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OKAZAKI, Japan – If the ’12 Mitsubishi “i” electric vehicle represents the future, we’ll be stepping gingerly into the next era of personal transportation.

An early drive of pre-production models tailored to U.S. tastes here provides the standard EV experience: pleasantly quiet operation, quick off-the-line performance and the familiar lightness-of-being in knowing the car could help solve some of the world’s most vexing problems.

But the “i”, a nameplate truncated from i-MIEV for the U.S., also reveals how far EV development must travel before it seriously threatens old-fashioned, internal-combustion propulsion.

The i arrives in coming weeks to markets in the Western U.S., specifically California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. Pricing starts at $20,490, including a $7,500 income-tax credit.

Turn over the ignition on the 4-passenger hatchback, and the only hints that you are ready to roll are a few mechanical ticks and instrumentation lights waking.

Depress the accelerator and silently, but eagerly, the i pulls away from a standstill onto the proving ground’s swatch of blacktop. A rear-mounted, 49-kW (66-hp) synchronous electric motor drives the rear wheels, pleasantly imparting the feel of a longitudinal powertrain.

And without the gears of a transmission to step through, the vehicle whooshes up to speed smoothly, probably not unlike Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder.

Any comparison would end there, though, as the bubble-topped sedan leans heavily into the first turn of a makeshift road course. Weaving through the cones of a slalom section, the understeer gets uglier, with our inputs far exceeding the desired output. Perhaps Mitsubishi needs to retune the speed-sensitive electronic power steering system.