Mitsubishi only sold 127 i electric cars in April

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camiev

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
Messages
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Location
San Diego, CA
Mitsubishi only sold 127 i electric cars in April despite $10,000 dealer incentive


http://green.autoblog.com/2013/05/01/mitsubishi-only-sold-127-i-electric-cars-in-april-despite-10-00/

It doesnt matter what they do, they just can't sell this car.

Why???

Did we all made correct decisions buying it? :lol:
 
camiev said:
It doesn't matter what they do, they just can't sell this car.
...in the US. Then again, many other B-segment vehicles (e.g., Mazda2, Ford Fiesta, Chevy Sonic) aren't selling well either. My reasoning is that some people just don't feel as safe in a small car when there are 4-ton SUVs with distracted drivers everywhere. Europeans might argue that American's can't fit into these smaller vehicles! :lol:
 
camiev said:
...Did we all made correct decisions buying it? :lol:
I personally think that I own the best urban vehicle (and best-kept secret) in the United States! So many of the car reviewers (especially CR) are incredibly biased and incapable of thinking outside the box and recognizing the vehicle's merits, but, sadly, they probably have an adverse effect on sales. That $10K incentive that Mitsu offered the dealers was hopeless since there was still absolutely no advertising of the iMiEV that I could see (and I was told that is controlled by Corporate and not by local dealerships). Won't be the first time in my life that I own a superior yet unappreciated vehicle. :geek: Congratulations to those of you who took advantage of the dealer incentive. :cool:
 
+1. It is the best urban vehicle. Period. End of story.

It has saved me more money in parking fees in NYC than you can imagine. Never mind the fuel savings. I can fit into spots where only a smartcar could do better.

Reviewers, and the public (who tend to be led around by reviewers), need to stop thinking of EVs as cars that need to do everything that an ICE vehicle does. What the iMiev does...it does better than any ICE could do it.
 
+2 - We love ours and no question it was the best EV for us

Would we like to have got it $10K cheaper? Sure, but we wouldn't have waited a year (and taken a chance on not getting one at all) even if we knew ahead of time they were going to be offered at that discount. For what we paid, we're VERY happy with the car, 1 year and 9,000 miles later

Don
 
camiev said:
Mitsubishi only sold 127 i electric cars in April despite $10,000 dealer incentive

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/05/01/mitsubishi-only-sold-127-i-electric-cars-in-april-despite-10-00/

It doesnt matter what they do, they just can't sell this car.

Why???
One reason for the relatively poor April sales might be that only a couple hundred 2012 i-MiEV's are available in the U.S. with no 2013 models appearing on U.S. dealer lots. So in many areas of the U.S., the selection is very limited.
 
camiev said:
Mitsubishi only sold 127 i electric cars in April despite $10,000 dealer incentive
The $10,000 dealer incentive has worked well.
752 i-MiEV's sold in the US in the first four months of 2013, compared to 588 in all of 2012.
I did a search on AutoTrader and it showed that dealers only have 176 new i-MiEV's left in entire country.
They're almost all gone.
 
The 10K just started in Apirl. One week after I bought mine ;-(
I would of save about 4K if I waited, but who knows ;-)


RobertC said:
camiev said:
Mitsubishi only sold 127 i electric cars in April despite $10,000 dealer incentive
The $10,000 dealer incentive has worked well.
752 i-MiEV's sold in the US in the first four months of 2013, compared to 588 in all of 2012.
I did a search on AutoTrader and it showed that dealers only have 176 new i-MiEV's left in entire country.
They're almost all gone.
 
JoeS said:
camiev said:
...Did we all made correct decisions buying it? :lol:
I personally think that I own the best urban vehicle (and best-kept secret) in the United States! So many of the car reviewers (especially CR) are incredibly biased and incapable of thinking outside the box and recognizing the vehicle's merits, but, sadly, they probably have an adverse effect on sales. That $10K incentive that Mitsu offered the dealers was hopeless since there was still absolutely no advertising of the iMiEV that I could see (and I was told that is controlled by Corporate and not by local dealerships). Won't be the first time in my life that I own a superior yet unappreciated vehicle. :geek: Congratulations to those of you who took advantage of the dealer incentive. :cool:

Not ALL the reviews were negative. Look at this one:
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20101014/carreviews/101019944

I'd lay the poor sales on two factors:
1) The US public at large does not understand the reality and practicality of EVs.
They are suspicious of the value ... not totally without reason.
EV's are a hard sell in the USA for many reasons.
Across the board EV sales have been piddling, granted Mitsu's have been worse.
2) Mitsubishi has done a terrible (non-existant) job of advertising.
I would not even have known Mitsu had an EV in existance if I didn't happen to see one sitting on a charger at the local Subaru/Volvo/Mitsubishi dealer. I had however hear a lot about the Leaf and the Volt and even the Toyota and other plug in hybrids... In short I was clearly a potential buyer who only by accident found out about the MiEV.
3) As one other poster here mentioned, as the inventory gets lower and scattered around the country it gets harder and harder for the few potential buyers to connect with the few remaining 2012s.

Even if Mitsu were to withdraw from the EV market I doubt I'll ever be sorry we got our EV.
At net price of about $15,000 I don't see how I can go wrong, and love the car.

Does anyone know if Mitsu has really discontinued the $10,000 dealer incentive?

Alex
 
aarond12 said:
. Europeans might argue that American's can't fit into these smaller vehicles! :lol:

Did you know that American's are no longer taller than Europeans?
That that trend reversed about 25 year ago (even subracting the effect of hispanic immigation .... shorter folks from south of the border).
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/04/05/040405fa_fact

Pardon the digression. Couldn't resist. ;)
 
Re Americans not being taller than Europeans & "Europeans arguing that Americans can't fit into small Véhicules"

Acensor, could not resist catching your joke ;) ...

I think the original sentence referring to "Europeans thinking Americans would not fit..." was not referring to the hight ...

Hence the wider US model ;)
 
Llecentaur said:
...I think the original sentence referring to "Europeans thinking Americans would not fit..." was not referring to the hight ... Hence the wider US model ;)
I, for one, would have preferred the original car's width. Not only would it fit into narrow parking spots even better, but I could probably rest my arm on the window sill: the present US model is too wide and the door is too far away from my left arm to be able to rest it... would you believe TOO MUCH elbowroom!
 
I do appreciate the narrowness of the car. Compared to my Jaguar or Volvo xc90 it is a real plus to take the i into town.

It really is the perfect city car and I include in the evaluation it's excellent performance and silence.

All we need is a political decision to add an electrical plug next to each park meter and you would multiply by 100 the sales.

Edit: another advantage of the car being narrow is that she does not get the usual dings on the doors that the other cars get due to narrow parking spaces.
 
I carefully directed some thought about speed cams towards chosen colleges in our county parliament.

They all agreed a mandatory power socket at every speed cam, a parking lot and bright sign would be welcome. We would have enough power sockets on the road to compete with gas stations. :lol:
 
My opinion, the i-miev is not suitable for USA because of :

- 110 V AC wich mean long charging times
- long distance ride capacity lack
- too expansive in a country where you can have a good used car for 5000 bucks
- to small to feel secure, lack of stability with side wind
- the Colman cooler can't fit the trunk

In Europe, the traffic is so saturated downtown our cities, that the i-MieV is just perfect.
Gas is much more expansive, and we use to ride short distance.
We plug it just 2-3 hours everyday (except one full charge cycle per week) and that's enough !
Parking capacity is a must, especially for Paris.
Driving without any noise, smoke and maintenance, is a real pleasure.

We just passed 10 000 km with it, and we love it.
 
220 charging is the norm...in the US
The imiev is what it is...in any country...a city/suburban get-around car. Not a family country vacation car.
Cost...well that is in the eye of the beholder. Saves gas, easier parking, less maintenance, cheaper electric... Not everyone wants to drive a used car. (ok, well once you've driven it, its used).
It is a bit small looking from the outside, which makes it easy and cost effective to park in a place like NYC, but it is big inside.
Get a smaller cooler or put it in the back seat.
 
steph said:
My opinion, the i-miev is not suitable for USA because of :

- 110 V AC wich mean long charging times
- long distance ride capacity lack
- too expansive in a country where you can have a good used car for 5000 bucks
- to small to feel secure, lack of stability with side wind
- the Colman cooler can't fit the trunk

We just passed 10 000 km with it, and we love it.

Steph, I'd agree that this is probably the perception of an average American buyer. However, the iMiEV is the first new car that I have purchased, and I live in a rural area 35 miles from the Seattle airport, 50 miles from downtown, not within 'practical' round trip range. That would be off-putting to many, but reality has meant that the only times I have not used the i for a trip to the city in the past 16 months were because the passenger/cargo load was too much for the i. Granted, that has meant planning in L2 charging stops, but I now relish the opportunity to plan in some shopping, dining, or entertainment rather than pushing to the city and back as fast as the law will allow! I've even managed to deliver grandparents and their voluminous luggage to the train station in downtown Seattle, with a recharging stop on the way back to allow for 'daddy decompression' before re-engaging the Family Circus... ;)
32710 km and still lovin' it.
 
RobertC said:
camiev said:
Mitsubishi only sold 127 i electric cars in April despite $10,000 dealer incentive
The $10,000 dealer incentive has worked well.
752 i-MiEV's sold in the US in the first four months of 2013, compared to 588 in all of 2012.
I did a search on AutoTrader and it showed that dealers only have 176 new i-MiEV's left in entire country.
They're almost all gone.
If you bought early on in 2012, 127 is a good monthly number in comparison. It's a lot more than the Focus EV, Honda Fit EV, Accord PHEV, and a few others. As others have said, not a dime spent on traditional marketing, little commitment to the car in the press (they're hyping the Outlander PHEV instead), and a funky small appearance, not to mention a pretty steep price, didn't help.
Despite the fear of being squashed by an SUV, there's a pretty good market for smaller cars, over 1.5 million sold last year, see:

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2013/01/usa-december-2012-car-sales-figures.html.

I think if GM can market the Spark EV (or Honda the FIT EV) that has a longer range, faster speed, more normal looks, and price it under $30k to start, they could sell a lot of them. If they bring the price down to $25k, way more! Mitsubishi could do the same with a Lancer ... of course they may not want to eat into their already struggling sales of of that vehicle with only 16,426 sold in 2012.
I think automakers are just slow to change because they want to extract as much profit from existing capital as they can ... which leaves a pretty big opening for Tesla. Time will tell.
 
jray3I live in a rural area 35 miles from the Seattle airport said:
Unlike you, 95% or more of our driving needs are within 50 miles per day total -- usually less --, so EV was much more of a no-brainer and requires less creativity in use than yours.
Sound like you have that character virtue in the spirit of "if the mountain won't come to Mohamid, Mohamid will come to the mountain" -- variously called flexibility aka thinking-outside-the-box.
Worth IMO a lot more than a battery breakthrough or a bigger bankaccount. ..... Or as the mastercard ads say "....priceless." ;)

That said, seem like you'd be a prime candidate for the as-yet-non-existant "suppementary battery pack you throw in the back" for the occassional longer run.
My 4-cents. (inflation) ;)
 
jray3 said:
Steph, I'd agree that this is probably the perception of an average American buyer. However, the iMiEV is the first new car that I have purchased, and I live in a rural area 35 miles from the Seattle airport, 50 miles from downtown, not within 'practical' round trip range. That would be off-putting to many, but reality has meant that the only times I have not used the i for a trip to the city in the past 16 months were because the passenger/cargo load was too much for the i. Granted, that has meant planning in L2 charging stops, but I now relish the opportunity to plan in some shopping, dining, or entertainment rather than pushing to the city and back as fast as the law will allow! I've even managed to deliver grandparents and their voluminous luggage to the train station in downtown Seattle, with a recharging stop on the way back to allow for 'daddy decompression' before re-engaging the Family Circus... ;)
32710 km and still lovin' it.

I find my EV helps me to slow down, too and just take it easy. There really is no need to rush around like a crazed lunatic like I used to do in my ICE. I find I get to where I need to go in about the same time, maybe a few minutes later but I really can spare those few minutes to just breathe and relax.

As far as the i-MiEV being practical for the US. We aren't that wide and spread out as people think, we're definitely not as compact as a European or Asian city but most of our driving is still within a 35 mile radius of our house. I live in a semi-rural area where we do have to drive just to go to the grocery store but I still find the i-MiEV a very practical car. I also use mine for my 60 mile round trip commute to work and back everyday.

I would love to live in very compact place where riding a bike or walking would be practical, or even taking light rail to the next town over would be possible. That isn't here so my i-MiEV is the best solution so I can stop drinking the OPEC koolaide.
 
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