2012 Mitsubishi I

[Richard230]

    Yesterday's newspaper had a short review of the 2012 Mitsubishi I that I thought was kind of interesting. After reading the review, I got the impression that the car is sort of like a oversize golf cart. It seems a lot less substantial and somewhat less useful than the Leaf.

    The car is clearly designed for around-town use. It is possible to cram four people into the car, but that leaves no room for any luggage. If you leave two passengers behind and fold the rear seats flat, you will have as much luggage space available as the Leaf has in its "trunk". The "I" has a 66 hp electric motor that powers the rear wheels and the motor is rated at 145 lb-ft of torque (compared with the Leaf's front-wheel drive 107 hp/207 lb-ft motor). The car weighs 2,600 pounds.

    Top speed is 80 mph, but at that speed the car won't go far on its 330V Li-ion battery pack located under the passenger compartment floor. The car is rated as getting the equivalent of 112 mpg in the city and 99 mpg on the highway. Mitsubishi estimates the car's range as 85 miles, but does not specify at what speed you need to drive to achieve that range.

    The "I" single-speed transmission has three operating modes. The "D" position is for maximum performance, the "Eco" position increases battery life to the maximum possible, while the "B" slot increases the amount of regenerative braking.

    A 240-volt home charging system will replenish the battery pack in about 6 hours, but if you use a standard 120-volt outlet, it will take 22.5 hours to recharge! The article comments that wouldn't leave very much time to drive the car during a 24-hour day.

   Sales of the "I" will begin in the western states and Hawaii this November, with nationwide availability by the end of 2012. The base price for the ES model of the Mitsubishi I is $28,700, which includes air conditioning, power windows, locks and mirrors, heated driver's seat and a 4-speaker, 100-watt audio system. The $30,700 SE version adds fancier alloy wheels, fog lamps, two-tone instrument panel, upgraded seat covers and an eight-speaker, 360-watt sound system. A Cold Zone package, consisting of a battery-warming system and heated side mirrors, can be added to both models. SE buyers can opt for a navigation system, rear-view camera and the quick-charge DC port as part of a premium package.

   The article ends by saying that the car is efficiently packaged and will play well with the "eco crowd" due to its low price and the fact that it is minimalist and has futuristic styling .

[protomech]

85 miles is wildly optimistic. The Leaf does around 130 miles at 35 mph constant on level ground .. with 2/3 of the pack, Mitsubishi must be using similar conditions for their range quote. 40-50 miles is my guess for a safe "real world" range - I haven't seen one review yet where the reviewer was allowed to keep the car for a week and see how they dealt with the range.

The MiEV does cost $7k less than the Leaf. After federal rebates, you're looking at something like $21k base MiEV vs $28k base Leaf. Base Leaf has more equipment, but maybe the i is enough for some people. If you're planning on doing short commutes by EV and retain a gas vehicle for longer distances, it may not matter to you if the EV does 40 miles or 60 miles.

A 40 mile 80 mph 4 seat EV would suit my realistic needs about as well as a 40 mile 100 mph 2 wheel EV. It'd handle my commute and a bit of errands on the side. Some points to consider in favor of the EV bike:

* significantly cheaper buy-in ($10k vs $28k, subsidized $9k vs $21k)
* bike is much easier to cover with solar power
* better to displace ICE bike than ICE car, generally speaking. ICE bikes are economical but very dirty. ICE cars are thirsty but very clean. (plus my gas car gets 70 mpg.. the bike is closer to 50).
* ranges above are for moderate highway use, bike will gain more range by using lower speed roads -- which is in fact my typical commute.

Perhaps most importantly: two wheel riding for me is an elective thing; the car is a fallback when I'm in a hurry, stressed, weather is bad, planning to drive in dangerous conditions, etc. For me personally it's easier to have a gas four wheeler and an electric two wheeler (and a few gas ones) than to have a gas four wheeler and an electric four wheeler. To each their own.

[Richard230]

I have the same general thoughts. 12 years ago I bought a Saturn station wagon and I now have just over 20,000 miles on the car. During that time I have bought 11 motorcycles on which I have ridden over 150,000 miles. I only use my car for going to the grocery store and hardware store and if I really have to be somewhere when it is raining hard. So for me, an electric motorcycle makes a lot  more practical and economic sense than an electric car.

But, I am still interested in electric cars because that is where the big money is and auto manufacturers have the funds and resources to make large improvements in power trains, electronics and batteries that (hopefully) will translate to components that will be useful to production motorcycle developers, such as.......