Our Gas Free Miles Travelled

[PV1]

Nice to hear from you again, Tony. Glad to see you still hang around the forum, and happy birthday to your i-MiEV!

Bear is at 31,710 miles. Minus the 145 miles that were on it when purchased and the 15-20 miles others have driven it, I've driven 31,540 miles in Bear.

It's longest single trip remains 144.8 miles with some quick charging. According to the spreadsheet, I've owned Bear for 3 years, 2 months, and 29 days, and has been mostly trouble free except for a bad cell in my original pack and some issues with my 12 volt battery going flat when parked for more than 2 days.

[JoeS]

Mitsi, my original i-MiEV SE, no CHAdeMO
Purchased: February 2012
Sold: November 2016
Distance driven: 49,946miles (80.380km)
Maintenance:
1) 2014 -replaced burned-out lightbulb in cabin overhead courtesy light
2) Two sets of tires
3) All fluids original and never topped up (including windshield washer and battery)
4) Everything else original, including windshield wipers which are still excellent as car always garaged

Sold it to a young newlywed couple who had been 'evaluating' it for some time. Despite he being a BMW mechanic in his past life and always lusting for beemers, they had fallen in love with Mitsi and really begged me to sell her to them, and I made it attractive. Believe it or not, I did try to talk them out of it, but their experience of ridiculously-low operating cost + HOV lane sticker were the overriding factors. Good home, as he's a careful driver and conscientious about battery charging constraints.

That leaves me with only two i-MiEVs...

[sandange]

Well it's been 2 years & 5 months with Bluey
and with out any serious issues

100,000 km / 62,140 miles
I've hit a personal Landmark in Mileage/ km
It happened while driving home last night

[Phximiev]

Here, here! We've had the 'Miev for two years and two days and put on 26,500 miles or so in that time, trouble-free as well. Works out to about 36 miles per day, which is fairly ordinary for the average US driver. Given the DOT stats, most everyone in the country could benefit from a 'Miev.

So where are they?

Happy New Year!

[JoeS]

Just finished tallying the mileage for the insurance company: this past year, our three i-MiEVs put on 19,994 miles (32177km) PLUS the Tesla racked up 20,715 miles (33338km). Add in a few hundred miles for the Corbin Sparrows and although not all of the i-MiEV miles were ours it has been a record-breaking electric driving year for my wife and myself (and to think I was laid up for the first four months).

After almost five years and a total of around 75,000 miles of i-MiEV ownership, I can unequivocally say that I'm still delighted with the i-MiEV - it indeed admirably fulfills its mission of everyday reliable urban transportation [insert here all the usual attributes such as roomy, comfortable, silent, super low-cost, easy ingress/egress, zippy, tight-turning, great headroom, good visibility, etc., etc.].

While the Tesla is an wonderful long-distance car (the word awesome comes to mind), for me there is an underlying apprehension while operating such a large expensive toy that I normally can't wait to jump back into the i-MiEV, which is simply much more fun to drive.

Happy New Year!

[Don]

Our first car will be 5 years old this May and it currently has 27,657 miles on it. It did sit unused for 18 months because we bought our second iMiEV with the intention of storing it until we needed it, but unfortunately the state of Mississippi didn't think that was a good idea - We could not title #2 without registering it and getting insurance on it, so since the tag on #1 was about to expire and we didn't really need another car (we already had 4 cars when we bought #2) we stored #1 and began driving #2 immediately

#2 currently has 14,911 miles on it - It had 3,900 when we bought it, so about 10,000 miles in that 18 months. As of about 6 months ago have both of them on the road - She drives the original and I drive #2

Had to replace the 12 volt battery in #1 when we took it out of storage, but neither car has needed tires - Did put two new front tires on #1 at about 10,000 miles when I hit a chunk of asphalt which had fallen out of a dump truck immediately in front of us while crossing a bridge - Instant blowout! Other than that, pretty close to zero maintenance on them both during those 40,000+ miles. #1 does need a new rear wiper now - It gets sun on the back window when it sits in the garage with the garage door open

About 6 months ago Carolyn had a minor fender bender in #2 when she was hit by a pick-up - His insurance paid about $3K to replace the front bumper, one headlight, one foglight and the superstructure behind the bumper cover. No damage to the chassis or steering geometry thankfully. Repairs took about a month, so we brought #1 out of hibernation then - Great to have a spare!!

We really didn't *need* a second EV as 98%of the time we go everywhere we need to go either alone or together, but when we found #2 as it came off lease for only $8,700 with just 3,900 miles on it, we couldn't pass that up. What if #1 somehow got totaled and we had no iMiEV??? Truly a scary thought, so we bought #2 just for insurance that we would always have one to drive

Like a few others here, we bought the first one when our dealer (now gone) first got them in stock and we paid the full $30K for it (less the tax incentive) and even though they lost value very quickly, we both still think it was a very wise purchase. I can't think of any other car I've owned which is better at what it does than these remarkable little cars . . . . which is why we bought another. Hopefully 10 years from now, we'll all be here talking about how great 15 years of ownership has been. I don't see anything replacing our iMiEV's anytime soon!

Don

[misterbleepy]

My iOn is 3 3/4 years old, and now has 25,551 miles on the clock, and is still serving us very well.
It's coping with the extra weight of a 4th passenger without a problem (a dog in the boot).

[JoeS]

Five Years and a Month of Driving i-MiEVs >75,000 miles

I sat back and reflected on our life with the i-MiEVs and contrasted it to our transportation alternatives.

Public transport is totally impracticable as it is a two mile hike or drive just to get to a bus (and you have to pay for parking) - in the 40 years that I have lived here, taking public transport to what had been my place of work is still impractical, with at least 1-1/2 hours (used to be over two hours) vs. 20-25 minutes driving. On the other hand, taking public transport (CalTrain) to San Francisco makes eminent sense as the city is virtually gridlocked.

My local town's center is about 4.5 miles from home and an average trip down into town is usually at least 15 miles.

Bicycle riding to town is about a 45-minute round trip just to get some milk - great exercise (it's uphill all the way home), but not too practical.

Daily driving by i-MiEV is such a normal experience that neither my wife nor I give it a second thought other than checking that each of the two i-MiEVs is charged up to around 12-13 bars by morning. Case in point at this moment is that my wife is going to San Jose to meet a friend and she just plugged in to charge her i-MiEV to 100% as it will be at least a 50-mile round trip, with her always having the option to plug in at the destination if convenient.

Longer trips by i-MiEV around the Greater San Francisco Bay Area are readily doable within a radius of 100 miles, as there are plenty of charging stations (DCQC and L2). Simply not an issue and the only preparation I do for longer trips is to fully charge the car and throw in my box with two spare tires and a few adapters with EVSE and check PlugShare for the status of potential charging stations.

Not having to deal with an Infernal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle is a pleasure - the convenience of NOT going to gas stations and the bi-annual smog checks is priceless, not to mention the literally zero maintenance (with the exception of new tires) so far. That said, I intend to finally change each of the i-MiEV's transmission oil and brake fluid when the weather warms up. My only remaining licensed and insured ICE vehicle is the '88 Isuzu Trooper which only serves its original purpose - that of towing the large trimaran.

Our home is all-electric with PV solar resulting in a zero electricity cost for the last ten years. The i-MiEV's fuel cost is almost non-existent.

Looking forward with the i-MiEV, I suspect the suspension components will be the first to wear out so I anticipate do-it-yourself posts on this topic.

As far as driving style, I came from two very diverse cultures: a lifetime of being a leadfoot with my 1967 Saab daily driver to hypermiling my Gen1 Honda Insight and its lifetime 77mpg. After starting off with the i-MiEV by driving conservatively, I have now devolved into continuous leadfootin' (my i-MiEV ain't no slouch!), with the recognition that I can adjust my style and hypermile as needed to always get to wherever I'm going. Like we try to tell people - range is whatever you need it to be for the trip you're undertaking.

For long-distance driving I had sold the Gen1 Honda Insight last year and replaced it with a used Tesla MS85 which is a fabulous comfortable long-distance car (neither of us wants to drive it around town). Inasmuch as almost all of our trips are in the i-MiEV, the Tesla normally sits untouched in the garage with a cover over it, but is actually taken out quite often for the trips up to Oregon or Los Angeles or the Sierras. I'm itching to take another cross-country trip in the Tesla and we might even exceed last year's >20,000 miles in it this year.

All in all, the i-MiEVs continue to prove themselves to be wonderful and incredibly reliable workhorses that are really fun to drive, with the assertion that they continue to admirably suit our family's everyday needs.

[PV1]

Nice write up.

Bear is set to pass 40,000 miles this week (Thursday will be the day if not sooner). It's hard to believe I'm almost halfway through the battery warranty, both time and distance wise. Meanwhile, Koorz has only had 3,000 - 4,000 miles put on in the last two years.

I've only not taken the i-MiEV once on a known trip, and that was this January during a cold snap. I took the C-Max instead.

My only complaint would be the price of replacement tires.

[jray3]

Bit of a milestone here, as we're passing 69k on MR BEAN this week, which added to the 21k logged on our first (non CHaDEmo) i-MiEV makes over 90,000 i-miles travelled.
We should pass 100,000 cumulative i-miles this year, and at the current usage rate, MR BEAN will become a centenarian all on his own next summer.
I'm not racing to hit that mark, as when my schedule and the weather permit, I commute in an old EV conversion and leave MR BEAN to the wife so she can rest the minivan. We still trade the bean back and forth to maximize the miles on electric.

BUT, the van did get about 100 miles of exercise on Friday night to help a buddy buy a salvaged solar array. Btw, DIY secondhand solar is becoming a great opportunity around the Puget Sound as 1st-gen systems get replaced with the subsidized Made-in-Washington gear, or taken down to put on a new roof, and then the homeowner doesn't want to pay for reinstallation...