iMiev Production Halted

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201303280074

Glad I'm planning on keeping my i for the long term. More bargain leases and used cars on the way!

4,000 EV & pih owners asked to avoid charging pending an investigation
'GS-Yuasa plane and auto batteries are structurally different'

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/japans-mitsubishi-reports-battery-overheat-140350785.html
Japan's Mitsubishi reports battery overheat problems

Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors on Wednesday asked 4,000 owners of its
hybrid and electric cars to avoid charging their vehicles pending an
investigation into overheating batteries.

The move follows the melting of a lithium battery pack in a hybrid Outlander
that was due for sale earlier this month, as well as a fire triggered by an
overheating unit in a factory which produces the MiEV electric vehicle.

No one was injured in either incident nor was there damage to facilities.

Nearly 4,000 units of the plug-in hybrid model have been sold since its
launch in January, "and we asked its owners not to charge the batteries
until the cause of the incident can be confirmed," a company spokeswoman
said.

The company has sold at least 68 units of its fully electric vehicle with
the same battery model.

"We suspect the two cases were caused by a change in the production line of
the battery supplier," the spokesman said, adding that the company had not
received any similar complaints from owners of the two models.

The troubled batteries were made by a joint venture formed by Mitsubishi
Motors, Mitsubishi Corp. and GS Yuasa.

GS Yuasa drew global attention over the worldwide grounding of Boeing's next
generation aircraft in January after a battery on a Japan Airlines 787
caught fire and forced an ANA flight to make an emergency landing.

GS Yuasa has the contract for all Dreamliner batteries. Japanese authorities
have said they had found no major problem on the company's production line
making batteries for Boeing's Dreamliner.
[? 2013 AFP All rights reserved] [? 2013 Yahoo! All rights reserved]



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/business/gs-yuasa-discovers-problems-with-its-car-battery.html?_r=0
New Problem for Boeing 787 Battery Maker
Mitsubishi Motors said Wednesday that a lithium-ion battery for its i-MiEV
electric car caught fire at an assembly plant on March 18. Three days later,
a battery in ... Mr. Nakao stressed that the plane and auto batteries were
?structurally different.? ...

Nearly as interesting to me was a related story from earlier this month on a new joint Nissan/Mitsubishi mini car:

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201303090073

Of particular note was this explanation of Mitsubishi's enthusiasm for the project:

At the Mizushima Plant, production of vehicles for export has declined and its operation rate has dropped to half of its full production capacity of 600,000 units. At present, one of the four production lines has been halted and the other three are operating only in the daytime.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the plant that builds our i-MiEV

I don't know if they'll be electrifying this "reborn" eK Wagon (this is a new car, but the eK nameplate has a long history at Mitsu), but it is the more likely successor to our i than the pipe dream CA-MiEV we were drooling over a few weeks ago at Geneva. Judging from the looks and the eK's history, this would appear to be front-engine FWD.

I'm with jray3 - I'm glad I got mine (cuz I like it), and glad I planned to keep it (cuz it probably won't be too hot for resale). I also concur regarding good deals coming soon, so penny-pinching EV enthusiasts take note - between this kind of news and pressure from Nissan's new U.S.-built Leaf, the i-MiEV could be a pretty good deal in the near future. Stay tuned.

I am watching! I have a 2012 Leaf SL and love it! Would like a second EV for my wife, the "i" would be perfect. I can't use another tax credit so waiting for a supper lease deal on the four sitting on a lot in Minneapolis.

jray3 said:

Nearly 4,000 units of the plug-in hybrid model have been sold since its
launch in January, "and we asked its owners not to charge the batteries
until the cause of the incident can be confirmed," a company spokeswoman
said.

The company has sold at least 68 units of its fully electric vehicle with
the same battery model

Click to expand...

Since apparently only 68 iMiEV's were made with this battery, it may be that these are the newer SciB batteries we've been reading about for so long??

Don

If these are "new" batteries why were they sending them as spare parts?

Don said:

Since apparently only 68 iMiEV's were made with this battery, it may be that these are the newer SciB batteries we've been reading about for so long??

Don

Click to expand...

My impression from the article isn't that they're a new battery design, but that the production process was somehow altered in a way that caused instability.

Is this really any different than some other car where a wiring harness is found to be defective and to cause fires? Volt production was held up last year when one car went on fire.

Hopefully, investigation will ferret out the cause, and production will resume. Everybody's got battery phobia.

...meanwhile...I'm still charging with my OEM 120 volt charger. Slow works for me. Good luck Tesla.

Anybody heard anything from Mitsu US regarding the issue?

Not good. Does this affect only newly produced vehicles? Mine was built before September, 2012. Just making sure because I park in the attached garage. I'd hate to have the car of my dreams smolder away while charging.

I am guessing - it is the new Lithium Cobalt batteries that are meant to be better suited to quick charging. It is a guess only.

With a 2012 i-MiEV you should be on the safe side. But I never charge while sleeping. I always guess in advance how long it will take and control several times and sometimes unplug when I see on my power meter that currents ramps down.

Well now, my I had a battery issue a couple months ago and the dealer replaced the battery under warranty. It took a little while to get a new battery state-side, but Mitsubishi made sure I was taken care of in the mean-time.

Well, today I got a call from their HQ. They want the car to back to checkout something with the new battery, (and perform the other recalls.) They are bringing a rental car to my office to leave with me until they are done.

Regarding speculation that these are the "new" SCiB batteries that are failing, just a couple of reminders.

The problem batteries are from GS Yuasa, the supplier for our i-MiEV batteries (and the infamous Boeing Dreamliners, though that's entirely different tech). The SCiBs are made by Toshiba.

The problem is almost certainly not OUR problem; per Mitsubishi, the issue is the result of recent changes to mfg. processes that introduced some problems. The vehicle hit hard by this is the new Outlander PHEV, with potentially thousands of cars affected; the number of i-MiEVs sold with batteries from this batch numbers in the dozens.

Toshiba's SCiBs are not "new" - this has been a battery option for some time now. SCiB tech stores less energy per pound of battery, but has greatly improved tolerance for being slammed with DC quick chargers, so if you L1/L2 charge overnight in your garage, want maximum range between charges, and don't have CHAdeMO stations in your area (i.e., you're a typical American EV owner), SCiB's got nothing for you, hence they're not offered in the U.S. In Japan, where there's a fairly well developed network of CHAdeMO stations, SCiB's reduced range would be worth it if you can take advantage of CHAdeMO to quickly top it off, especially since you can safely do that more than once per day if need be. Japanese customers can choose which battery technology they would prefer based on their circumstances; I don't know if SCiB is extra cost.

Net/net, I'd rather have the GS Yuasa batteries. Even if we do get CHAdeMO around my home, I don't see much point in compromising everyday range for the sake of everyday quick charging. One can quick-charge the GS Yuasa batteries once in a while, no biggie - and that's as much as I'd care to do it, if at all.

Logandzwon said:

Well now, my I had a battery issue a couple months ago and the dealer replaced the battery under warranty. It took a little while to get a new battery state-side, but Mitsubishi made sure I was taken care of in the mean-time.

Well, today I got a call from their HQ. They want the car to back to checkout something with the new battery, (and perform the other recalls.) They are bringing a rental car to my office to leave with me until they are done.

Click to expand...

What country/city are you in?

Looks like he's in Palm Bay, Florida. :? Makes me wonder if there is a bigger problem than we know about. :shock:

My thoughts exactly very troubling news. Anybody else getting calls?

As Logandzwon said, and described previously, he had a battery whose charge wouldn't hold and had to replace it. Sounds like the REPLACEMENT battery is possibly from the bad batch. Definitely scary, but no cause for alarm re all US I-MiEVs.

MatimalND said:

I am watching! I have a 2012 Leaf SL and love it! Would like a second EV for my wife, the "i" would be perfect. I can't use another tax credit so waiting for a supper lease deal on the four sitting on a lot in Minneapolis.

Click to expand...

Don't know if you can get a super lease deal but you can get a very aggressive buying price.
At least through the end of this month Mitsu is giving dealers a $10,000 incentive on each MiEV they sell, and some dealers are passing the full amount (and any CAN) to buyers as a discount. I just got an SE for SRP minus $500 minus $10,000 (and still eligible for the tax credit in my case.
Don't wait too long on those four if you're serious. There were two on the lot where I got mine last week and one sold 30 minutes before I got there, and there was said to be (I don't believe it was a hype in this case) a buyer for the second one coming in that evening.

Alex