EVcast #301. "New and Shiny!"

I enjoyed the show, Nikki and guests- was worth getting up early on a Saturday morning for;-)  I look forward to a report on the I-Miev on a future episode- perhaps Mike and Robert will let you take theirs for a spin or two.

I do hope Mitsubishi chooses NOT to lease the batteries- either lease the car and batteries together, or sell them together and cover the batteries with a warranty.  This will simplify things greatly, I believe, for the owner of an EV- leasing the battery will just make it complicated, especially if you go to sell the car, and be more expensive in the long run for the car owner.  I know some like to lease their vehicles, but leasing is never cheaper for the driver, and I do not believe that leasing the car batteries will save the EV owner any money in the long run.

We had a 'comment exchange' about this an episode or two ago, about the Leaf, and the only reason for a car company to lease the batteries is to hide the true cost of the car- that's why you see the Leaf being touted for a price under $30,000- oh, by the way, batteries not included.  This might be okay for the MP3 player you get for Christmas, but is just too much cost to hide by 'leasing.' 

But what do I know- I thought amortize was Latin for 'love Interest.'  ;-)

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Hi,

My first question (being here in the USA) is when is the iMiEV going to be sold here?  How quickly does it charge (assuming nearly full discharge)?

Sincerely, Neil

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Nikki,
   Thanks for all your hard work in putting this show together.  It is a very exciting event.  Too bad that they didn't give you a car and a baby seat.

   I guess there are all kinds of different ways to fill air-time on a podcast, but I for one like to hear a little more details.  For example
1) Motor size (kw)
2) battery size (kw)
3) range (miles), I guess you said 80-100 miles
4) Cost of the car
5) cost to the participants in the scheme
6) what happens to the vehicles at the end of the scheme?
7) what is the length of the scheme?
8) what connectors are on the car
9) what is the charging time?

  Anyway, you get the idea.  Thanks for all your efforts.

John C. Briggs

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Nikki,

Don't overlook the DUO NMG two seater until you've driven it. You haven't driven the Aptera and yet you like it. Admittedly there is a styling difference, but, either would appeal to me. The DUO appears to me several steps up in improvement over the previous model which was functional enough. The DUO actually seems more accessible in terms of styling than the Aptera. In the village where I live (Charlotte, Michigan) there are several dozen 3 wheeled motorcycles driven by people of a certain age. That is just in my area of the country. I dare say the cost would be competitive and the comfort in all weather far superior. The big bonus for me is that I purchase the batteries in the estimated price, plus if I choose to I can upgrade them to various configurations for different mileage. For people who like to OWN their batteries (cause we might feel insecure) the DUO is a fairly priced item, especially if we can get the pricing down to 22k. [Myers sales program reminds me vaguely of the Tesla approach]

Ben

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One of the people on the show had a web site about practical EV issues and was talking about gas users needing charging stations more that real EV drivers.  Can you post a link to his site? David

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It's great to see that finally an EV is being released to the public (again?). Have they leased, sold or loaned? We had a sneak preview of the iMIEV in Australia and it has been approved for Australian roads... Now we just need to see some more.

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This is nice..I love the Mitsubishi a lot..They have good front bumpers on their cars. I hope I can have the Mitsubishi EV early this year.

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