iMiEV in 2021!

[javensbukan]

Hello,

Perennial EV tire kicker here.

Found a 2017 iMiEV with 52k KM on it (32k mi), the dealer is asking 10,895 (8600 USD).

It looks to be in fantastic shape, decent price? Trying to stay with a Mitsu dealer as i'll get better trade in with them one would hope.

https://www.bouchervillemitsubishi.com/used/Mitsubishi-I_Miev-2017-id8035261.html

How much battery fade does the iMiEV have compared to similar aged Nissan Leafs?

I know Leafs (Leaves?!) don't have any thermal management at all, so assuming the iMiEV with it's AC air cooling system for fast charging would help the battery last longer.

 

[JoeS]

Looking good to me. This car contains the improved LEV50N cells and the CHAdeMO quick-charge port with associated battery cooling/heating system. I *think* the exterior mirrors are heated and it may also contained the redesigned OBC/dc-dc.

 

[Don]

Looking good to me. This car contains the improved LEV50N cells and the CHAdeMO quick-charge port with associated battery cooling/heating system. I *think* the exterior mirrors are heated and it may also contained the redesigned OBC/dc-dc.

. . . . and, it has the optional CVT transmission - Very rare!! :lol:

Don

 

[javensbukan]

Looking good to me. This car contains the improved LEV50N cells and the CHAdeMO quick-charge port with associated battery cooling/heating system. I *think* the exterior mirrors are heated and it may also contained the redesigned OBC/dc-dc.

. . . . and, it has the optional CVT transmission - Very rare!! :lol:

Don

Ha! I love seeing that on EVs.

I also have the option to have a look at a 2012 I-MiEV with around 27000 KM for 7500 CAD... will request a battery reading to see what that looks like, as it's at a Mitsu dealer, as well has having a look at the OBC to see if that's been fixed / serviced.

Hopefully the '12 has CHAdeMO...

What would one expect for battery fade of a MY 2012 I-MiEV with 27000 km on it?

 

[Don]

What would one expect for battery fade of a MY 2012 I-MiEV with 27000 km on it?

Loss of battery capacity can be all over the place. High miles can be a big part, but so can how the car was treated. Many 2012's didn't sell very well, so they ended up on a $99 per month lease program after they had been languishing on dealers lots for a year or more and many of those sat around with the battery fully charged, which is the absolute worse thing you can do to a lithium battery. Unfortunately, many of those cars were the higher priced Premium SE's with Nav, ChaDeMo and all the bells and whistles - Because they were about $4K more expensive than the 'regular' models, many of them just didn't sell. A year of sitting around fully charged can do more damage to the battery pack than 75,000 miles of driving the car everyday - I own 2 of those former leased cars, both with fewer miles than the third car we bought brand new which I seldom ever charged to 100%. The difference in the battery packs is between 15 and 20% - Our original SE will go about 20 miles farther than the other two

That said, a good buy on a car with only 45 or 50 miles of range can still be a great deal if that works for your daily commute. Once the battery has been hurt to that degree, it doesn't seem to get much worse, at least not very quickly. My daily driver will only go 50 miles if I really baby it, but for me, 50 miles might be 3 or 4 days of commuting, so no big deal. I could easily get 70 miles per charge from our original car, maybe 80 miles with careful slower speed driving. If you're looking for a long range car, none of these are that anyway

Mitsu warranties the battery pack for 10 years (at least in the USA they do) but loss of capacity isn't covered by the warranty - You'll only get a new battery under warranty when a cell or two fails and the battery no longer will charge to 100% . . . . whatever 100% for that battery is - It might only be 30 AH, compared to the 45 or so AH it had when it was new . . . . still, it charges to 100%, so Mitsu will say there's nothing wrong with it

A Canion check on the amp hours is the only definitive way that I know of to tell the health of the pack in any used iMiEV you're looking to buy

Don

 

[javensbukan]

What would one expect for battery fade of a MY 2012 I-MiEV with 27000 km on it?

Loss of battery capacity can be all over the place. High miles can be a big part, but so can how the car was treated. Many 2012's didn't sell very well, so they ended up on a $99 per month lease program after they had been languishing on dealers lots for a year or more and many of those sat around with the battery fully charged, which is the absolute worse thing you can do to a lithium battery. Unfortunately, many of those cars were the higher priced Premium SE's with Nav, ChaDeMo and all the bells and whistles - Because they were about $4K more expensive than the 'regular' models, many of them just didn't sell. A year of sitting around fully charged can do more damage to the battery pack than 75,000 miles of driving the car everyday - I own 2 of those former leased cars, both with fewer miles than the third car we bought brand new which I seldom ever charged to 100%. The difference in the battery packs is between 15 and 20% - Our original SE will go about 20 miles farther than the other two

That said, a good buy on a car with only 45 or 50 miles of range can still be a great deal if that works for your daily commute. Once the battery has been hurt to that degree, it doesn't seem to get much worse, at least not very quickly. My daily driver will only go 50 miles if I really baby it, but for me, 50 miles might be 3 or 4 days of commuting, so no big deal. I could easily get 70 miles per charge from our original car, maybe 80 miles with careful slower speed driving. If you're looking for a long range car, none of these are that anyway

Mitsu warranties the battery pack for 10 years (at least in the USA they do) but loss of capacity isn't covered by the warranty - You'll only get a new battery under warranty when a cell or two fails and the battery no longer will charge to 100% . . . . whatever 100% for that battery is - It might only be 30 AH, compared to the 45 or so AH it had when it was new . . . . still, it charges to 100%, so Mitsu will say there's nothing wrong with it

A Canion check on the amp hours is the only definitive way that I know of to tell the health of the pack in any used iMiEV you're looking to buy

Don

So the 2012 I-MiEV came in, it's has 27666 KM on it, although it wasn't fully charged when I drove it so I'm assuming the Ah reading I got in Canion was low... saying 29.9, which if accurate is a 66% SoH.

It was only reading at about 75% SOC, so i'm guessing the Ah was reading low because of that correct? (just like in a laptop battery?)

Aside from that, it's in great condition, doesn't have satnav, but it does have CHAdeMO, which is handy.

Dealer is asing 7990 (6300 USD).

 

[JoeS]

I had misread the year of your car and just erased a post, and have edited the following a number of times in succession.

Sadly, the 29.9Ah is probably accurate, as Ah is independent of State of Charge %. While this i-MiEV will be perfectly usable for short daily runs for a radius of ~25km from home without recharging, it's utility is now seriously compromised (and it will only get worse). Its saving grace is that it has CHAdeMO, but only helpful IF you live in an area with lots of CHAdeMO stations on your travel periphery.

As additional data points, how many bars were showing on the 'fuel' gauge with this 75%SoC reading? What does the Range Remaining (RR) gauge say at this SoC? It's the right-hand display on the dashboard which you need to adjust using the pushbutton directly underneath it. It's the display with the left-pointing arrow underneath the numeric.

At this point in history. even if this short range was usable for me, I would be hard-pressed to offer even half of what the dealer is asking (but that's just me, living in an area with a glut of old Leafs).

 

[javensbukan]

Hello there!

When it was reading about 75% SOC it had all but about 3 or 4 bars full, so that seems somewhat accurate?

The RR was guessing only about 55 Km, with an air temp of around -5 Celsius.

Okay, good to know. I wasn’t sure if Canion just calculated the Ah based on how much charge was in the pack and if that would read higher if it was fully charged.

If it is at 66 % SoH, then it’s certainly a hard pass, as there are lots of public charging stations around me, however it would be essentially unusable for any sort of trips outside of around the city, even with our newly built network of public fast chargers on our highways, it would probably struggle to even reach the closest one, and only get worse from there ☹️.

Shame because otherwise the car was in amazing shape, and drove really well! Much better than all the negative reviews that car reviewers in US and Canada seem to say and the space inside was pretty astounding considering how small it is.

I appreciate the help with this, I wish batteries were easier to replace or upgrade on these cars, hopefully something that will improve in the future.

If Mitsubishi made a newer version of this car with improved batteries and heaters/coolers it would be on a shortlist to buy.

Thanks!