I don't have it yet but I am getting feedback from those who deal with them, take this as a grain of salt until I can form my own oppinion anyway flame on...
The Miles SHOULD ALWAYS COME with rear seats, sadly I can't find how you get the bench seat available for the Daihatsu here, so it seats 4 as is with buckets. I don't think there is such a thing as 3rd row and I doubt there is room unless you can scrunch the seats in line with little leg room, to do this I would assume you would have to take a 3rd row seat from a junked van, suburban or minivan and maybe mod it a tad.
Also take care when considering purchase as many internet specials are 2 seater cargo type vehicles, not sure why, must not be demand for them. Anyway with the rear seats your range decreases somewhat but not sure how much as I don't have the vehicle yet. Also miles won't just sell you seats they want you to bring it to them for installation, if I was the one doing it I would want to beat the crap out of them given the seats are supposedly removables in most models.
Also before you buy any EV made by a manufacturer be sure to test drive it. The guy at
http://www.miles35.com said he has been converting many miles zx40's of various flavors because of their extreme underpowered nature and he seems to be geniunely angry at miles for the as he says dangerous charger (dumb kind, open housing?) and poor cheap heavy batteries. The actual vehicle he says isn't bad but he seems to be scathing about the poor ride (which I doubt is that bad)
My guess is that the flybo would take off faster than a Miles but it is cheaply built (might as well get a c-car) Anyhoo the Daihtsu's are the so called mini trucks you see floating around all over the country as OFF ROAD ONLY. To get a slight feel take one of those out for a test drive. I am told they ride rough but the people I get the reports from I don't think have driven a C-Car. The Miles ZX40 is a real vehicle in China and Japan and probably is better built than most every NEV but again they are small and probably feel like any subcompact 2200lb vehicle.
Many are scathing about the performance of the vehicle, I personally could care less about accelleration but many do and that comes into play. For the price I paid I could afford to upgrade mine but I have no plans on updating the motor or controller until the original is just about worn. I may pump more volts through or put a resistor over the field with a contactor to boost the top end but I will report EXACTLY how it is once I get it. (top speed is a worry to me, if it can't go 24.xx like most nev's I will be somewhat frustrated)
Be warned I am used to slow underpowered vehicles so I will try to state numbers including my 1 small hill for hill climbing, what I figure on the charger and the range. Because I can tolerate poor accell I may not be a good source on that, range and reliability however are another issue.
Also Remember mine is a 2005, there were some major changes to the Miles over the years but apparently the top speed has reduced as power has gone up due to the type of motor selected.
This is all 3rd hand speculation though. I still reserve my oppinion until I drive it a while.
Back onto my current needs, anyone know much about
"FIELD REDUCTION"
I am looking to see what metals work the best as described at miles35.com with a low starting resistance that grows as current increases, I thought nichrome did this but I may be wrong.
Good Luck to all on their ecomodding ventures
Ryan