colts

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

So we’re at Mitsubishi’s LA Auto Show press conference. And MMC President, Osamu Masuko starts in about the all-new 2010 Outlander GT. And we start checking our Facebook (oooh, someone liked our status and a friend of ours is taking a road trip. Hmmm, maybe we can tag along).

Suddenly this shot of a Lawson Mart flashes on the screen and visions of CC Lemon, Pocari Sweat and onigiri dance in our heads. But is that chica charging an i-MiEV at Lawson Mart? Sho nuff. It seems Mitsubishi has sold some 800 examples of the quirky little EV since it went on sale in Japan last summer. Mitsubishi also plans to have an EV on sale in North America in as early as 2011. As part of the promotional push the automaker will lease four JDM-spec i-MiEVs to Best Buy as part of it’s Geek Squad fleet (note to the nerd herd: watch those left hand turns!). There are more i-MiEV images as well as other big news from Mitsubishi after the jump.

In addition to the iMiEV Masuko-san spoke of the PX-MiEV, which will probably be the next-gen Outlander. The PX concept first bowed at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show and it’s a range-extender hybrid.

While all this was happening Autoblog’s Jonny Lieberman was actually working as a journalist (as opposed to the ones we play on TV) and he got the scoop that Mitsubishi is planning to bring the JDM Colt stateside. Looks like small is the new big as the Colt will join this micro class along with the Fiesta, Fit, Mazda2, Versa and Yaris to name more than a few. In the meantime peep these shots of that crazy i-MiEV.