Future i-MiEV Models Confirmed For United States

[Don]

what??? No raspberry??

I have never understood Mitsu's choice of the Raspberry

If you're only offering the 'bland 3' (White, Black and Silver) and you decide to add an actual COLOR, why not something that would appeal to more people? Take your choice . . . . a red, a blue, a green or maybe a yellow, but, seriously, Raspberry is the best color you could come up with?

C'mon guys! A little common sense goes a REALLY long way here . . . . :roll:

Don

 

[olagon]

what??? No raspberry??

I have never understood Mitsu's choice of the Raspberry

If you're only offering the 'bland 3' (White, Black and Silver) and you decide to add an actual COLOR, why not something that would appeal to more people? Take your choice . . . . a red, a blue, a green or maybe a yellow, but, seriously, Raspberry is the best color you could come up with?

C'mon guys! A little common sense goes a REALLY long way here . . . . :roll:

Don

That the only color my wife said made this car passable. There were none in stock so we picked up a silver.

 

[aarond12]

I kinda liked the raspberry, but the only color they had for the $69/month lease was white. Not a difficult decision to make.

 

[Vike]

Never a huge fan of the raspberry myself. Purple might be polarizing, but my main concerns were practical. With a car the size of the i-MiEV, the visibility of a bright red or yellow might be helpful; the dark raspberry was no help at all. Also, as a dark color, it's not much help in sunny hot places in terms of the added A/C load, and it shows dirt like nobody's business. Raspberry would have amused my wife, but it's mainly my car and she understood the car cooling problem.

For visibility, low heat generation, not showing dirt, and general appearance, it was dull old silver for us (actually the visibility was a surprise to me when I researched it, but insurance company studies show silver and white get among the highest visibility scores). Looks nice enough, so I don't care that much, but for various reasons it's been a lot of silver cars in a row for us, and we're getting a little tired of it. I'll hope the Outlander PHEV shows up in more colorful garb, but the delays now moving its U.S. launch out past next year have lowered my wife's interest in having it replace her soon to be decade-old Prius.

 

[fjpod]

raspberry all the way.

 

[HParkEV]

Well, though it's not terribly exciting to see the iMiev for 2014 with one fewer color, no blue color, nor the couple "upgrades" we saw for the 2013 iMiev in Canada (12 amp 120v EVSE + better heated seats for driver and front passenger), it's much more exciting than seeing nothing. And, at this stage, maybe they're still working on details ... I noticed they don't even have multiple trims to choose from (though, perhaps that's intentional). More to come, for sure!

By the way, just wanted to chime in on the Canadian 2013 model, it is gone on the Mitsubishi Canada website!
There is no longer any mention of the 2013, you can only configure a 2012.

I wonder if Mitsubishi Canada will be offering a 2014 soon, and just want to clear out the remaining 2012's before they make the 2014's available, and having the 2013's on offer at the same time is not helping to clear the 2012 stock.

The $5k rebate on base/$7k on premium (SE) is still on the remaining 2012's. They sold 15 units across the country in October, which I guess is doing OK when you compare it to 30 Leaf sales.

 

[PV1]

I noticed that, too. I went onto the Canadian site to configure a 2013, but only found the 2012 model. Makes you wonder.

Don't know if I mentioned this or not, but I checked Autotrader.com yesterday. There are 35 i-MiEVs left for sale in the US. There are none left in my area.

Mitsubishi better hit it hard this spring.

 

[Vike]

There are 35 i-MiEVs left for sale in the US. There are none left in my area. Mitsubishi better hit it hard this spring.

Yes, they'd better. This go-round I doubt dealers will be willing to keep more than one demo on the lot (fool me once and all that), but even if i-MiEV distribution is changed to a "ship to order" model (i.e., fulfilled from a few regional distribution centers - perhaps one for each coast plus Normal IL?), there's still the problem of maintaining minimally competent sales and service. Due to regular staff turnover, MMNA has a rapidly closing window during which there's still a network of certified dealers on the ground. Unless Mitsu does something to promote (or at least announce the existence of) the returned i-MiEV, I doubt many of them will invest in getting new mechanics or salespeople certified until the U.S. Outlander PHEV gets closer to reality (just guessing that Mitsubishi will provide a single certification package covering all EV products).

 

[fjpod]

When I went in for my recalls, I spoke to some of the sales people at my dealer in NJ...Bell Mitsubishi. They apparently did pretty well with the iMiev from what I could gather. I forget the exact numbers but at one point, they sold something like 30 units over a 90 day period. The salesmen were wishing they had more to sell.

I think they would still be selling them if there was a supply. Not everyone got "stuck". MM should have diverted the cars to the dealers in the areas that were moving them. IMHO, this car should have been promoted more in big cities.

 

[Vike]

MM should have diverted the cars to the dealers in the areas that were moving them. IMHO, this car should have been promoted more in big cities.

Yes, your first point is a good one - cars should have gone first to dealers with pending pre-orders (incredibly, they didn't - my dealer sold 4 or 5 cars off the lot before my six-month pending "pre-order" was filled; I'd actually started the process of replacing it with a different-colored car diverted from inventory going to another dealer when I got the call that my car had finally arrived in port), and then reallocated to dealerships that were moving them most aggressively. Of course, as we all well know, this sort of misallocation is but one item in a long list of mysteries surrounding the whole i-MiEV story.

As to your second point, I've long wondered about the "big cities" argument. I guess the strongest reason for that is that you're going to have the highest concentration of the sort of fairly well-heeled green technophiles that are the target audience at this stage. But as a practical matter, today's non-Tesla EVs work best in medium-sized cities with compact footprints. In sprawling megaburgs like L.A. or Chicago, there are just too many things that are out of range without public charging infrastructure. I hasten to add EVs still work for commuting and local errands in such places, but my experience in a more compact town (Albuquerque) is that there's virtually nothing I need to get the hybrid out for.

 

[fjpod]

NYC and the boroughs are fairly compact. There is no charging infrastructure here though, except in pay parking lots. Thankfully the Imievs small size saves a lot on parking.

 

[Vike]

NYC and the boroughs are fairly compact. There is no charging infrastructure here though, except in pay parking lots. Thankfully the Imievs small size saves a lot on parking.

There's a reason I didn't mention NYC - that is a radically different, car-hostile environment with which I don't have enough familiarity to voice an opinion. If the distribution of your home, work, services, and entertainment is within limited range and tolerable to navigate in a car, then I'm sure an EV can work fine you. What I don't know about is the percentage of the NYC population for which that's true. I spent most of my life in greater Cleveland and now live in Albuquerque, and based on my experience I wouldn't own an EV in Northeast Ohio, while I think EVs are suitable (at least as one car in the household fleet) for close to 90% of those Albuquerque residents who live and work in the city.

To clarify, greater Cleveland's problems come down to sprawl and climate. Jobs and residential communities are scattered hither and yon throughout NEOH, and most people wind up with significant commutes at some point unless they have unusually stable jobs and are really embedded in their neighborhoods. Climate's a real killer - until EV manufacturers come to terms with the reality of heating passenger cabins in cold climates and provide fueled heating systems for the purpose (and/or MUCH better insulated cabins), EVs in those markets are going to be limited to small town folks with limited mobility needs or hardy enthusiasts happy to put on the earmuffs and down coat for a half-hour drive.

 

[fjpod]

To clarify my situation...my primary residence is one of the burbs, where I have a driveway and garage which makes it easy to charge. I often venture into Manhattan or the other boroughs and as long as I start out with a full charge, I don't have range anxiety. Folks who actually live in Manhattan rarely own cars and if they do, they are not generally using them to run around town. In Manhattan everybody walks or takes a subway or cab. They would use their cars to go on longer journeys, so an EV, other than a Tesla, would be out for them.

But a lot of folks in NYC are in my situation...and if more would adopt EVs, local air quality would be improved.

Also keep in mind that NYC residents use a LOT of public transportation compared to many other medium to large cities.

 

[vancitymiev]

Well, though it's not terribly exciting to see the iMiev for 2014 with one fewer color, no blue color, nor the couple "upgrades" we saw for the 2013 iMiev in Canada (12 amp 120v EVSE + better heated seats for driver and front passenger), it's much more exciting than seeing nothing. And, at this stage, maybe they're still working on details ... I noticed they don't even have multiple trims to choose from (though, perhaps that's intentional). More to come, for sure!

By the way, just wanted to chime in on the Canadian 2013 model, it is gone on the Mitsubishi Canada website!
There is no longer any mention of the 2013, you can only configure a 2012.

I wonder if Mitsubishi Canada will be offering a 2014 soon, and just want to clear out the remaining 2012's before they make the 2014's available, and having the 2013's on offer at the same time is not helping to clear the 2012 stock.

The $5k rebate on base/$7k on premium (SE) is still on the remaining 2012's. They sold 15 units across the country in October, which I guess is doing OK when you compare it to 30 Leaf sales.

Just bought my "new" 2012 i-miev 3 weeks ago from Victoria mitsubishi. When I was purchasing my car they told me that the 2013s are sitting ready at the storage lots, but mitsubishi will not release them until they've cleared all the 2012 inventory first. I believe that they were the last dealer in BC with any new inventory. They had 15 in august and are now down to 3.
Seems like mitsubishi canada will be in a bad situation with the '13 model if they bring it out in December when its time for '14 models anyway.

 

[micmel2]

2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Returns to US In “Late Spring”

http://insideevs.com/2014-mitsubishi-i-miev-returns-to-us-in-the-late-spring/

 

[Vike]

2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Returns to US In “Late Spring”

Thanks, I guess, but that news is already at least a couple of weeks old within this thread.

Speaking of oddly ill-timed or otherwise oblivious contributions, what the heck's with MyiMiEV.com's front page? They're only now reporting on the 2014, and they managed to imply both that 2012 i-MiEVs lacked heated seats (the driver's seat has always been heated in all models, the new thing in Canada was heating the passenger seat) and that 2013 Canadian i-MiEVs were being delivered with 2 EVSEs apiece (in fact there's a single EVSE that's switchable between 8A and 12A). That's more misinformation in a couple of paragraphs than I'd have imagined possible for a site supposedly dedicated to the topic in question.