Which Japanese electric city car launched for fleet customers in Japan in 2009?

The Japanese electric city car launched for fleet customers in Japan in 2009 was the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

Mitsubishi launched the i-MiEV for Japanese fleet customers in late July 2009, before opening sales to retail buyers in April 2010. The initial fleet strategy helped Mitsubishi and local authorities build charging infrastructure while the company gathered real-world operating experience with lithium-ion batteries.

The compact five-door car was derived from Mitsubishi’s petrol-powered i kei car, but replaced its engine with an electric drivetrain. It became an important early modern electric vehicle because it was highway-capable and produced in meaningful numbers, rather than being only a prototype or a low-speed neighbourhood vehicle.

The i-MiEV also appeared in Europe under two rebadged names: the Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero. That relationship can cause confusion in quizzes, but those cars were Mitsubishi-based derivatives, not separate answers to this question. The Nissan Leaf arrived soon afterward and eventually became more prominent, but it was not the fleet launch described here.