Mitsubishi i Review in Local Newspaper

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PV1

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I opened up our local newspaper and found a review of the i. Unlike the reviews of others, this review is favorable of the car. Finally, southwestern PA (land of the SUV) gets some advertisement of sorts for the i. The biggest compliments of the car are the steering, brakes, and price.


Here's the transcript:

At just under $30,000 base retail price, the 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the most affordable all-electric car in the U.S. market.
The little five door with a very little hood in the front also has an eye-popping, 126 miles-per-gallon-equivalent rating from the Federal Government in city driving. That's higher than the 106 mpg-e city rating of the 2012 Nissan LEAF electric car but less than the 132 mpg-e of the upcoming Honda Fit EV.
An added bonus: the rear-wheel drive i-MiEV has a plucky personality and speed-sensitive steering that, while electrically delivered, feels and responds more like a regular car's steering than does that of some gasoline-electric hybrid cars.
The same compliment goes for the i-MiEV's electric brakes and their firm, realistic pedal feel.
Still, i-MiEV drivers have to keep a close eye on mileage range, because like all solely electric cars, this little hatchback can't go far on a full charge. Indeed the U.S. government estimates the i-MiEV range at 62 miles on a full charge.
Typical time to fully recharge: 7 to 22 hours, depending on the charger.
Starting manufacturer's suggested retail price, including destination charge, is $29.975 for an i-MiEV ES model with 66 horsepower electric motor, a 16-kilowatt lithium-ion storage battery and a one-speed, direct drive transmission.
In comparison, the most popular all-electric car in the United States, the front-wheel drive Nissan LEAF, has a starting retail price, including destination charge, of $36,050 for a base, 2012 SV with 107-horsepower electric motor, 24 kilowatt lithium-ion battery and a single-speed reducer tranny. The Federal government estimates a 73-mile range for the LEAF on a full charge.
The front-wheel drive, 2012 Chevrolet Volt, which has a plug-in electric motor plus a gasoline engine on board for short, around-town, all-electric trips plus long-range, gas-engine travel, has a starting retail price of $39,995. The Volt's electric-only range is just over 30 miles, but the federal government estimates a 397-mile travel range when both electric motor and gasoline engine are used.
All these vehicles are eligible for a one-time federal income tax credit of $7,500. But buyers must wait for this credit until they file their tax documents for the calendar year in which they made their vehicle purchase. Some states and cities provide incentives, too.
Mitsubishi started offering the i-MiEV on the West Coast late last year and is beginning to expand sales across the nation this summer.



By Ann M. Job, Associated Press. Article in the Observer Reporter.
 
PV1 said:
"The little five door with a very little hood in the front also has an eye-popping, 126 miles-per-gallon-equivalent rating from the Federal Government in city driving. That's higher than the 106 mpg-e city rating of the 2012 Nissan LEAF electric car but less than the 132 mpg-e of the upcoming Honda Fit EV."

Wonderful to read some appropriate kind words about our favorite little rolling egg. But as always, I am obliged to point out that the Honda Fit EV is not upcoming, at least not likely in Pennsylvania. Honda's "marketing" plan for the Fit EV seems to consist mainly of bragging about having an EV with some impressive efficiency numbers, while simultaneously refusing to actually sell any. Let's all please remember, Honda is strictly limiting sales of the Fit EV by:

1) geography - only CA and OR at first, then undisclosed East coast markets in "early 2013." I'm not kidding - they're still not saying where they'll be available.

2) numbers - but even in those mystery "selected markets", Honda will deliver at most 1100 vehicles over the next three years. Again, I'm not kidding.

3) not selling them at all - oh, right, I forgot to mention - the Fit EV is available for lease only. You might want to check with the folks who got GM EV1s to see how that worked out for 'em.

If you want a real laugh, check out Honda's official Fit EV FAQ. The answers provided there are nothing short of amazing:

http://automobiles.honda.com/fit-ev/faq.aspx

Like the Toyosla RAV4 EV, the Fit EV is an elaborate practical joke. You can't buy one at any price, and you're pretty damned unlikely to be able to lease one. So while the engineered artifact is real, the purchasable product is a complete fake. The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the most efficient EV you can buy, period. I know you can buy one, because I live in New Mexico, "flyover country," and the one I bought is sitting in my garage right now. I'm getting pretty tired of journalists confusing the issue by citing facts and figures about fake "offerings" from manufacturers who aren't really selling any EVs at all.
 
I was surprised to see they liked the car, usually reviewers don't get the EV idea. I know i loved the car when i drove it. I agree about the fit EV. I wouldn't be surprised if it suffered the same fate as the EV1. An incredibly efficient car gets killed by lease only. Their strategy is almost identical to GM's for the EV1. That's why I won't even lease the i. I'd rather wait a few months, see what 2013 offers, and buy the car outright. If Mitsubishi was smart, which seems likely, the newer batteries with more capacity would be designed to fit in the older i's. Same for the whole MiEV system. Make future offerings backwards compatible. Of course, by the time batteries with more capacity are available that are worth upgrading, the current batch of cars would probably be starting to fall apart. Who knows how far off they are. Look how long rechargeable lithium air batteries have been talked about.

Look at Toyota with the plug-in Prius. 13 electric-only miles. I know people who make their own battery to put in the back of the car and go 50 miles on electric, the whole setup cheaper than a Volt, and even the LEAF. I personally think hybrids caused some of the discomfort people have with EV's. That brings up a good view of the Volt, though. People who are unsure about electric can buy the Volt and realize they can live without gasoline, then go and trade it in on a LEAF or an i. It's like gas detox. The problem with that though is we needed the Volt and the EV1 side-by-side back in the 90's up through today, which both did exist, but only one (the EV1 thankfully) ever made it into private hands for a while.
 
PV1 said:
People who are unsure about electric can buy the Volt and realize they can live without gasoline, then go and trade it in on a LEAF or an i.

Actually, they can do that without assuming any of the risks of buying. GM and Ally have, for whatever corporate reasons, set up a perfect vehicle for the sort of trial you're describing. Curious folks who are ready for a new car, but want to defer committing to EV with current technology, can get 2-year closed-end leases on Volts at ridiculously low prices (the Motley Fool financial advice site suggested that Ally was nuts for offering such a deal, but buyers would have to be nuts to pass it up without taking a close look). This is a very interesting point about Volt ownership as an educational tool - the safety net of the range extender will quell range anxiety, while the desire to avoid paying for gasoline will train Volt drivers to play the range management/optimization game (and in many cases learn that a 75-mile range is not really a problem at all). It's kind of like an EV with training wheels :mrgreen:

As to why I didn't do that, my concerns were a bit different. I was afraid that the i-MiEV might be a fluke in the U.S. market, a smaller, more efficient car than can succeed here on the scale that big manufacturers prefer, and would likely be replaced by a bigger, more expensive vehicle as manufacturers retreat to offering EVs as a high-end "boutique" business (obviously Ford's intent) until bigger battery breakthroughs show up; and let's not forget, the large tax credits that make EVs affordable aren't guaranteed to continue. So overall, I worried that if I passed this up, my next opportunity to get behind the wheel of an EV for way under $25k might be a long time coming; and since the i-MiEV meets my needs perfectly just as it is, I was motivated to jump. It won't hurt my feelings if EVs become a better deal over the next several years; indeed, I earnestly hope they do. But I'd be kicking myself two years from now if it turned out I'd failed to get the EV I really wanted before it went away.
 
I think the U.S. tax rebate is only for the first 200,000 cars the manufacturer sells. But, I'm not a fan of the U.S. tax rebate incentive for electric cars. It's a tax break for only those that incur the tax liability, which I don't and won't get. If the U.S. was really behind getting people on the EV Highway, they would do it Canada's way and just flat out give everybody that buys an EV $8,230 dollars right at the dealership! Now that is the way to get people behind the EV wheel and be democratic about it.

Glad to see this article in the paper - its cut and dry and sticks to the basic facts, mostly. It doesn't try to nit-pick or complain about what the car does or does not have.

Interesting enough, I was reading the Leaf Forum yesterday and was reading a long thread about quality issues with the Leaf and some of them are really horrendous like loose suspension bolts and loose screws and components. After three months of ownership and digging around plenty in the car, I haven't found any of these issues. I'm glad Mitsubishi, kept the car simple and put the money where it counted.
 
I didn't know about that lease offer on the Volt. Not to stray off topic, but it would be nice for GM to re-release the EV1, for sale. With lithium batteries and modern technology in car construction and aerodynamics (to further aid that incredible .19 drag), this car could get 220 miles per charge on a LEAF battery at the same cost as a Volt.

Anyway, Mitsubishi has impressed me with the i. From the reports of this community's owners to my personal experience test driving the car, the simplicity and general idiot-proofing of the MiEV system and the rest of the car appears to be paying off to make the i a success. Hopefully the article will help to increase sales and spread the word that an affordable EV that works is here and available.
 
MLucas said:
I'm not a fan of the U.S. tax rebate incentive for electric cars. It's a tax break for only those that incur the tax liability, which I don't and won't get. If the U.S. was really behind getting people on the EV Highway, they would do it Canada's way and just flat out give everybody that buys an EV $8,230 dollars right at the dealership! Now that is the way to get people behind the EV wheel and be democratic about it.

I agree completely. The $7500 tax credit is fine for me since I bought in September so will get the cash back in a few months, and have a tax liability large enough to cover that (plus the charger). But a $22k car would also be affordable for folks who don't have that large a tax liability and can't float the government a $7500 loan for up to a year. The government subsidy should come right off the top line so it's usable by everybody. Why should assistance in buying an EV be limited to people who are better off, and, quite frankly, need the assistance less?

The current "tax credit limited to liability" arrangement just feeds the complaint that taxpayers are being forced to subsidize wealthier folks' purchase of electric toys. There are good reasons for publicly subsidizing the gap between manufacturing costs and viable market pricing to "jump start" the EV business (we hope), but none of them justify withholding those subsidies from working families - that's just wrong.
 
Vike said:
There are good reasons for publicly subsidizing the gap between manufacturing costs and viable market pricing to "jump start" the EV business (we hope), but none of them justify withholding those subsidies from working families - that's just wrong.

Since gasoline is heavilly subsidized, its like taking our check now or getting our tax dollars back since we won't be needing any gas in the near future and no further gas subsidies from the government. So, anyone who thinks we are getting something for nothing is ludicrous when those detractors are driving around on cheap gas courtesy of the gov.
 
Back to the OP for just a second: it never ceases to amaze me what good press Honda can conjure up over what really amounts to "vaporware." Their experiment in building 1100 Fit EVs over three years is nothing more than a Honda EV+ redux. They built 300+ of those for California leasing starting in 1998. Then in 2003 when there was nothing more to be gained politically by their "experiment", the cars were taken back at the end of their leases and shredded.

I was one of those Honda customers whose EV+ was shredded.
 
TaosEV said:
I was one of those Honda customers whose EV+ was shredded.

Holy mackerel, neighbor! I had no idea they'd done that - that really flew under the radar compared to the flak GM took over crushing the EV1s. I don't recall any mention of this scandal in "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

I went back to check the Wikipedia article on the EV+, and recognized the vehicle as soon as I saw it. In light of cold weather discussions in this very forum, I find it interesting that the EV+ used a heat pump instead of the toaster oven heater tech used in the current Leaf and i-MiEV, and that those deployed to cold weather areas had auxiliary oil-fired heaters. Seems some lessons don't stay learned.

Anyway, anyone giving the FitEV more than a passing thought should pay close attention to this story. If you lease a FitEV and for some reason EVs slip below the waves again for a while, Leaf and i-MiEV owners will be able to keep driving sans gasoline for as long as they can find a way to keep their 'lectro-buggies running, while you have to turn your beloved e-ride in for a trip to the crusher. Seeing how much I love driving my EV, I don't think that's a risk I'd be willing to take.
 
I think the main reason GM is taking the hit for the mess is because they did the most work to kill the mandate, then turned around and sold the battery rights for NiMH to Texaco, who was bought out by Chevron a week later. Honda followed suit in handling the leases. Only Toyota and Ford still have factory EV's on the road (Rav4-ev and Ford Ranger EV), although quite a few of those got crushed.

The movie did touch on the EV+ a little during the news segment where they explain car crushing and shredding. The guy even said something about driving one home, though they wouldn't let him. We'll have to keep a close eye on Honda to prevent a repeat of history.

By the way TaosEV, how did you like the EV+?
 
The EV+ was a great car. They do show one of them being shredded in "Who Killed The Electric Car" ... it was a green one, could have been mine!

I put close to 50,000 miles on the car during my five year lease, all in the SF Bay Area. Furthest single drive was 103 miles. The car routinely got just over 100 miles on a charge. Never had a single maintenance issue in those five years. And the heat pump worked great for both AC and heat, though San Francisco has pretty mild weather. My car was not equipped with the optional kerosene heater, though the sheet metal on the rear end of the car did have a cutout to accommodate a tailpipe. Charging was 240v through a wall-mounted regulated power supply, with the old AVCON connector. Top speed was governed to 85 mph, comfy seating for four, lots of cargo space too.

I offered to buy the car at the end of the lease, but of course Honda said no. They gave me a consolation prize of $1,000 credit toward the purchase of a new Honda or Acura car if I turned in my EV+ with no hassle.

Original three year lease was $429/month, which included insurance (no insurance companies would write a policy for an experimental, limited production car). Last two years of the lease was $299/month, also including insurance.
 
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