Mitsubishi has just announced that it has cut the initial cost of the company’s i-Miev by a staggering 30 percent – down to a mere $21,890 at current conversion rates. The news is welcome words to buyers who were willing to pay the early adopter tax when the first viable EVs begin to hit the streets early next year, and according to Mitsubishi, the move was motivated in equal parts by the ever declining cost of lithium-ion battery packs and good old fashioned supply and demand. It’s nothing new to see an automaker cut the price of a product after seeing competitors roll out something similar, but it’s more rare to see the MSRP come down due to changes in technology.

Since EV technology is still relatively new, manufacturers are facing steep costs on two fronts – development and hardware. While most automakers will eventually recover the cost of engineering a workable electric vehicle, there’s not too much they can do about the cost of the working bits on board, including the lithium-ion battery packs and the electric motor itself. But just like in the electronics world, as volume ramps up, those components will become less expensive, allowing carmakers to drop the price of their electric vehicles.

Until that happens, though, buyers can still expect to pay quite a bit for vehicle that doesn’t have the same functionality as its internal combustion counterpart. Still, our guess is that neither Mitsubishi nor Nissan will have a difficult time finding buyers for their battery-powered cars.