Mitsubishi 'i' aka iMiEV (brother is trading in his Honda Fit for one)

[NeilBlanchard]

My brother Nathan is trading in his Fit, and buying a Mitsubishi 'i' ! He says it has even more legroom and headroom than the Fit -- he is almost 6'-7" so this is a key thing for him. His wife Janet is already driving a Leaf, so they will be a rare household with 2 EV's.

He was hoping to get the Fit EV, but they raised the seats to make more room for the battery, and apparently it only works for people up to about 6'-0" tall, or so.

His commute is pretty short, at only ~16 miles round trip. They plan on sharing the 40A Level 2 charger they have in their garage. And they plan on installing a 6kW solar PV array after building a new roof addition to their house, for carbon free driving.

[Daox]

Thats pretty cool Neil. I look forward to hearing more about this. I haven't heard much about the I except that its for sale now.

[NeilBlanchard]

He picked it up last night, and drove it to and from work today. It's a "raspberry" color:



He is still figuring out the best way to coast. The Cd is quoted as 0.35 -- lots of room for improvement...

[MetroMPG]

A 2 EV family - interesting.

I met a Leaf owner in Ottawa earlier this month - it's his family's only car. He rents the few times a year he goes on long trips.

[Ryland]

I see no reason not to have two EV's with decent range as your only vehicles, I know a lot of people with gasoline cars that don't dare take them very far away from home for fear that they will not make it.
My parents, just today became EV owners as well, bought a 2001 VW Golf that was converted to electric, because like most of us, they only buy used cars! and to me that is one of the best things to come from all these new EV's that are on the market, they push the old EV's out of the garages of the people who have them.

[NeilBlanchard]

I should have mentioned that he owns a Tacoma, and our Mom owns a Prius, so we can drive to her house and borrow the Prius for long trips; leaving a car for her to use. :-)

[user removed]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

A 2 EV family - interesting.

I met a Leaf owner in Ottawa earlier this month - it's his family's only car. He rents the few times a year he goes on long trips.

There is a lot of good logic in renting a car when you can put 1500-3000 miles on it in a week for very little money, plus if something happens to it 2000 miles from your home, just call the rental company for a replacement.

regards
Mech

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I should have mentioned that he owns a Tacoma, and our Mom owns a Prius, so we can drive to her house and borrow the Prius for long trips; leaving a car for her to use. :-)

That is part of our long term plan with my parents and I both being EV owners now, I also own a Civic VX and they own a Ford Ranger pickup truck, both of those gasoline vehicles sit for weeks at a time, they are also the vehicles that other people borrow as well and their pickup truck gets used for less then 2,000 miles per year, because a pickup truck is a useful tool to be able to use but you don't need to drive a pickup truck every day and a single pickup truck can serve a whole extended family or neighborhood!

[NeilBlanchard]

Here's some pictures:



I drove it today, briefly -- it is hard to make it really coast even when you manage to get the needle into the "neutral" zone between economy and regen. I didn't try it in the neutral position on the "shifter" but I'm sure it would actually coast...

The front wheels are 145/65/15 and the rears are 175/60/15. The underside is okay in the middle, but there are large recesses along the rocker panels, and around the front suspension and the drivetrain in the rear. The tires are Dunlops; probably similar to Ecopia, with 51PSI sidewall max.