Thinking to buy electric car . any advices please ?

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owexonline

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2015
Messages
18
Location
Romania , European Union
Hello everybody ,

I live in east europe and I plan to buy an electric car , there are some on the market . however it has to meet some conditions .
It must be a second hand car ( i only got like 15 000 usd for this ) ...

I was thinking at fiat 500e , but I had read alot of forums and it seems this cute car have alot of problems .....italian-mexican problems ..., next on the list is a i-miev .
Please advice me with everything , what should I pay attention to , how to choose a good car , what to expect it will get broke soon ..etc etc .

Thank you very much for future answers .


PS. next on my list is peugeot ion ......not sure is a good choice....
 
owexonline said:
Hello everybody ,
I live in east europe and I plan to buy an electric car , there are some on the market . however it has to meet some conditions .
It must be a second hand car ( i only got like 15 000 usd for this ) ...
I was thinking at fiat 500e , but I had read alot of forums and it seems this cute car have alot of problems .....italian-mexican problems ..., next on the list is a i-miev .
Please advice me with everything , what should I pay attention to , how to choose a good car , what to expect it will get broke soon ..etc etc .
Thank you very much for future answers .
PS. next on my list is peugeot ion ......not sure is a good choice....
Hello owexonline. Your disjointed post (showing little serious thought), followed by a second post linking to a non-iMiEV commercial product, leads me to believe you are a spammer. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and provide you with the following brief answers which you would have uncovered had you done some homework:

1. The Fiat 500e is only available in California and costs more than your budget allows, especially if you were to ship to Europe.
2. The Peugeot iOn IS a variant of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV

Unless there is some thoughtful follow-up which shows you have done your homework before posting, I am tempted to erase this thread. Sorry for being hard-nosed, but having had this forum seriously spammed in the past, I'm a bit allergic. Perhaps you might start your quest by answering what your electric vehicle intended usage is?
 
Hello JoeS , you are right ...and wrong in the same time :)

If you have a look at the most popular site for cars in europe which is mobile.de , you will find some fiat 500e already registered in europe and for sale , prices are from 10 000 eur cash from private sale or from 11 000 eur ( no vat tax included in this price ) on car dealers . then you can find i-miev starting with 9 000 eur ( no vat tax included ) , citroen c-zero and cheaperst you can find a peugeot ion starting with 8 000 eur ( no vat tax included ) ....
I am sure this prices are acurate only this week/month ..usually new offers show up :) .... I would say all of the cars fit into my price range ....at beggining i said it must be a second hand car, not new ...because of my budget !

Peugeot ion andcitroen c-zero are variant of i-miev, but as far as I know , battery packs are not build by mitsubishi in thoose cars, and who knows what other parts are not . I trust more mitsubishi quality , then citroen and peugeot quality !
Mitsubishi suks only at after sales / warranty problems . aready owned 3 mitsubishi before ( one still owning it ) , and I know . For example on my mitsubishi asx stearing wheeel and gear knob leather has deteriorate premature....even i was still in warranty period they didn;t change it and gaved me crap about is normal to be like this , but this we can talk about in other thread :)

Perhaps you might start your quest by answering what your electric vehicle intended usage is?


I'll use the electric vehicle driving n my small city on short trips , or going into the bigger city near my location ( about 40 km from here ) , if range will allow me a round trip . I'll use it to save money , because i had made my own calculation. if you want open a new thread and I'll show you mathematics there how I will NOT spend 1 500 - 2 000 euro/ year on electric car vs combustion engine car . I am having very clear statistics , specially from 1 jan 2015 I had wrote down everything I buyed for the combustion engine car .



regarding the other link i posted on the other subject , i don;t consider it as spam , i am using dashcommander software to connect my iphone by elm obd2 at the car . that soft worked fine for me , i just answered to a question. I am not related to palmer performace in any way and i have nothing to gain advertising that product .

your concerns about spam are real, all forums have this issue . wish you good luck in killing the spam and please drop in some advices for me , some information .

thank you .

PS> is there any other way i can convince you i am human not a robot ?
 
owexonline, not wishing to offend, but the coincidence of your post closely coinciding with a spam posting (by another person?) on another thread is significant, especially as we have been spam-free for quite a few months.

No need to show us the mathematics of cost-efficiency of electric cars vs. ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles - you would simply be preaching to the choir, and we have an area on this forum where this has already been addressed.

On the site you suggested I was unable to find any 500e. Besides, support from Fiat for a 500e would be non-existent. I was able to find one listing: Fiat FIAT FIORINO MICRO VETT Elektrofahrzeug

Back to your questions/comments -

The European Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Citroen C-Zero, and the Peugeot iOn are all the same car, all made by Mitsubishi. A slight difference in battery-pack size exists, but I don't remember the details. If I recall, the primary differences amongst the cars are with the number of driving modes one is able to select with the "shift" lever; otherwise, everything else is badging and cosmetic stuff.

Any one of these cars will be suitable for your short-trip needs. Charging availability is your primary concern, as the convenience of charging at home is priceless.

We will be happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

PS I did delete your other post, as the device you suggested has not been proven to work with the i-MiEV.
 
What other EV's are sold in eastern Europe? Is the Renault Zoe available? I would guess the used EV market is going to be pretty sparse, and if it exists, it will be the most popular models that are the only ones available.
 
NeilBlanchard : Renault zeo or any other electric renault vehicle ( except twizzy ) have only thing I don't like ( same as electric smart ) , you never own the battery package .... you have to pay rent for it . we have all cars here as a offer / pre order .......service suks anyways :)

in east europe electric cars are not everyones favourite car because of the psihological walls . Diesel is what most population think is best choice !
in my country i don;t think there are more then 5 charging stations ......so electric vehicles are not popular at ll, and all my friends consider me crazy for wanting one .
 
JoeS : maybe usa search criterias and european search criterias are different .
here are the fiat 500e I found on my first search in 0.1 seconds:

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-insera...tm_medium=textlink&utm_campaign=Recommend_DES


http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-insera...tm_medium=textlink&utm_campaign=Recommend_DES

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-insera...tm_medium=textlink&utm_campaign=Recommend_DES

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-insera...tm_medium=textlink&utm_campaign=Recommend_DES


http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-insera...tm_medium=textlink&utm_campaign=Recommend_DES


and the list can continue ...but i see no point in pasting all the links . hope now you are convinced I am not a robot or spammer , just a human .
Don;t worry , I cannot get offended so fast , here people are not so sensible to words , and it will take more to make me feel offended :)

i'll think on some specific questions, but is hard because i have no experience with electric car , however .... i am hoping to make the right choice ..
 
owexonline said:
....so electric vehicles are not popular at ll, and all my friends consider me crazy for wanting one .
You will be in good company, but you will be laughing all the way to the bank :D. Once you start driving electric, you will only use your ICE vehicle for longer trips; otherwise, the BEV will become your primary transportation.

Thank you for those links - I had improperly used their search engine. Amazing, as I didn't realize that Fiat had produced any electric cars for the European market - those photos are NOT of a California 500e, but something different.

As I mentioned, before you get an electric car you first need to ensure that you have a good reliable and very convenient source of charging power, preferably at home. 230vac at around 14A will work just fine but do make sure the wiring and all the connections have the capacity because EV charging is a long-term steady-state load and not just a short burst of power like for a toaster or microwave oven.

If I may suggest, being in Eastern Europe, you have a bigger issue: if the car develops any electrical/electronic problem, you will have significant difficulty in getting it repaired unless there is a dealer who can work on it. The modern EVs are computers on wheels, and the manufacturers have made it very difficult to troubleshoot without EV-specific test equipment. In the case of the i-MiEV, this is Mitsubishi's MUT3 diagnostics which run on a PC. On the bright side, the reliability of our i-MiEVs is proving to be extremely good, with very few cases (on this forum) of any significant problems.

I wish you all the best in your quest, and, yes, I recognize you as being a mortal human :p
 
JoeS :

I have a mitsubishi dealer 40 km from my house , so i guess is not a problem ( already asked ) . the only thing they cannot handle is to change the cooling fluid ( battery cooling would be my guess ) , that can be done only at 600 km from my location , but for that I have a road assistance insurance , normally cost here 50 eur/ year with full europe coverage .

At home I got 220V with 16A fuse , but I can ask for a 32A fuse and from there I can make a separate circuit to be used only for recharging the car (220V 16A)
220V is standard power here ( we are lucky ) :)

Fiat is a european company so I guess this is the reason they have a EU version of 500e also . EU is forcing somehow all car manufacture to have electric of hibrids offers besides ICE cars . This might be the reason bmw i8 appered and smart electric .
Still , could not find a fiat 500e forum from europe to see if same problems with the cars as in usa , so I'll say pass to 500e.


i-miev would be my next choice and I really hope I will own one . how can I discover battery state ? i must be able to drive 100 km with no stop, or what would be the best test to make sure batteries are in good shape and previous owner did not used just the fast charging method and shortened the battery life ...?
 
owexonline said:
I have a mitsubishi dealer 40 km from my house , so i guess is not a problem ( already asked ) . the only thing they cannot handle is to change the cooling fluid ( battery cooling would be my guess ) , that can be done only at 600 km from my location , but for that I have a road assistance insurance , normally cost here 50 eur/ year with full europe coverage .
The battery is air-cooled. According to the manual, the cooling fluid for the motor, controller, and charger needs to be changed once every 20 years. :roll:
owexonline said:
At home I got 220V with 16A fuse , but I can ask for a 32A fuse and from there I can make a separate circuit to be used only for recharging the car (220V 16A). 220V is standard power here ( we are lucky ) :)
Good, I would put in a separate circuit for the car to be on the safe side. The i-miev uses around 3.1kW, but more modern EVs use 7.2kW, so you may want to plan your circuit addition to handle the higher power.
owexonline said:
i-miev would be my next choice and I really hope I will own one . how can I discover battery state ? i must be able to drive 100 km with no stop, or what would be the best test to make sure batteries are in good shape and previous owner did not used just the fast charging method and shortened the battery life ...?
The 100km on one charge is reasonable in mild temperatures and speeds <80km/hr. As far as battery health is concerned, you really do not know unless you take a longer trip yourself to try it out. HOW YOU DRIVE is especially critical: speed and climbing kills range, and it helps not to have a headwind or a heavy foot. If you go up a hill and then back down, that is ok as you recover much of the energy you lost going up the hill.
 
Hi, Owexonline!

Where do you live exactly? I plan to buy 2 or 3 used I-mievs or EU clones for 6-7k€/car. If you do not hurry, wait until august, when a lot of used Ions will be available at very reasonable prices. Three years ago in august a lot of Ions were sold at a price of € 11,000 which many owners will sale after the expiration of three years from the purchase (mandatory ownership regarding state incentives).

I think this will be a great opportunity to buy a second-hand EV. If you live close to me, we can act together.
 
Right now prices in EU are between 7.500 and 11.000€ for 2011/12 with less then 20.000 km on. I believe average price will fall significantly in half a year. All potential EU buyers should be alert and follow the market supply to catch the right moment.

How to check the car and battery condition was explained many times in other threads. Maybe once again. Best tool to do it is android smart phone with Canion application and appropriate OBD reader. It's definitely worth buying it. You can find tons of info about Canion elswhere in this forum.

Maybe you could share your location with us?
 
owexonline said:
i-miev would be my next choice and I really hope I will own one . how can I discover battery state?
Zelenec said:
How to check the car and battery condition was explained many times in other threads. Maybe once again. Best tool to do it is android smart phone with Canion application and appropriate OBD reader. It's definitely worth buying it. You can find tons of info about Canion elswhere in this forum.
owexonline, I had neglected to specifically answer your question, but I see that Zelenec picked up on it. Either an Android tablet or smartphone, a special high-speed OBDII bluetooth adapter (not a cheap ELM327), and the CaniOn app. This will provide you with visibility into the battery voltage of each of its 88 cells, as well as lots of wonderful information about energy consumption and efficiency and a numerical State-Of-Charge and how many parameters vary over time. What we do not have yet is is a readout or agreement in determining Battery Capacity, with a number of threads addressing this issue.
 
JoeS : Thank you and Zelenec for the answers , however I don;t own a android device , just the crap iphone :(
but maybe I can borrow one if needed , download the app .
I do own a ELM327 , and it was not cheap when i buyed it some years ago :((
Maybe I'll go together with Zelenec to buy a car ..... who knows


Zelenec : you have PM from me , check it please .
 
Zelenec : you might be right . bulk seller are starting to showup , here is the first i found :

http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-inserat/citroen-c-zero-citroen-c-zero-85-units-available-paris/204293061.html?lang=de&utm_source=DirectMail&utm_medium=textlink&utm_campaign=Recommend_DES
 
All C-Zeros were leased and Citroen sells them now. There is still a possibility to negotiate the price.
 
Zelenec : I wish a i-miev from 06.2013 would be for sale with 8 500 euro ( no vat included ) , negociable price. Then maybe I can afford one :)
I don;t know why ,but citroen does not attractive for me ....
 
It's the same car. The only difference is I-miev has 2 additional drive modes (Eco and B), where B is same as C-Zeros and Ions regular drive mode. So the most important question for the buyer is not the brand but the battery condition.
 
Zelenec : it is the same car, but ....does it have the same battery ? I guess each manufacturer has put inside it's own battery pack .
There something more I don't understand , that car is 06.2013 , and they say battery has warranty 2-3 years more .....why battery pack have only 5-6 years warranty instead of 8 years ( at i-miev is 8 years ) .......
 
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