Mitsubishi does not want to sell EVs in the USA

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iwatson said:
JoeS said:
I don't get it, but suspect that i-MiEV production is battery-limited, with the bulk of the batteries going to the Outlander PHEV.
What's not to get? Dealerships are independent businesses that sell Mitsubishi vehicles. . . . Only a high-volume dealer or a risky son-of-a-gun is going to stock it.

I'm quite sure you could go into any Mitsu dealer and order one for full boat, but finding dealers that stock them might be tough. . .
Which takes us back to my earlier point - the i-MiEV may only be a viable proposition as a ship-to-order product. For its niche market, it's a VERY attractive car, but value-first EV buyers are probably distributed pretty randomly. Things might improve after the Outlander PHEV makes maintaining EV certification for mechanics more worthwhile, but until then Mitsubishi needs to subsidize demo units (with nice garish I'M AN EV wraps) and tech training if they want to give the car any hope of selling.

And again, the open question is if that IS what they want to do. The barrage of bad stupid press (i.e., "I drove this car for 20 minutes and it sucks" as opposed to the "I've owned this car for a year and it sucks" stories that we're NOT seeing) may have convinced them that the i-MiEV is only going to sell to acquaintances of current owners so, why bother? Mitsu apparently thinks it best to just fill orders from those who really want the i-MiEV and save the push for the all-new 2016 Outlander PHEV and the next-gen BEV coming from the Nissan partnership. If the 2016 Outlander is as big a refinement/improvement as the spokesdroids claim, this may be workable.

The problem is that in the meantime dealers are closing their doors (I know mine was demoted to its group's downtown used car lot). With the regular Lancer losing ground after competing compacts got refreshes and the Evo end-of-life, the Eclipse and Galant gone, and the Mirage getting savaged by reviewers almost as badly as the i-MiEV, the Outlander models are really the whole ballgame right now. Considering that Mitsu's even undercut those by making plans for an all-new Outlander in 2016 a matter of public knowledge, how many dealers will still be around for what we all hope will finally be some good news?
 
JoeS said:
Today, I went online and decided to query the Mitsu dealerships in my area to see if and how many 2014 i-MiEVs they have in stock.
A search on AutoTrader shows 66 new 2014 Mitsubishi i EV's for sale in the US. Four are for sale in California, around San Diego.

A similar search on AutoTrader shows 4,270 new 2013-15 Nissan Leaf's for sale in the US, with hundreds available in California.
 
Vike said:
The problem is that in the meantime dealers are closing their doors (I know mine was demoted to its group's downtown used car lot).
I know my dealer won't stock any i-MiEVs (they have 2 as service/loaner/test drive units, but the dealer was forced to buy them since they couldn't sell them). I think they sold 2, one of them was mine. The Mitsubishi showroom is down to 3 cars (Outlander, Lancer Evo, and Lancer Sportback) and is getting squished out by Toyota and Morgan. Yes, Morgan.

morgan-3-wheeler.jpg
 
RobertC said:
A search on AutoTrader shows 66 new 2014 Mitsubishi i EV's for sale in the US. Four are for sale in California, around San Diego.
How'd you do that? When I do a search on AutoTrader using their pull-down menus for a Mitsubishi "i", it returns Infiniti. I sent them a bug report a few weeks ago, but still no change. You're right, using Mitsu's website, two dealers in the San Diego area have the i-MiEV... hmmm ...
 
What I do is remove the Infiniti search item, then go through again and pick Mitsubishi as a make, then i for the model.

To make this quicker, when you do the first search, pick only Mitsubishi. Once your results come back, then go and refine it with the model (i).
 
Once again, no one knows what an i-Miev is because there is ZERO advertising of it.

I put my Kandi Coco EV up for sale this week and made the mistake of parking it in the driveway with my i-Miev . Main statement by prospective Kandi buyers was: I didn't know Mitsubishi makes an electric car. It is truly annoying...
 
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