Quercus said:
Took a test drive on Saturday -- Bob Dylan's birthday. Looks like our family is going electric. Just like Bob!
Congratulations! I think you'll be happy with your decision.
Quercus said:
My only worry -- even with the $10k discount and the $7500 tax credit, is that the battery might be less than 100% coming off the lot after sitting for a year...
At the end of December, I bought an i-MiEV that had sat on the hot, sunny lot of the Honolulu Mitsubishi dealer for over a year. I, too, was a bit concerned about this, but my very early i-MiEV had a sticker price that reflected the i-MiEV's original price prior to its price increase. So I couldn't resist the savings
So far, I have observed no obvious degradation of my battery pack. I have seen range remaining estimates in the mid-90's after a full charge and can easily achieve 80 miles range in urban driving without too much freeway driving or A/C use. This seems to be quite normal. Of course, this is only a single data point which doesn't guarantee that some degradation might not appear later. It might also indicate that my Mitsubishi dealer did what they told me which was that they maintained the battery pack charge level around 50% while it was on the lot and performed monthly checks on the 12 v. and traction batteries.