The Mitsubishi i-Miev was launched last week at Ras Riħana, Bidnija, by Environment Minister George Pullicino.

Speaking to the guests, Chevalier Maurice Mizzi, director of the Mizzi organisation, said thelaunch of the i-Miev was an important dayfor environmentalists.

“This is the beginning of a great revolution that will change the way we drive,” Chev. Mizzi said.

The i-Miev is one of the very first “fully electriccar with four seats and four doors... which canbe driven in comfort like any other car but which costs practically nothing to run and to maintain,” he added.

Ian Mizzi, a director of the Mizzi organisation, said that in 2010 the world vehicle population exceeded the one-billion mark for the first time.

In Malta, at the end of March, there were 313,027 licensed motor vehicles, 2.4 per cent more than last year. Almost all these new vehicles required fossil- derived fuel, be it diesel or petrol, driving up the price of fuel.

Nearly all these cars had internal combustion engines, and although technology and regulations had driven down the emission levels per vehicle, the increase in the volume of new vehicles far outweighed the reductions from the employment of new technologies, resulting in a net overall increase in carbon emissions in real terms, Ian Mizzi said.

Malta is obliged to derive 10 per cent of itsgross energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020. Furthermore, 10 per cent ofenergy consumed for land transport must also be derived from renewable energy sources, within the same timeframe.

At the same time, Malta is also obliged by the Clean Air directive 2008/50/EC to ensure that air quality plans are established for zones exceeding the set limits.

The government plans to have no fewer than 5,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020.