Mitsubishi Motors North America has confirmed the lowest-range electric car will depart the USA. It was on sale before the Nissan LEAF arrived in 2010, and was launched in the USA in 2012, but it never caught on. The small Japanese KEI style car only ever sold around 2500 units in North America (it did sell thousands in Europe and Japan though).
Erica Rash, from Mitsubishi North America, said “2017 was the last model year for the i-MiEV, and all available retail units have been sold.” It’s no longer listed on the Mitsubishi USA website. She didn’t specifically mention Canada, but so far the vehicle is listed on the Mitubishi Canada website. It may also continue on in Europe and Japan as sales were decent there.
The Mitsubishi iMiev had a 16 kWh battery pack that was rated by the EPA as having 62 mile range, and then was lowered to 59 miles range in 2017.
Also of note from Erica was a comment that the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid will launch later this year and arrive at nationwide dealers during the first quarter of 2018. It was supposed to arrive in Summer of 2017, so this is sort of another delay (like the 5th or 6th – I’ve lost count). Differently this time, however, in Canada some Mitsubishi dealerships are already issuing press releases that the Outlander PHEV will be available in early 2018 and are taking pre-orders for January, February, and March 2018!
This is too bad. The iMiev is a great car for what it is. Cheap, simple, and it works. Mitsubishi never really tried to market the car in the US.
Where do they get the idea that the only market in the US is is for powerful, expensive gizmo filled glitz?
How about a car that I can afford, that gets me where I need to go?
I got one. The iMiev.R
Raymond is right.
Ted
I just purchased an iMiev with just under 29,000 miles on it. Works great and I love it!