Picking up my Mitsubishi I MiEV tonight

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Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
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Here's a winter update on the MiEV.

I currently have about 10k miles on it, driving it all days of the week except 1. That one is because I have a standing get together that makes my round trip about 80 miles on Friday. It can be done in the summer, but not the winter with the heater on. My commute is almost exactly 30 miles round trip unless I go out to lunch, in which case it is about 42 miles. In the summer, this uses almost exactly 1/2 the available range (I get back with 1/2 charge) but in winter, it uses about 80% charge if I use the heater sparingly, or 90% if I use it all the time.

All my previous comments about the car on the inside still hold. It is covered in plastic, and looks blech. Folding down the rear seats provides more than enough room for a ton of stuff from costco. I also moved a file cabinet without a problem in it, so there is more than enough room inside for most usage.

The big reason I wanted to do this update is about winter driving. It has been a strange winter, very little snow, so I haven't had much of a chance to drive it in the snow. That has changed.

With all my cars, I always find a parking lot or other open area to mess with it. That means turning quickly when wet, dry, snowy, and all that stuff. Basically, I want to know how it will behave when someone cuts me off or a kid decides that running across a street without looking is a good idea. Sadly, with the MiEV, I was unable to try driving it in the snow in a parking lot or such because the snow hasn't materialized.

My first experience was actually driving to work. The roads were all clear fro the snow that fell the night before, besides one single 2 lane road on the way to work. It looked like it had been plowed about 1/2 way though the storm, so there was some packed snow on it. I was driving in B, which is maximum regen braking when you let off the gas. This proved to be a mistake.

I was going up a small hill at about 35 mph or so. As usual, I accelerated gently, and I felt the back end start to lose grip and slide to the passenger side. I immediately took my foot off the gas, and that was the end of the control I had of the car. The regen braking locked both rear wheels when I took my foot off the gas, and the ass end spun around faster than any other car I have ever been in. Most cars will give some kind of feedback of "stop being an idiot" before going around, and if it does, an application of throttle or very light brake will bring the ass end back in line. Not a flipping chance on the MiEV.

As soon as the ass end started sliding more when I let off the gas, I knew that I had made a mistake on the regen braking because the slide went from 'slow' to 'holy shit fast'. I hit the shifter with the palm of my right hand to knock it forward into E or D. Both of which drastically reduce regen braking. All I did was bruise my hand because the shifter has %^@# detents on it between each and every option. To change from B to D, I need to move it left about an inch, then forward an inch, then left an inch then forward another inch. It is 4 distinct movements to go from max regen to normal drive. I had no chance at all to make that change.

Somewhere around this time I realized that there was no chance of saving it, I was going all the way around. I was facing about 90 degrees to the left, still turning right. I decided to turn all the way left to reduce the radius of the spin, (basically make the spin worse) but hopefully stay out of the oncoming traffic lane because of it. That seemed to work, because I went all the way around; first backwards, then bringing the front around to face front, then continuing in a circle until I was backwards again. I manged to stay out of oncoming traffic, and I managed to not hit the guardrail on the passenger side, so hooray. But fuck you car. I shouldn't have to fight with you. I drove the rest of the way to work without issue.

There was a decent snowstorm yesterday, got about 10 inches or so. During the day, I took the car out to lunch in regular Drive, and had no issues. I found a parking lot that had not been plowed, and it had about 4 inches of snow in it by that time. I drove around a bunch in it, and figured out that the car will act similar to any other real wheel drive car with a posi in snow. If I try to accelerate moderately, both real wheels will try to get traction at once. Any steering input will cause the rear to slide around in a controllable fashion. A side effect of the very low overhang on the rear wheel is that I could see 2 rooster tails of snow flying well above the height of the car as the tires dug down to find purchase. Turning corners was easy, any throttle input would again rotate the rear end around in a very controllable fashion. I took it back later when the lot had about 10 inches of snow, and found the same to be true. The traction on the rear was crap, but it was controllable, even at speed up to about 30, which was about the max safe speed in the lot.

I also tried the max regen option, B. This was crazy trying to drive in the snow. It was like the idiots you see in youtube videos sliding down streets with the wheels locked. If I was on the gas, the rear was sliding. If I took my foot off, they locked up and the car kept sliding anyway. The car is pretty much uncontrollable in B in the snow except if driven backwards. When driven backwards, I had only minor issues driving in snow with max regen on, all related to the twitchy nature of the electric steering rack.

Clif Notes: Car is fine in the snow unless in B, Max regen braking. Avoid this option at all costs, or have good insurance.
 
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Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
81
is there a snow setting or a way to turn off regen braking?

I hit the shifter with the palm of my right hand to knock it forward into E or D. Both of which drastically reduce regen braking. All I did was bruise my hand because the shifter has %^@# detents on it between each and every option.

Yes.
 
Dec 30, 2004
12,554
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user education going to be a big problem.
If I were designing for Nissan I could have told you this would be a problem when I implemented B mode.
 
Feb 24, 2001
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Evad, not trying to be an ass, but is this addressed in the manual at all? I ask because Prius owners still ask what the B does on the shifter or drive around in it thinking B must mean brakes so it regenerates more.

Curious if it's spelled out or Mitsu assumes owners will figure it out.
 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
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Any range deterioration at the 15 month mark? What are temperatures like where you drive?

No real change in mileage now to when I got it. Still get around 80 at the 2 year mark. Summers are hot (100+) and winters are cold (-50 windchill a few days this year IIRC)

Evad, not trying to be an ass, but is this addressed in the manual at all? I ask because Prius owners still ask what the B does on the shifter or drive around in it thinking B must mean brakes so it regenerates more.

The different options on the transmission are in the manual. It's up to the driver to make the leap between what a setting will do and how the car will behave.

This was the 2nd winter that I went though on my MiEV and for the most part it was the same as last year. Work now has a bunch (9 in total) of high output chargers, so I don't have to worry about charging any more. The heater is still crap, the seats are still crap, the center console is still annoying as hell, etc.

There were a few new things this year that I came across. I drove way more in inclement weather (snow) now that I can better anticipate how the car acts. However, that also means that I hit more road defects (like potholes) that I could see and avoid before. That helped me find out that the rims on the MiEV are not strong enough, and/or the tire sidewall is not thick enough to absorb road defects.

In total, I bent the rims 7 times this winter. None of the 7 were bad enough to have the bead come off or have the tire lose air though. I had 6 of them fixed, but I still have a bend in one that I haven't had fixed because I haven't had time. It's bent about a 1/2" or so, which is towards the low end of the bend size from the winter.

I did have a fun incident this winter. On my way to bowling one night it started raining, but was well below freezing. All the roads turned into ice, but most of them were salted. However, parking lots were not. When I got to the bowling alley, the dodge ram in front of me turned into the parking lot, but was unable to make the 2nd turn and ended up sliding into a snowbank. It was a 2WD Dodge Ram 1500 and was unable to get off of the snowbank because the rear wheels were on sheet ice. (probably would have been okay if it was dry) I pulled into the lot and basically steered my MiEV using the parking brake. I was able to find a not-icy spot some 40 feet from the Ram, so I hooked up every tow strap I had with me and was able to pull him off sideways using my MiEV. He did have to help though, as the MiEV seemed to not want to put full torque down if it wasn't moving, but it was enough to pull the truck.

I know it's stupid and not entirely true, but it's funny to me that my new electric MiEV was able to rescue my old dodge ram from a stuck.
 

nedfunnell

Senior member
Nov 14, 2009
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Thanks for the update. How'd things work out with the charging at work issues; hourly cost and long walk to unplug?

All things considered, are you glad you got it? Would you change your decision if you could?

I'm still interested in electric cars, just waiting for them to trickle down to the cheap used market.
 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
5
81
Thanks for the update. How'd things work out with the charging at work issues; hourly cost and long walk to unplug?
The new chargers are free at all times (just 'cheap' Bosch ones) so I leave it plugged in all day unless someone asks to free up a charger. It charges from empty to full in 4 hours. I pull 100% of the electriciy I use from the work charger during summer, and about 50% this winter so far. Difference is that to use the heater on full blast on the commute to/from work, it will use slightly over 50% charge. Full blast is needed to keep the windshield from fogging up.

All things considered, are you glad you got it? Would you change your decision if you could?[

It is still the best decision for the time I got it, but it was probably the wrong decision if I got it a few months later because the Prius C came out. If both the MiEV and Prius C were out at the same time (basically if I had waited a few months) I would have got the Prius C. The Prius C and MiEV ended up being super close in cost after tax rebates and such when the Prius C came out. MiEV was $30k with $10k back in tax credit, Prius was $20k.

Having said that though, the price of the MiEV has dropped by about 10 grand to get a new one (counting features that used to be added cost) so depending on state you live in, you can get a fully decked out MiEV for $12-13k after tax rebates and such ($22k - 10k in rebates) The Prius C is almost 50% MORE than the MiEV now. There are lots of choices now in similar cars (electric or not) so it all depends on your personal situation. The MiEV still works great for me, so I can't complain too much.

With perfect hindsight vision though, it probably would have been better to wait a few months and get the Prius C. But that is mostly because of timing. If I was making the decision today, it would be much tougher on which car to get. It would take me a few hours to research what my answer would be today. My guess is that it probably would be neither the Prius or the MiEV if I was looking for a car today.