Residual Values

[Vike]

Sorry to disappoint you but still LEV50

To ensure world-class performance, we initiated a joint venture between GS Yuasa, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors to create a dedicated company called Lithium Energy Japan. The goal? To engineer a high-performance lithium-ion battery specifically for the Mitsubishi i.

It paid off. Our custom, 16 kWh battery pack delivers everything you need in a green vehicle: a long air-cooled life, responsive power, fast charging and great range. Oh, and Mitsubishi quality, of course. Which is why we can back our battery with an 8-year/100,000-mile limited warranty.

http://i.mitsubishicars.com/miev/charging/battery

Thanks, mitsu5! Yes, that was my source exactly, digging around on the Mitsubishi sites, still referring to GS Yuasa and all that. This was after reading some enthusiastic postings about how great it was we had these SCiB batteries, then re-checking the news releases and getting the distinct impression this was to be a future development (sorry, no references on that).

This didn't ruin my day and didn't cause me to cancel my order (it ain't here yet, "My Mitsubishi i" page still shows "Being Built" as it has for weeks). The GS Yuasa battery is fine w/good enough warranty, I'm not losing sleep over it. The existing range is well over what I need, and since this will be a second car for use in a town with a small footprint, the guaranteed degraded range still meets my requirements. I have a lot of short range hopping that I need to do, and it's not treating my ICE car well, so this is a change I want to make now, not next year.

If others are more comfortable with their current personal fleet in the short run, I'd recommend waiting. The Smart ED (seriously, is somebody going to explain the ED joke to the Germans before they ship w/that name?) and Prius PlugIn are supposed to be nationwide in 2013, Honda's Fit EV is on its way, we should have an updated i before too long, the Focus-E will eventually add SAE CCS Level 3, and the LEAF will probably see improvements.

On the other hand, I'm not as confident that prices are coming down real fast (there hasn't been a cut yet on the Volt, LEAF, or i-MiEV, the Fit EV's as pricey as the LEAF, the Toyosla RAV4 is a gilded toy for the George Clooney set, and the Focus-E is stupid expensive with neither L3 charging nor on-board generator). Only Smart is suggesting that their ED might lower the entry level EV price point (and sorry, but I want multiple passengers and a trunk). Considering that the i-MiEV's bargain pricing is somewhat accidental (they were forced into it because they got outclassed by the LEAF but still wanted to start selling EVs here), it's possible that it might be the best overall value for the next couple of years, and beyond that, who knows what's happening with incentives and subsidies?

So buy if you like the car as is, don't need improvements, and won't be put out by seeing better deals in a couple of years. Put it off if you're on the fence and won't be put out by not seeing better deals in a couple of years

 

[Don]

Personally, I think the residual values for just about every EV will be drastically skewed when the inevitable happens in the middle east and 'someone' (I sure hope it isn't us) messes with Iran - Gas prices will quickly spike to $5 or $6 per gallon and there will be loooong waiting lines to buy EV's. Those who don't already own one will all be clamoring for whatever is available at that time and used prices will surely reflect that

Don

 

[oakvilleblake]

Personally, I think the residual values for just about every EV will be drastically skewed when the inevitable happens in the middle east and 'someone' (I sure hope it isn't us) messes with Iran - Gas prices will quickly spike to $5 or $6 per gallon and there will be loooong waiting lines to buy EV's. Those who don't already own one will all be clamoring for whatever is available at that time and used prices will surely reflect that

Don

Interesting point. I would not disagree. We live in interesting times...

 

[oakvilleblake]

so what should a demo go for?

Our local dealer has one with 1900km that they have essentially parked because Ontario government rebates don't apply if a car has more than 2000km on it. It's not the colour we wanted, but we can live with it. We might have them leave some of the garish graphics they've put on for advertising it as an electric car ;-) In initial conversation with the sales manager they were only offering to waive the freight/pdi/prep/admin. Given the residual values posted on this forum I think I should be pressing for an additional $1500 off the car, at least. THoughts?

blake

 

[iMiEVNZ7]

Hi Blake,
With 700 Km on the car, we got offered it for $ 48, 000 compared to $ 59, 900 Nz About $ 11, 000 off. A respray for the colour you like might be about $ 3, 000 NZ so see if that might work.

 

[sandange]

Saw this break down of cost of owning a new car , guess what the biggest factor is...
Now look at the second biggest factor
http://autos.ca.msn.com/consumer-reports/how-much-that-new-car-will-really-cost

 

[Don]

Depreciation is one of the biggest reasons the i was only our second new car . . . . in more than 40 years of buying cars. I've usually bought 3 or 4 year old, very low mileage cars for much less than they cost someone new

Even for a new car though, depreciation becomes less of a factor the longer you keep the car - If you're someone who has to buy something new every 3 or 4 years, it's huge though. We usually change cars every 8 or 10 years so it wasn't hardly any consideration for us when we bought the i - Pretty sure we'll still own this one ten years from now

We bought a 'new' '02 Mazda Protege 5 as a dealer demo in '03 and paid $14K for it with almost 5K on it. We sold it when we bought the i for $4500, so the depreciation cost over 9 years was about $1K per year . . . . about the same as the cost of fuel

We loved that car, so 2 years ago, we bought another one, just to have for when we finally got rid of the '02 - This time we got an '03, all decked out whereas our '02 was a base model. We paid $5500 for the '03 with only 59,000 miles on it so the original owner took nearly all the 'hit' for depreciation for this one. It shares the garage with our i, though it doesn't even get started more than once or twice per month since we bought the i - Pretty sure we'll still own that one ten years from now too . . . . probably won't have 100K on it by then either

If you're buying an i with the thought of only keeping it 3 or 4 years, then you probably have a legitimate worry not knowing what it's resale value is going to be when you try to trade or sell it . . . . but if it's 'the car' you've been waiting half your life for, depreciation isn't that big a factor, IMO

Don

 

[Don]

so what should a demo go for?

In initial conversation with the sales manager they were only offering to waive the freight/pdi/prep/admin. Given the residual values posted on this forum I think I should be pressing for an additional $1500 off the car, at least. THoughts?

Go get a check for what you want to pay, take it in to the dealership and hand it to them - Cash in hand is much harder to turn down than any hypothetical 'offer'. If they accept, you've bought a car for your price. Be reasonable though - $1500 for 1900 Kms might be a bit much. If they reject your offer, put the check back in the bank and you haven't lost anything. Maybe a few bucks if you're dealing with a loan from a bank to get the check, but my credit union would do all this for me for free. Even if they turn you down, wait a week or so and they'll get back with you with an offer at a much more reasonable price than what they're quoting you now. Car dealers always quote you a price they would be extremely happy to sell the car for . . . . the amount they would accept to move out inventory they're paying interest to keep on the lot is a completely different number

Our i was existing dealer stock and it had almost 400 miles on it when we bought it. They agreed to discount it by the $1K Mitsu was offering when you pre-order a car, plus they came down about a dollar a mile for the demo miles. I took them a check for about $250 less than their 'absolute bottom number' . . . . and they took it and we drove it home an hour later

Don

 

[tonymil]

I was able to get $1,500 off for a demo model with 500 miles on it. I also got another $1,000 for already owning a Mitsubishi - a 14-year old Mirage that I bought used for my sons. boy did that turn out to be a good investment!

 

[archie_b]

Finally found a web site with a pdf file showing residual values of the 2012 i. While they are not values from ALG, I did compare the residuals of the 2012 Lancer from ALG and this web site. They were very similar.

Of interest is that the estimated residual value of the i is the highest of all 2012 Mitsubishi models. This may reflect some form of manufacturer incentives to keep the lease rates competitive with the Volt and Leaf. Also note that the ES model has a higher residual than the SE. Here are the % residual vales at 2, 3 and 4 years:

24 36 48
ES 64 58 51

SE 61 54 47

 

[peterdambier]

I hope I am not totally off topic.

We have a glider, that is the car without engine and batteries. That gets older like a normal car. It is simple, not very expensive so loss is minimal.

We have the drive with motors and all except the batteries. That may well last longer than our life.

We have the batteries. Their value most likely will drop dramatically. They are most likely lasting 20 years or longer but I guess in some 5 years when silicon outperforms carbon nano structures we will see batteries, same price as ours giving us a range of more than 400 miles more than competing with gas guzzlers. But charge time will be 5 times as long as well. Nevertheless fast charging will take the same 20 minutes as today but will be 5 times as much energy. Imagine a 250 kW charger and our grid from today.