i-MiEV New Owner Seeking Advice Please?

[mcampellone]

Hello!

First off, please forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong place in the forum. I am very new here, and quite honestly very new to electric car ownership, and I am rather clueless so please pardon my ignorance.

Let me give a little background on this issue, and then please seek any advice I can get from other i-MiEV owners out there, to help make my "journey" a little less horrifying and a little more realistic.

I have a large gas-guzzling 2018 RAM 2500 truck, as well as a Toyota Avalon sedan. I have always avoided electric cars, because of different facets of my lifestyle (towing a large 5th wheel trailer for camping, commuting long distances for work), however recently my career now has me permanently situated in the corporate office of my company, which is only 2 miles from my door. This is permanent.

So - I wanted to take the plunge and "try" an electric car by buying an inexpensive one, and based on how much I loved it, in the next 5 years I would invest in a nice luxury electric car.

In investigating heavily, I chose the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, because the small range was of no concern to me, since I would be commuting every day to the office and back, so it was a very short commute.

I live in Little Rock Arkansas, and I wanted a used i-MiEV, so I took to shopping online. I found a 2016 i-MiEV at a dealership in South Florida, and it has 9,300 miles on it. One owner, clean CarFax, and the dealer sent me dozens and dozens of detailed photos and videos. I ordered the car to be delivered to my door. The car was delivered Thursday, 4/2/2020.

During this time while the purchase was being processed, I did extensive research on the car; the different driving modes, how surface metro driving was more efficient than freeway driving, how to properly charge your vehicle using Mitsubishi recommended methods, I even studied the entire owner's manual. I contacted Mitsubishi corporate customer service, and they verified that the factory warranty is intact and in-place, and that the battery is still covered to 100,000 miles, and my coverage is good until 2024. Armed with all of this information, I felt confident that this would be the perfect local commuter vehicle for me. I cleared the left side of the garage, and I even had an electrician put in a brand new dedicated 20-amp line with GFI next to where the car would be parked, so that I could take advantage of the 12-amp setting on the i-MiEV charger.

When the car arrived, it was everything I expected - it looked showroom new, every detail was perfect... and I verified the mileage was indeed a hair over 9,300 miles. It already had 1/3 charge still on the battery, so I parked it in its new home and plugged in the charger on 12 amps. Everything was completely as expected. So far, I was a happy camper.

The next morning I wanted to start driving the car to work. I disconnected the charging cable, got in, and turned the vehicle on. Indeed the battery was at full charge, but the first thing I noticed was the range indicated only 51 miles. At first I thought this was unusual, since the supposed range is 60-ish miles, and I would expect there to be some degradation due to age, but with such a pristine car and such low mileage, I wondered. I shrugged my shoulders, and decided not to worry about it, since my commute is so incredibly short.

Now, I am not a lead-foot by nature... I understand the need of efficiently driving the car. I drive the car in B mode mostly, but I have also used ECO mode. I noticed that going to the office, and then at the end of the day coming back, uses hardly ANY of the range at all. Looks good. This means that a full charge should last me a number of days (ideally) - and I will never charge the battery unless it is run down as the manual indicates. However since this was the first day driving the car, I did drive it around town quite a bit just to experience the car... like going by the post office drop off drive-through, I went to FedEx, the pharmacy etc. - quite a lot of driving. When I got home the battery was down to about 1/4 capacity and the mileage range left was very low, so I plugged it into the charger and went to bed.

Yesterday, I had to meet my stepdaughter half-way between our homes to bring her some face masks (she couldn't find any and deals with the public in her job, and with all of this COVID-19 stuff going on, I wanted to give her half of my supply). Meeting her would mean an 18-mile drive (she lives around 39 miles away). The car by yesterday morning was at full charge again, and she wanted to see the car, so I told her I would meet her. I pulled up my smart phone and calculated the route using all surface driving to avoid very high speeds (here in Arkansas, on the freeway if you don't speed well over the speed limit, people want to mow you over - its really ridiculous and dangerous LOL). Easy enough, I got the route all set and it was just a hair under 18 miles.

I got into the car, and sure enough - it was at full charge again, showing 52 miles as a range. I thought to myself that I would drive efficiently, use the B mode, and keep all acceleration within the "eco" range on the dash as much as possible. So I started the drive....

I already decided from the start, with mild weather here, I would never use air or heat - just crack the windows and smile LOL - to maximize my range. For this whole adventure, this is how I drove - no air, no heat, nothing - just driving.

By the time I approached our meeting point (a mall parking lot), the car showed that the battery was under 1/2 discharged, and my remaining range was only 19 miles. Something told me that the battery and range were inaccurate, in that they were discharging much faster than I thought they should. I began to panic, and I pulled up one of the many Charging Station finder apps in my phone. I found out that the particular area where we were was not like where I live in downtown Little Rock, where there are chargers ALL over the place. Here, in this area (Benton/Bryant), the only place listed was a Fairfield Inn & Suites. They were just a couple miles away, so I called. One of the nicest ladies I think I have ever spoken to answered the phone, and I told her of my concern.... she told me that I was welcome any time to come by and plug in to their chargers - at no cost - and that was a great surprise to me! So maybe there was still hope for me yet LOL.... I made it there, but sadly 6 of the 8 chargers were for Tesla, and the other two were the standard style plugs (the i-MiEV home charger-style plugs), so this would take a while. I parked and plugged in, and had my stepdaughter meet me there. She even brought us lunch, so we sat and visited for a couple of hours as the car charged. She was quite taken by its unusual styling... it was a nice visit. She finally left for home, and I sat back in the car for a bit...

At this time I did an even deeper search into charging stations. Now, since I had to travel a couple extra miles to get to this Fairfield Inn, I was about 22 miles from home. After loading every app under the sun (so many of them are quite inaccurate I find), I stumbled across one of the apps called "Electrify America", so I installed that one as well. Now I had around half a dozen charge locating apps on my phone LOL. But I noticed that "Electrify America" had an 8-space charging station at a Walmart Supercenter that was about 15 miles away, and was only slightly out of my way - it was about 15 miles away, and my battery had increased by now to a little over half, and the range now indicated 22 miles. I didn't want to sit at the Fairfield Inn forever, but I didn't want to risk driving home either - and the app said that this Electrify America location had a CHAdeMO charging port available. So I took a risk. I unplugged, and recalculated the route to the Walmart Supercenter using surface streets.

I arrived at the Walmart Supercenter, with a few miles left. I noticed that of the 8 charging spaces for Electrify America, just one was CHAdeMO. However it was not in use. I parked, and prepared to charge. In the app itself, I set up my new account, which links my bank card to the app, and as my balance falls in the app, it would re-fill automatically in 10-dollar increments. Easy enough.

I followed all the on-screen instructions, tapped my phone against the pad when told to, and charging started. The car got up to 31% charge quickly, and then abruptly stopped. "Charging complete, please unplug and move your vehicle within your 10-minute grace period". Hmm. 31% - not what I expected. I expected it to automatically charge to 80% and then stop.

So, I unplugged and started the process from the beginning, however this time no matter what I did, the charging station screen kept saying that it was still in-use, even though it was not. So, I called the toll-free number on the charging station for 24/7 support.

An extremely nice lady on the other end was very helpful and determined to help me get charged, since my choices were completely limited and I was worried about getting home. So, she remotely rebooted the charging station, multiple times, to get it to come back up. It was quite cold outside and now started drizzling (of course! LOL), but we persevered. When it finally finished booting back up (after the third remote restart), she stayed on the phone with me.... however now we noticed that the touch screen no longer functioned. It was completely dead. The touch screen showed all of the usual settings "plug in first, tap your phone etc. etc.", but none of my touches would register.

So, she rebooted once more, and this time she told me to plug in, and she would remotely start the charging session for me. Again, a VERY nice lady. I followed her instructions, connected, and she started the charge for me. The vehicle quickly (within 15 minutes) reached 80% charge, and the charging stopped. The screen displayed "please unplug and move your vehicle within your 10 minute grace period". She told me she finalized the transaction and I was good to go. I was pleased with the level of service I received. I thanked her, got back into my vehicle, and noticed I was at 80% charge level, with only 40 miles showing as a range, but that was MORE than enough to get me home. So I began the drive home.

Again, I noticed that the charge and range were going down faster than I thought they should.... my home at this time was about 18 miles away, yet when I got home I only had 12 miles left in my range and the battery had depleted again. So I put it back on the normal 12-amp charging and came into the house, somewhat worried.

Then, two hours later, when I picked up my cell phone I had repeated notifications from Electrify America - it stated that my car was STILL sitting there plugged-in! It stated that my 140 minutes of charging on their CHAdeMO port was now at $28.80, and my parking overtime was at an additional $40! I opened the app, signed-in, and it popped up with a timer showing that I was still there and never left. Wow. I called them right away, and they had to manually reboot that charging station again to get it to stop, and I am now waiting while they fix all the charges to my bank card.

Knowing Mitsubishi as having dealerships everywhere, I never felt it would be any type of concern finding one close by. However, when I registered my vehicle last night on the Mitsubishi Owners website, it tells me that the closest dealership to Little Rock is in Memphis, which is 135 miles away down the i40! But wait - I see Mitsubishi's all over town. Apparently a lot of the dealerships here in Little Rock are "combination" dealerships, for example Crane Hyundai also sells Mitsubishi. But apparently no dedicated Mitsubishi dealers. I was shocked by this. Registration recommended that I select the Memphis dealer as my official dealer, and that the Memphis dealer was EV Certified. There is only ONE charge station along that stretch of i-40 and it is well beyond the car's range, so I have to bring it on a trailer. Crap.

So now I will wrap this whole thing up....

- My car, although seeming to be like-new and low mileage, has a weird low range of 50-ish miles on full - is that normal?

- Am I doing something wrong to make the car discharge faster than it should? I drive with nothing on, no air, no heat etc., I am gentle on the accelerator, and I try to use B or ECO at all times...

- Do I really have to stick with a dealership so far away? This means every time I want the car serviced, I will have to rent a vehicle flat trailer from U-Haul and tow it to Memphis with my truck. That's crazy.

- Is my range/issue poor enough that I should speak to Mitsubishi about analyzing my system and looking into the battery warranty if needed? Or does this seem normal?

- have other people had similar issues using some of these public charging stations? Or was what happened to me rare?

So - after having owned the car for three days, my ownership experience has not been the best. I am not sure if this is all normal, or if I need to think twice about every buying another electric car. I understand all the limitations of the i-MiEV - again, I really did study this from all aspects, read until my eyes were going to fall out, and watched tons of videos. I am just not sure what I should do.

I truly hope that such an active community with so many nice owners (from what I have read so far!) can offer me some advice as a new owner, and can tell me if things will look brighter ahead. I really don't plan on driving anywhere else now, other than my office which is only 2 miles each way, so at least I won't have any more range anxiety, and I just know from now on if I ever leave the immediate metro area, I will only take my gas car. I REALLY want this to work. I love the car, its very quirky and fun. But am I expecting too much?

I truly appreciate any and all comments and advice - and I want to thank you all very much for putting up with my long-winded ramblings!

Warm regards to all,

Michael

 

[Don]

Welcome to the forum, Michael - Glad you found us!

First, I think it's unfortunate that you had this experience early on, when you don't know that much about your car or how to drive it. I suspect this ended up being pretty horrifying experience for you - Something I've never experienced in 8 years of owning two iMiEV's

I *suspect* though you didn't specify it exactly (you did say you needed to keep up with freeway traffic or get run over) that much of this journey was done on freeways at 70 mph or so?? If you had owned the car for a couple months, you would already know that while it might easily go 75 miles around town at 30 or 35 mph, the same amount of energy from the battery might only take you 40 miles or so at 70 mph. Range is VERY speed dependent!

There's so much to read and learn here on the forum that you can kill lots of 'separation time' learning 10X as much about your car as you know now. The RR meter is very handy, once you learn what it's telling you. It's displayed number is computed from how and where you drove the car for the past 15 miles . . . . and it's assuming your next 15 will be driven like the last 15. Getting an RR of 50 after a 15 or 20 mile run down the freeway isn't bad, but getting an RR of 65 or more after 20 or 30 miles around town is more normal

Hopefully, your next excursion 'out in the wild' will be after you have learned much more about your car and how to drive it. For now, remember . . . . if there's any doubt you can make it to your next destination, slow down. Often freeway trips can be avoided entirely by finding a route on secondary roads where you can drive 45 or 50 mph - Your car will go LOTS farther than if you're on the freeway at 70. The car is a very utilitarian around town grocery getter, but that practical design gave it the Cd of a brick, so as the speeds go up, the range goes exponentially DOWN. It will go 80 on the freeway . . . . but it won't go very far. It will easily go twice as far at 50 and probably three times as far at 35

Don

 

[mcampellone]

Hello Don and thank you for the reply!

I specifically avoided ANY highway/freeway driving - I stuck to surface roads for all driving, on-purpose. I just wanted to know does that kind of range seem normal on a full charge? Or could there be a battery issue?

 

[Don]

I seriously doubt it's a battery issue on a 2016 (they had better batteries than the 2012's) with only 9,000 miles on it, but I suppose anything is theoretically possible - Time will tell as you get used to the car. If you still have questions, read up on the Canion thread and you can purchase a dongle and learn about all there is to know about the battery in your car

I know when we got our first one in 2012, the range increased every month for the first 6 months or so as we learned the difference between driving an EV and the ICE cars we had become used to over the past 50 years. Every time you force the amp needle up beyond vertical you have given up some range you can't get back, and the more you use the conventional brakes, the less regeneration you bet back into the battery pack, so you learn to release the throttle much sooner and coast up to the stop signs, and to not follow so closely so you aren't constantly readjusting your speed to match the car you're following too closely. Eventually we (and many others here) got to the point where we were seeing RR's above 80 after a full recharge. After several years of driving that way, you get a little lax, especially when you know you have more than enough range for your trip . . . . but once learned, it comes in handy when you do need to make the most of the battery pack because you're pushing the max range of the car

You're lucky being in the Little Rock area where you have multitudes of L2 chargers and a few DCQC places - The first 5 or so years we had our cars, there were zero places to charge, except in our garage. To date, we can count on one hand the times we've gotten any electricity anywhere but at home

Don

 

[JoeS]

Michael, let me also welcome you to the forum. Good for you, doing your homework ahead of time and buying a car that will meet your needs, at least for the near-term.

Reading this made me wish that one of us could have been there with you to help you get kick-started.

The experience you had with your range is not normal, but not something I'd go running to a dealer with yet. Mitsu dealerships are a last resort, IMO, and most of us have never been back except for the few formal recalls. Maintenance on the i-MiEV is negligible, really.

As Don mentioned, the 2016 has a significantly-improved newer-generation battery pack which is better than what most of us driving around in 2012s have, so you should be ok there.

It needs to be pointed out that the worst thing that one can do to a lithium-ion battery is to fully charge it and let it sit there, unused and fully charged, in a hot sun for days on end. Hopefully that is not the case with your car. If we presume that the car has been sitting unused for a good part of its life, it may take a bit of time for its battery management system to both balance all 88 of the individual cells and to recalibrate itself. If it was sitting untouched for a few months then the 12v battery undoubtedly had died, which could have further temporarily scrambled its brain. Not to worry, let's get you out there driving your car so you get the hang of it -

First thing I'd do is check the tire pressures - 40 psi all around is a good number (spec is 36 psi).

Make sure that the dot on your heater/aircon knob is horizontal; even one notch into the heater makes a difference.

Put the car into neutral and give it a slight push to ensure it rolls easily.

Your 'fuel' gauge has sixteen bars. The battery balancing takes place for about an hour after the car has reached 16 bars, before it shuts itself off. What I would suggest doing for the next few days is to drive the heck out of the car and every night fully fully charge it to enable the cell balancing to take place. Keep track of the Range Remaining (RR) gauge to see how it improves as you drive the car - as Don pointed out, its prediction is a reflection of how gently or aggressively you had driven the preceding 15 miles. If possible, drive it down to two bars on the fuel gauge, as then fully fully charging it allows it to recalibrate what it thinks the battery capacity is.

If its of any consolation, I have had fully-charged RR readings ranging anywhere between 30 and 90 miles, and to this day I defy anyone to predict exactly what their reading will be. My personal rule of thumb, if I've been driving 'normally' (i.e., neither leadfootin' nor hypermiling) is that the RR reading should be around 32 when the fuel gauge is around 8 bars (halfway).

Now, the best way to check your battery health is to take a reading of the capacity number that is stored in the car. One of the more common ways we do this requires an Android phone or tablet with bluetooth, a free app called 'CaniOn', and a bluetooth OBDII adapter called OBDLink (either model MX or LX Bluetooth). This gadget will tell you exactly what the voltage level is of every one of the 88 cells in your battery, what your battery capacity is in Ampere-hours (Ah), and a whole host of parameters, including calculations that provide you with feedback on how efficiently you're driving. Some of us find this indispensable to understand what's going on inside the battery. There are a number of other gadgets which perform similar functions, and you can find them here on the forum.

Enough already! If you're not sequestered due to COVID-19, go on out and drive the car as much as possible and get a good feel for it and enjoy it. It's not like you're facing a 50-mile commute ending in a 1500-ft climb (which at least one person here on the forum has).

Oh, and I would only fully fully charge the car for the next few days until it gives you somewhat consistent readings; after that, if I may suggest, keep your charge level between 4 bars and 12 bars. For example, I almost never fully charge my car, and if I do, it's just before taking it on a longer trip.

BTW, the best source for finding charging stations is PlugShare - due to its crowd sourcing you can see how reliable (or unreliable) the various charging stations are.

Your experience with EA is not unusual - they are new and still have teething issues. It's them, and not your car.

Good luck to you and please do keep checking in with us and let us know how things progress.

 

[mcampellone]

Joe - thank you, thank you, thank you!

My i-MiEV came with the standard dash cd-player, and my first "fun project" will be to pop that stock basic stereo out, pop on a Scoche double-din dash kit and install an Android touchscreen unit with built-in sim card on my 4G plan. Not really for any music or purpose other than I am a computer engineer, and I love how a nice big touchscreen looks - plus using Google Maps for navigation is great on an in-dash unit. So yes - more of a vanity thing LOL... I can easily pair this with the OBDII unit you mention to get the battery info. Great idea. All of the information you gave, as well as the other kind folks, really makes a lot of sense.

I am going to try exactly what you said.... unfortunately, I have no way of knowing how the previous owner of the car used it / stored it... but to me, a 2016 with 9300 miles was very low, so it very well could have sat for all sorts of long periods I would imagine. It looks "new" in every sense, but that could just be how the previous owner took care of it... I don't think it would have sat out too long, because of any lack of fading or other evidence, but you never know.... Under my ownership, it is happily garaged and will always be that way

I will drive the heck out of it like you recommend, and I will watch my charging habits. Honestly, what happened at Electrify America won't happen very often if ever again... mainly because it was a one-off for me. My plan is to monitor the charging and charge from home.

Again - I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the invaluable information that you have shared. I really appreciate it very much!

Warmest regards to all,

Michael

 

[JoeS]

Michael, thank you for your comments. Like many of us who get new cars, the first thing we want to do is customize it and on this forum you'll find a few threads regarding the audio system. I'd suggest getting familiar with the car first and doing your homework before considering any mods.

To clarify regarding the battery -

1. Like the coronavirus, without testing you don't know what you've got. I would suggest expeditiously getting a genuine (careful, the knockoffs don't work with the i-MiEV) OBDLink brand LX or MX. The OBDII connector is easily reachable on the underside of the dashboard just to the right of the steering column.

2. My suggestion to top up the battery for a few repetitive days is shooting in the dark, as the rate of cell balancing is very very slow and you really do need an instrument to see what's going on inside the pack.

3. Here's a good primer on prolonging the life of Lithium-based batteries

 

[PV1]

Hi, Michael. Congrats on the purchase, but sad to hear of less than stellar experiences.

The first thing that comes to my mind regarding range is the tires. What size tires are on the front and rear? They should be smaller on the front.

Second, when you take your foot off the throttle pedal in B mode above 30 mph, does the power gauge go well into the blue Charge section?

A friend of mine has an I-MiEV and had a similar range problem to yours. Good battery and easy roll, but terrible range. Ended up being the wrong size tires on the front severely limiting regenerative braking. As soon as they put proper tires on, regen became strong and they gained almost 20 miles of range.

As for the charging station issues, your experience sadly wasn’t much worse than the norm, at least the norm in my area. Here, our public chargers break down more than anything. Most of the Nissan dealers that have quick chargers gave up on them, so they sit there broke and shut off.

 

[TobyGadd]

Although many people are recommending Canion, it's worth noting that Canion doesn't fully support the 2016 i-Miev. While the HobDrive interface is a bit clunk, it can access and display more information.

 

[mcampellone]

"Hi, Michael. Congrats on the purchase, but sad to hear of less than stellar experiences."

- - - Hey there - thank you! So far everyone is so helpful and pleasant here, it's a great forum.

"The first thing that comes to my mind regarding range is the tires. What size tires are on the front and rear? They should be smaller on the front."

- - - The car was purchased from the original Mitsubishi Dealership in Florida. The car has all four of the original factory-spec tires that Mitsubishi recommends (the smaller on the front and the bigger on the back), but to make sure I went into the garage and verified the numbers off the sides of the tires, and yes indeed - factory spec.

"Second, when you take your foot off the throttle pedal in B mode above 30 mph, does the power gauge go well into the blue Charge section?"

- - - Yes, I used B mode all day today - it makes surface street driving very pleasant, almost a one-pedal experience! - It goes all the way into "Charge" when I release the pedal.

"A friend of mine has an I-MiEV and had a similar range problem to yours. Good battery and easy roll, but terrible range. Ended up being the wrong size tires on the front severely limiting regenerative braking. As soon as they put proper tires on, regen became strong and they gained almost 20 miles of range."

- - - Actually, I drove all over today, and when I started the car (was a full charge this morning), it started on 41 miles and of course I temporarily panicked... however after driving all over town today, making sure to always accelerate as far into the LEFT of the ECO section (slow take-offs), and using regenerative braking all day (I never really had to use the brake pedal today), I was very surprised to see that when I finally pulled into my garage tonight, it shows that I only used ONE MILE of range, yet I had easily driven a total of 20 miles when I check my trip odometer! Woo hoo!

"As for the charging station issues, your experience sadly wasn’t much worse than the norm, at least the norm in my area. Here, our public chargers break down more than anything. Most of the Nissan dealers that have quick chargers gave up on them, so they sit there broke and shut off."

- - - Good to know, Electrify America phoned me at work today and they were very apologetic, and they ended up refunding the entire amount of the transaction as if I was never there, and added it back into my wallet balance!

Thank you again very much for the welcome, I really appreciate it!

Warm regards,

Michael

 

[mcampellone]

Although many people are recommending Canion, it's worth noting that Canion doesn't fully support the 2016 i-Miev. While the HobDrive interface is a bit clunk, it can access and display more information.

Hey, thank you for the tip! Good to know, I will look at HobDrive as well

 

[JoeS]

- - - Actually, I drove all over today, and when I started the car (was a full charge this morning), it started on 41 miles and of course I temporarily panicked... however after driving all over town today, making sure to always accelerate as far into the LEFT of the ECO section (slow take-offs), and using regenerative braking all day (I never really had to use the brake pedal today), I was very surprised to see that when I finally pulled into my garage tonight, it shows that I only used ONE MILE of range, yet I had easily driven a total of 20 miles when I check my trip odometer! Woo hoo!...

Good start. If you drove 20 miles and started fully charged, after 20 miles you'd be down to somewhere around 11 bars. Be very interesting to see what your RR will be after fully charging tonight. You might have a notepad handy to jot down the pertinent numbers, all in the interest of science.

TobyGadd, thank you for reminding us that CaniOn had some issues with the 2016. I need to review that CaniOn thread again. The two critical parameters for Michael at this point in time are individual cell voltages and pack Ah capacity.

Here's a comparison (a bit dated) between CaniOn and Hobdrive:
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4279

Here's the monster CaniOn thread:
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1762

 

[PV1]

Good to hear. As you acclimate to the car and as the car gets driven regularly, range should definitely improve.

 

[TobyGadd]

TobyGadd, thank you for reminding us that CaniOn had some issues with the 2016. I need to review that CaniOn thread again. The two critical parameters for Michael at this point in time are individual cell voltages and pack Ah capacity.

Unfortunately, CaniOn doesn't report Ah on 2016 i-Mievs. HobDrive does though.

 

[mcampellone]

Just a quick update

My last full charge was done Sunday night. You already saw my post from what occurred Monday after driving. Then, yesterday, even though I drove all around, range showed that I used one mile! Well, again - still have not charged at ALL since Sunday night..... but.....

I woke up this morning, and range showed 40 miles. When I arrived to work, when I stopped the car and went into the building, the range showed 41 miles (an INCREASE of one mile!). Then, tonight, when I left the office, I made one extra stop a little out of the way, but when I got home, my range had increased to 45 miles!

Here is a little bit of an experiment I have been trying, and wow does it make a difference...

- I only drive down residential/surface streets to and from my office, and to all destinations. No highway/freeway driving.
- I only use the FAN on the inside of the cabin, no other air cooling or anything.
- I only drive in "B" mode.
- When accelerating, I gently ease the vehicle up to the speed limit (usually 25 on residential streets, but the fastest part of road I travel on is 35 mph), and when I accelerate it is very gently, so that the needle never goes past the "O" in the word "ECO" on the dash...
- When approaching all stops and lights, I allow AMPLE time to release the accelerator pedal, and use regenerative braking a LOT. I find that for most if not all of my driving, I hardly ever have to use ANY brake at all.... real one-pedal driving. Very relaxing!

So with these new habits over the past couple of days, it seems that the car is ?recalculating? the range possibly? No matter what, I think I am just paying really good attention to the amount of charge on the battery versus the range... Again I parked tonight, and I am not plugged in. I seem to still have used only about 20% of the little bars in the battery charge (only shows 20% or so missing from the top)... so plenty still. I think with these driving habits, and no far-away excursions LOL, my charging should easily be only needed every week... But I am really pleased. And when I pulled up tonight and gained 5 miles in range since this morning, I just smiled.

As far as the large 9-inch touchscreen head unit and dash kit... I have already become fully familiar with the wiring in the dash, and I have done these countless times. However, Scoche wants $300 for the dash kit (just to end up looking like the dash did with i-MiEV models that already had the 7" touch screen in it), and then the head unit, and other costs.... I decided for an alternative, since my goal has nothing to do with music and everything to do with apps/tech/fun stuff. I am using a small form factor professional tablet mount, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab from Best Buy today, I am putting all my apps that I love onto it (Google Maps, other items for driving,) and I did get BOTH of the mentioned OBDII apps that you guys suggested, but I am just waiting on the bluetooth OBDII module to come from Amazon, and when mounted on this neat clean orderly mount, the dash looks extremely tech... very cool. I replaced the Samsung TouchWiz interface with a really fantastic Car Launcher, which looks terrific with the Mitsubishi Logo and the blue accent lighting to match the outside paint color. Basically, in the end, I got all the tech stuff that I wanted, without being invasive on the existing dash or stereo. Plus, I can pop the tablet off the mount any time I go somewhere and it is fully 4G enabled with telephony as well. Hooray

Thank you ALL again so very much for all the terrific information, and the hearty welcome - I am so happy that I found this forum.

I hope you are all having a terrific night!

Warm regards,

Michael

 

[JoeS]

So far, so good...

You haven't been telling us how miles you've covered with each leg.

For this first week, I'm surprised you're not recharging fully overnight to -

a) Do a little cell balancing
b) See what your fully fully charged RR number is (curiosity would be killing me)

We have a maxim here on this forum: "Range is whatever you need it to be"

Here is just one of a number of threads on hypermiling the i-MiEV

After a lifetime of being a leadfoot, I came to the i-MiEV after a decade of hypermiling my Gen1 Honda Insight (lifetime >77mpg). I eventually realized that "nobody was watching" (unlike the Insight which showed a lifetime mpg), so I returned to my leadfootin' ways, but occasionally do utilize my hypermiling finesse when needed - a great skill to have.

After taking meticulous consumption readings for over 8000 miles, I can definitively state that my vehicle's average consumption rate is 238Wh/mile (4.2 miles/kWh, or 14.8kWh/100km), with minimal heating or aircon use. Ref: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=403&p=5744#p5744

Michael, I think you are perhaps seeing some of the results that efficient driving can bring you.

I'm curious what type of a tablet mount you have ended up with, as there are a number of variations shown here on this site?

 

[Don]

Here is a little bit of an experiment I have been trying, and wow does it make a difference...

- I only drive down residential/surface streets to and from my office, and to all destinations. No highway/freeway driving.
- I only use the FAN on the inside of the cabin, no other air cooling or anything.
- I only drive in "B" mode.
- When accelerating, I gently ease the vehicle up to the speed limit (usually 25 on residential streets, but the fastest part of road I travel on is 35 mph), and when I accelerate it is very gently, so that the needle never goes past the "O" in the word "ECO" on the dash...
- When approaching all stops and lights, I allow AMPLE time to release the accelerator pedal, and use regenerative braking a LOT. I find that for most if not all of my driving, I hardly ever have to use ANY brake at all.... real one-pedal driving. Very relaxing!

So with these new habits over the past couple of days, it seems that the car is ?recalculating? the range possibly? No matter what, I think I am just paying really good attention to the amount of charge on the battery versus the range... Again I parked tonight, and I am not plugged in. I seem to still have used only about 20% of the little bars in the battery charge (only shows 20% or so missing from the top)... so plenty still. I think with these driving habits, and no far-away excursions LOL, my charging should easily be only needed every week... But I am really pleased. And when I pulled up tonight and gained 5 miles in range since this morning, I just smiled.

As I mentioned earlier, how and where you drive has more to do with the range you'll get than anything . . . . and you're seeing proof of that

Yes, the car is 'recalculating' . . . . sort of - What you see on your RR display is a calculation based on the energy you used to drive the past 15 miles. You started out with 40 RR and you drove gently for 20 miles - Your new RR shows how far you might go on the remaining amount of energy left in the pack *assuming* you're going to continue to drive like you drove the previous 15 miles . . . . and so on. Yes, it's possible for the RR to go UP as you drive. Yes, it's entirely possible for you to go 90 or 95 miles on a single charge if you keep doing what you're doing. You CAN use the A/C when you need it . . . . it doesn't hog lots of energy, maybe only cutting range by 15% or so. The same can't be said for the heater though

You're learning to drive an EV and you're getting better at it everyday - It can be fun to see how far you can stretch one battery charge. It's something we all go through with our first EV experience and it builds confidence as we learn how to make the most of the energy in the battery. Most of all, it *really* lessens any 'range anxiety' most first timers experience . . . . and you had a bunch of that earlier, wondering if you would make it back home. "If there's any doubt about you making it to where you're going . . . . slow down!" With these cars, range is what you make it . . . . they will go a long ways when the need arises if you driven them intelligently

Don

 

[TobyGadd]

I'm sure that this has already been said by others, but WIND is the biggest enemy of achieving predictable mileage for me. On the front range of Colorado, we frequently have heavy winds blowing from the west--which means that that I often have TERRIBLE mileage on my drive to work, and then AMAZING mileage on the way back home. Even a little wind makes a big difference. Side winds seem as bad as headwinds!

Other things that I've found (nothing new to old-hands on this forum):

Elevation is a factor. Even though there's not much elevation difference, it seems that it's enough to significantly alter range.

Wet and/or snowy roads suck a lot of juice. When it's safe to do so, I try to keep my wheels out of the wet "ruts" which helps.

Temperature reduces range--even when not using the heater. Using the heater is insanely bad for range. I use the remote to pre-heat in the winter when the car is plugged in--which is awesome, especially with my new L2 Clipper Creek charger. Heated seats don't seem to reduce range as much as I would expect, so I sometimes use them when the pre-heat wears off on longer trips. I wish the temperature dial had better tactile feedback so that "off" was more obvious, as even one click kills range.

AC isn't too bad. Warm weather is good for range, so a little AC brings the car back to "normal" compared to colder weather. I've pondered whether open versus closed windows make a difference, but I don't feel like I've seem anything really definitive. On warmer days, I open the driver-side window a few inches, and the right-side rear passenger window about the same--which seems to make a nice draft without a lot of noise and flutter.

Tire pressure makes a difference, but not as much as I would have expected. I keep my tires at about 38 which feels good. I've read that different tire brands make a big difference, but I run stock tires.

Speed is obviously a big factor--as is acceleration, braking, etc. A nice even speed of around 40-45 typically gives me great range. I hate the way the car drives at Interstate speeds (75 MPH in Colorado), so I always take back roads. Trying not to engage the brake pads while stopping (aside from the last little bit) is good--although I suspect that keeping the needle between regen and power when slowing down gradually might give me the best range (I don't have any hard evidence for this though).

RR is fickle, although still useful once you learn what it means. After driving 16 miles downhiill with a tailwind on a warm day, it'll report 80+ miles after a full charge. On a cold day with a headwind, it'll report 40 miles. Once you understand how to factor in all of the variables, it's surprisingly useful though.

Headlights, radio, etc. seem pretty insignificant. I'm sure that others have tested this, but I've never noticed a significant difference in range.

After driving my i-Mieve for almost two years, I've really stopped paying as much attention to conditions as I used to--which sometimes leaves my with rather unexpected range--for better and for worse! Always amusing to hop in the car and see a range of 86. Sometimes bewildering to see one of 36.

 

[mcampellone]

Greetings to everyone here on the forum! I wanted to post an update to my experiences with the car since first acquiring it.

First off, I love it. I have learned that I was stressing, basically, over nothing. My driving habits are pretty much the same every day - leave my garage, drive to my office downtown, maybe the market, then home. I do this every day Monday through Saturday. If I ever need to go on a longer drive or out of town, I just take the "gas-burning horrible fossil-fuel eating" sedan LOL. I bought this as an experiment to see how I would like driving an electric car, and I can honestly say I love it. My very next luxury sedan will definitely be an all-electric with longer range.

I really was stressing over nothing on the range aspect. I have now settled into a great routine. On my instrument cluster, I keep the right-side circle always on "external temperature", which is nice and calming LOL - I never, ever look at range. Every week, after my six days of driving, I always have between 4 to 5 little "blocks" left on the charge indicator on the left. Then, I make Sunday my day to plug in and charge (12 amp setting), and by Monday morning when I leave and unplug, I am refreshed and ready to go.

I have found that our temperatures here in Little Rock have varied quite a lot, plus our pollen counts have been very high, and with my allergies that would be disastrous to drive with windows open. So, I always have them tightly shut. And I have found whether I use the vent fans, the air conditioner/climate control, the stereo etc. - that my end results each week are always the same... 4 or 5 little blocks left of charge.

If I had only done this from the beginning, I would have saved myself so much stress. And I believe more than one of you advised me to "pay attention to the battery charge indicator, not the range" as the more important thing to keep an eye on. And I thank you!

So, I wish to thank all of you so much for making my "easing into an electric vehicle" so pleasant and welcoming. I appreciate it more than you know!

Warmest regards to all,

Michael

 

[JoeS]

Michael - Thanks for the update. I know quite a few people who, after owning their first EV, swear they'll never go back to ICE...

So, what is the highest RR (Range Remaining) number that you have achieved, as it seems you fully charge your car on Sundays?

Let's see, six days and four bars left means two bars/day. With a commute that short I'd be inclined to walk or ride a bicycle :twisted:

Still going to work with all this pandemic sequestration?

Don't give up on that RR display as it's a great adjunct to the fuel gauge. Over the years there has been some question about the fuel gauge's linearity; for example, some have noted that you can drive further when going from 16 bars to 15 bars than any other interval, and at the bottom end we often perceive it running out of bars sooner than expected. The RR, once you understand it, can be a great reality check.

Once you're comfortable, try taking some longer trips as you'll find them eminently doable and less expensive even with the current low gasoline prices.

Why I Don't Have Range Anxiety