Mitsubishi i MiEV 3000 miles

29th April 2010 - The Mitsubishi i MiEV has just completed 3000 miles. We have had the car for 19 weeks, so on average we do 157 miles a week. This also includes one week where it was not used as we were on holiday.

How do we review the Mitsubishi i MiEV?

The car has been very reliable, the only problem we have had is a faulty charging cable. A couple of occasions the car started charging and then stopped. This did not cause too much problem as we can revert to using our petrol car. Mitsubishi were very quick to repair the problem and provided a new cable.

Overall we have been very pleased with the performance. With a top speed of 81MPH we are able to keep up with the traffic in any situation. We can pull away faster then most petrol cars, if we need to.

The comfort is fairly basic, but good enough for short journeys.

The size of the car is ok, but there are times when a 5 seater for us would be better than a four seater. This has meant that I have had to use the petrol car on odd occasions.

The range in the early days was fairly low, we estimated that the maximum we could achieve was around 50 miles. This did reduce the use of the car for medium length journeys. We also had to ensure that the car was recharged every night.

The problems with the range in the early days was due to cold conditions, having to use the window heater and that the batteries were new. Battery life improves when they have completed a few cycles (charged then discharged).

The range we can achieve in warmer conditions with no heater is about 80 miles, with careful driving.

Mitsubishi have announced a price of £33,699 for the car (including a £5,000 subsidy) which is around four times the price of the petrol version. At this price, obviously, buying one is out of the question. However, since then, Mitsubishi have announced substantial price cuts for the car in both Japan and the US so it remains to be seen what the official UK price for the car will be when it finally gets launched at the end of this year.

With other electric cars becoming available in the next twelve months - such as the Nissan LEAF, the Renault Fluence and the REVA NXR - it will be interesting to see how they all compare on price.

If the Mitsubishi i MiEV was priced correctly we would definitely look into purchasing one. We will have to decide nearer the end of the trial.

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