[1][3][unreliable source] The innovative layout and styling of the i proved an immediate critical and commercial success, exceeding Mitsubishi's initial sales targets by 20 percent and winning thirteen awards in its first year.

[4][5] Although designed with the Japanese keijidōsha light automobile class in mind, the attention it generated led to its subsequent introduction in right hand drive markets in Asia, Oceania and Europe.

[7] One reviewer even speculated it to be an allusion by the vehicle's French-born designer Olivier Boulay to the Renault 4CV, France's popular post-war "people's car" with which the i shared its four-seat, rear-engined layout.

[11] The "i" Concept was powered by a 999 cc powerplant with the company's Mitsubishi Smart Idling (MSI) system, which turns off the engine automatically when the vehicle is stationary, and can restart it within 0.2 seconds.

[12] The second prototype, called the Se-Ro and exhibited at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, previewed the production model's more conventional mechanical underpinnings, despite having a more radical appearance which bore little resemblance to the final design.

[13] Instead, its polished aluminium body was styled to resemble a zeppelin or airship,[14][15] which Se-Ro design head Shuji Yamada described as a realization of his fantasies of the future from childhood.

[16] The aviation theme continued with the name; Se-Ro, short for "secret room", was a veiled reference to the Mitsubishi Zero fighter aircraft of World War II.

[17] A lightweight steel (not aluminium) structure and a rear-engined layout allowed Mitsubishi to incorporate a larger front crumple zone, in order to meet current safety legislation requirements without compromising interior space.

[21] In common with many other mid- or rear-engined vehicles its fifteen-inch wheels have uneven-sized tires, 145/65 on the fronts and wider 175/55 on the rears, in an effort to minimise the chances of oversteer caused by the rear-biased weight distribution.

[24] The company has already exported the i to Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong, and New Zealand,[25][26] where like Japan they drive on the left, and introduced it to the United Kingdom on July 1, 2007, with a price of GBP£9,000 and a target of 300 sales per year.