Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Estonian Government to jointly explore projects which will lead the country to achieve a low carbon society.

 

Estonia has a healthy economy supported by its strong fiscal discipline and well-developed IT infrastructure. The country has become advanced in terms of IT, as is evidenced by the fact that a wide range of activities, from submitting several government application to voting in elections, are now routinely carried out online. Estonia has adopted e-government that works paperless. Building upon this success, Estonia is now working towards creating a nationwide Smart Community.*1. For example, with the Green Investment Scheme which the Estonian Government will have with MC, the Estonian Government will implement the following three measures by the end of 2012: (1) introduce electric vehicles to be used by public facilities (introduce 507 i-MiEVs from Mitsubishi Motors Corporation); (2) improve the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging (deploy CHAdeMO *2 standard Fast Chargers nationwide); and (3) introduce a subsidy program for consumers who purchase electric vehicles. MC signed the contract this March 2011 and a ceremony was held on October 21 marking the arrival of the first lot of i-MiEVs to Estonia. All 507 vehicles are planned to be completed the shipment by next March.

 

Currently MC is engaged in this Green Investment Scheme with the Estonian Government through which Kyoto Protocol emission rights are traded and the proceeds are used to promote and support the wide-spread use of electric vehicles. MC would like to deepen its relationship with the Estonian Government through further cooperation in the field of environmental technologies – an area in which MC has accumulated substantial expertise through endeavors such as energy storage, renewable energy and so on.

 

In July of 2010, MC designated global environmental businesses as a strategic domain as part of its Midterm Corporate Strategy 2012. Currently, the Global Environment Business Development Group is involved in the emissions reduction business and is actively creating new business schemes in this area.

 

*1 Smart Community

Smart Community is a concept to provide solutions to energy management, transportation management and other public services through control and management to achieve a low carbon society

 

*2 CHAdeMO

CHAdeMO is the trade name of a quick charging method for battery electric vehicles delivering up to 62.5kW of high-voltage direct current via a special electrical connector. It is proposed as a global industry standard by an association of the same name.

 

 

 

[Reference]

Overview of Estonia

(1)     Population,: About 1.3 Million people,

(2)     Capital : Tallinn

(3)     Geographic, Size: State in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, 45,000 square meters.

(4)     Government: President Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Prime Minister Mr. Andrus Ansip

(5)     Others: Re-gained independence in September of 1991 from the former Soviet Union and joined the United Nation in the same year. Estonia joined the European Union in 2004

(6)     Map