40 Mile range???

Hi all,

Just bought my 2009 I-Miev. Had it for a few days now. Only achieving about 40 miles on a full charge. Thats with radio, heater, aircon, rear demist, lights etc all off. Seems to me somethings up. If I switch on any of these items, the range is cut down more. I understand the cold weather could be affecting it but surely not this much. Any ideas appreciated.

40 miles, 65 kilometers sounds not very much. 2009?

We got ours dated from 2010 but actually one and a half years old and 4000 kilometers, 2500 miles driven.

Fully charged it used to get us some 107 kilometers, 66 miles but later and after the software update it even got us 135 kilometers or 85 miles regularly, that is when it was warmer and before the construction works and circumnavigation. Bad days did give me 85 kilometers. That is still more than 50 miles.

I'd do the annual inspection with battery discharging and recharging and see what the report says.

Do you have a 16 kWh battery or smaller?

Wizzaman - where are you from? You must have one of the earliest i MiEVs available. You could be facing several issues that have been resolved in later editions of the i MiEV. Peter is talking about a recalibration that is required at the dealership for the 2010 versions but the 2012 versions are recalibrated by bringing the power meter down to two bars and then recharging. The other issue is that your car is nearly so or at 4 years old now and not sure how many kilometers/miles are on your odometer but your range is definitely going to be less than a new car. The Lithium-Ion batteries loses the first 10% quickly and then settles for awhile, slowly dropping down to 80% after five years. You may be at that 80% right now. Another factor is how the car was driven or stored before. Many dealers let these cars languish for months at full charge when the owners manual clearly states that less than half a charge is necessary for storage. If the car was allowed to discharge to zero often will affect the life of the battery. If the car has the Fast Charge CHAdeMO port and was recharge using this method often will shorten the life of the battery. If the car was used as a demo or a rental, drivers may have punched the go-pedal, deep discharging the battery which also affects the battery. There are numerous factors involved in a 4 year old EV that will affect your range. If it hasn't been to the dealership, I would take it there and have it checked out.

Hi again,

Many thanks for your responses. I'm in London, UK. I don't know the history of the car, but its only done 4000 miles. I'm driving very light footedly and tried eco mode as well but not much difference. Do you think a software upgrade could fix this? How would I go about recalibrating the battery? Vehicle still has 2 years Mitsubishi warranty remaining out of the 5. Would this issue be covered?

Thanks

The Window sticker on the USA version says the range is 62 miles. I'm sure the test loop runs they do to get this number use both some freeway driving and climate control usage, because if you keep the speeds at 40 or 45 on flat ground, not using climate controls, the car will actually go 90 or 100 miles, in temperate conditions, no problem

You might try running the RR meter down to zero and then recharging and see if that improves things. I'm sure the cold is probably taking away 10 or 15% of your range, but you should still be able to do better than 40 - I think 60 should be readily achieveable even in winter if you're keeping your speeds down

The battery is warrantied for 8 years or 100K miles, but what is not warrantied is a normal loss of capacity. You could have a dealership test the battery and if it was found to have 2 or 3 bad cells, then Mitsu would have to stand behind that. A range reduction to only 40 miles after just 4,000 miles isn't any normal loss of capacity. If a deep discharge/recharge doesn't improve anything, I'd get it looked at. What you have is not normal

Don

Don said:

The Window sticker on the USA version says the range is 62 miles. I'm sure the test loop runs they do to get this number use both some freeway driving and climate control usage, because if you keep the speeds at 40 or 45 on flat ground, not using climate controls, the car will actually go 90 or 100 miles, in temperate conditions, no problem

You might try running the RR meter down to zero and then recharging and see if that improves things. I'm sure the cold is probably taking away 10 or 15% of your range, but you should still be able to do better than 40 - I think 60 should be readily achieveable even in winter if you're keeping your speeds down

The battery is warrantied for 8 years or 100K miles, but what is not warrantied is a normal loss of capacity. You could have a dealership test the battery and if it was found to have 2 or 3 bad cells, then Mitsu would have to stand behind that. A range reduction to only 40 miles after just 4,000 miles isn't any normal loss of capacity. If a deep discharge/recharge doesn't improve anything, I'd get it looked at. What you have is not normal

Don

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Many thanks Don. Looks like there is a problem. I'll take it to the dealership.

Also european version has a bit better range than US version - 70 miles should be no problem.
This is because of Cx is 0,33 and in US version Cx is 0,35
EU version is narrower, lower & shorten

I drive Peugeot iOn with 4500km on the clock (about 2800 miles) and range is like it was new.

I think that your car might be poorly stored for 3 years and little used (4000 miles only) - that means your batteries have problem.

Just an idea, how about the BMU?

Maybe updating the BMU software and a controlled discharge and recharge may do wonders.

All good ideas.
My fear is that it was left fully charged untouched for months in varying temperature extremes. Current wisdom is to store Lithiums at around 35% SOC. Sure wish Mitsubishi would put out a white paper on the proper care and feeding of our batteries...
Wizzaman, and what did the dealerhip say after they examined the car?

"Just bought my 2009 I-Miev."

FUD! (means Fear, uncertainty and doubt)

2009 nobody in Europe (and worldwide) - (even in GB with RD like in Japan) could buy an i-MiEV.
So, what is the problem?

I hve an i-Miev, produced in November 2010 (the earliest date for export production), now two yeras later) i measured 80% of the original battery
capacatiy (40Ah instead of 50 Ah).

I think this is the same person who left a similar comment on green.autoblog.com and got called a troll there too. I can't find the comment at the moment, but the content was nearly identical talking about a 2009 I-MiEV.

Obvious troll. Feel free to insult such behavior, but otherwise just starve this.