imiev - the first electric shite?

[Sloth in a bowl]

Now this is the first electric shite - the Jamais Contente (the 'Never Satisfied'), 1899. It was the first vehicle in the world to exceed 62mph and consequently held the land speed record (at 65.8 mph). It was powered by two direct drive 25 kW motors. The body was made from a special alloy called 'partinium' (aluminium, tungsten and magnesium). It was shite due to the exposed chassis spoiling the streamlining and the equally high drag driver who had great difficulty staying on board and keeping it under  control. He must have had balls made from partinium.

 

 

 

 

See it in glorious* technicolour and weep. It currently lives in a very poorly lit part of Turin motor museum.

 

[txe4]

This is a japanese exchange student in the Sorbonne, with racist stereotype buck teeth and NHS specs. Epically merde, I nearly bought one before the Poojoe of electrons revealed itself to me. I r jelus of the brownness of dash.

I fucking love the brown. It really puts the buzzing flies on the shite for me. Makes me smile whenever I look at the interior.

 

Remember it's not just the dash, it's the (bizarrely fresh looking even though much of the rest of it looks quite battered) seats as well.

[HH-R]

I seriously considered one of these before buying the Kia but the 0-60 would have done my head in. Shame, as it would have been ideal otherwise.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

QUB DeLorean 5.jpg

 

QUB DeLorean 2.jpg

 

Fully electric DeLorean DMC-12, built by one of Mrs DC's exes, as it happens. The car was sourced through her uncle and all.

 

It's not the first electric DeLorean, but this is the inevitable outcome when you're foolish enough to give a research grant to an electrical engineer who's a massive Back To The Future nut...

 

https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/electricdelorean/about/

Can it do 88mph?

[txe4]

I seriously considered one of these before buying the Kia but the 0-60 would have done my head in. Shame, as it would have been ideal otherwise.

 

It actually feels fine in use, it doesn't feel as bad as the 0-60 suggests.. There is a definite "1 banana, 2 banana, NOW WE'RE MOVING" effect when you pull away from stopped - it's slow to start with as power as limited (to protect the halfshafts?) and then full power comes on. I don't mind it and mrs txe4 is well chuffed with it cos she doesn't have to change gear or use a clutch.

[Datsuncog]

Can it do 88mph?

 

I believe it can.

 

I'm sure he's never* tried it though.

 

Out of interest, the same guy drives a bright metallic green Megane 1 with the dashboard completely rebuilt to a fairly detailed replica of the time machine in the film. It's without doubt the only mid-range 90s Renault I know of to be fitted with a flux capacitor.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...., the actual vehicle is still an issue:

 

G-wizz. No chance. Tiny, dangerous and look kak. See also any other EV from 10+ years ago.

It's the Indian idea of what a "car" should be. See also Tata's "1-lakh" car project, the Nano. In typically Indian fashion, the G-swiz is a lash-up Noddy car, and unsafe at any speed.

 

The original G-swiz never had to pass any crash tests here because it was classed as a quadricycle rather than a car. Unfortunately at least one British motorist has been killed in one when it came off very much second best to a Skoda on the A41 Hendon Way.

 

i-meievei. Better, but still disasterously slow and looks ridiculous. Given that my commute is a mix of country roads, big hills, lanes and other NSL stuff, I think the range would be *much* lower than advertised.

There is a petrol engined version which uses the same body design. It's still shite.

 

Zoe/Leaf etc. Still too expensive. That said, a friend has recently bought a Leaf with the larger 30kwh battery in great condition for less than I can find anything on the bay of snot, so prices are looking better....

What you need* is a.... Renault Twizy.

 

 

[SierraMikeHotel]

There's a G-Whiz in daily use locally, I see it quite often. I sincerely hope it's only used around the town and not I the grown up roads.

[AMC Rebel]

Is it possible to warm/cool the cabin on these when it's standing charging like you can on the Leaf/Zoe?

[txe4]

Is it possible to warm/cool the cabin on these when it's standing charging like you can on the Leaf/Zoe?

 

Not on the PSA/Citroen ones.

 

A genuine Mitsu branded imiev I think supports remote start of the climate control using a button on the fob - but I've never actually seen one.

 

I think what most people do is put a fan heater on an extension lead in the car in winter, and turn it on half an hour before going out.

[Dan_ZTT]

There's a G-Whiz in daily use locally, I see it quite often. I sincerely hope it's only used around the town and not I the grown up roads.

Whereabouts are you? An old school friend of mine owns two, for some unknown reason. He's somewhere in Buckinghamshire

[somewhatfoolish]

Not on the PSA/Citroen ones.

 

A genuine Mitsu branded imiev I think supports remote start of the climate control using a button on the fob - but I've never actually seen one.

 

I think what most people do is put a fan heater on an extension lead in the car in winter, and turn it on half an hour before going out.

Hardly worth the effort as the heater is a bit mince, if you want to use one in winter fit a diesel burner; there's some good vids about fitting one to an ImiEV on yootoob by a bloke in trumpistan.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Whereabouts are you? An old school friend of mine owns two, for some unknown reason. He's somewhere in Buckinghamshire

Definitely not your friend! This one runs about in Lewes (Sussex).

[txe4]

9 months in.

 

It still works. Passed MOT with no advisories. Aircon compressor has got a bit noisy. As we live in Yorkshire this isn't an issue. No noticeable further degradation in the battery. Bodywork has got a bit scruffier - jetwash lifts the lacquer but leaves the dirt behind. Although they look nasty, the cloth seats put up with abuse from children and wear far better than the LEAF ones did.

 

It's worth a grand more than I paid for it, which is pure insanity. I want to sell it but wife says it's "the best car ever".

[Tayne]

When the air con compressor dies you don’t be able to rapid charge it.

[Rocket88]

We looked at getting s/h one when Mum last changed her car [she lives in Jersey, so ideal EV territory] chuff me, they were expensive , even s/h....and no warranty ref the battery life. She bought a Hyundai Pez in the end.

[egg]

What range are you getting in the winter?

[txe4]

When the air con compressor dies you don’t be able to rapid charge it.

I've seen that asserted before but I'm not sure whether it's true.

 

It might just charge slower when it's hot - whether or not DC charging is entirely disabled when the a/c system fails is not clear to me. Certainly it wouldn't charge at full speed in hot weather.

 

We never rapid charge it, and it's shite, so meh.

[txe4]

What range are you getting in the winter?

The heating is outrageously inefficient. In stop-start traffic with the heater on full is a very different matter to 40mph with the heater on low.

 

You want a number so I'll say 35 miles, but anything from 10 to 50 is possible.

[UltraWomble]

a battery lease free Twizy from Norway...

 

And I think almost all of us draw the line at a g-wiz...

Bizarre - I was looking at one of those last night - £5000 plus whatever it costs to get it over here.

 

I'd certainly rock one as a work/commuter car

 

But then I'd also rock one of these Citroen things too.

[txe4]

Update.

 

Still got it. It still works. It's passed two MOTs  with no hassle. 

 

The battery is deteriorating, slowly but steadily, down to 52 miles estimated range on a full charge - which drops to 30 if the heater is turned on. 

 

The a/c compressor hasn't died...yet...and it will still rapid charge, but it's now very slow - falling to about 6kW at 50% - so not really viable. It gets load of use, several trips a day, out, back, onto charge, rinse & repeat.

 

Still does everything we need as a runabout. My inclination is to sell it - as it's still worth a tidy amount, and the changing EU emissions regs in 2020 will see a flood of cheap new EVs and PHEVs - but wife is absolutely determined that it's the best car she's ever had and we're keeping it.

[Ohdearme]

I keep finding my way back to these as  a shitbox to get me to the station and back that doesn’t cost tax or Pez.

what are they like 0-30 as that’s all it really needs to do for the train run and then I can have a proper big engine barge for distance.

[txe4]

They're not rapid at all from 0-5. They pickup OK after that and feel fairly torque-y. It takes time for power to build - when you boot it, you can see the power meter (which is a simple ammeter) take a second or two to reach max beans.

There's enough torque/power available, it's just limited in how it will dish it out, especially at low speeds, in order (I assume) to both make the handling (remember - RWD, little tyres) "friendly" and the mechanicals durable.

Even when I had the Tesla as well, I never found the speed/power limits frustrating. In many circumstances the miev is the fastest 4-wheeled transportation available, because it will turn in the road almost anywhere, park almost anywhere, and fit through gaps which nothing else will go through.

[somewhatfoolish]

A glance at Goo-net suggests it's worth considering an import, as the prices over there are below UK retail even allowing for the faff of import. JDM yo!

[egg]

3 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

A glance at Goo-net suggests it's worth considering an import, as the prices over there are below UK retail even allowing for the faff of import. JDM yo!

I wonder what the electrical connector looks like in other markets - is it the same?

[somewhatfoolish]

It's standard AFAIK, the CHADEMO was a japanese idea I think.

[txe4]

Interesting idea.

 

Re connector - I think it probably is the same. It's type 1  - aka SAE J1772 - for AC on the EU ones, and (unlike type 2 which most EVs use here) that's standard in Japan and the US as well.

 

The DC is chademo which is standard everywhere.

 

So probably a Japanese one would Just Work. Bit of a nightmare if stuff went wrong, but generally stuff doesn't go wrong with these.

 

Only small wrinkle I can think of is that the very oldest ones used non-standard signalling between the EVSE (charger) and the car. So most of them - including mine - are standards compliant and work like any other EV, but I have seen the very oldest ones using a plain cable direct from mains to car with no EVSE/granny-cable/brick in the middle, and presumably none of the safety/signalling/control features.

I don't know how you'd get on with charging one of those early ones, or indeed whether they can charge at all from a standard type 2 home or public EVSE (chargepoint) - so you might want to be careful and either get a later one, or research when the cutoff point between old and new charging arrangement is.

It's also possible that there were cars produced without the chademo port.

Find an imiev forum and ask this stuff.

[Jimbob McGregor]

Used one of these as a pool car when I worked for a rural local authority. Only used it once as I thrashed it to an area where even petrol stations are scarce but I knew I had the fallback of a charging point in a National Park car park. 
As usual I was trying to fit too much in and was late, so foot to floor on the A68. It did hit 80mph at one point I think. Bit squirrelly with power on through bends, bumps or combinations of the two. 
Naturally I arrived at the car park with 5 miles range left and 20 miles back to base. Then realised I’d left the cable at the office.

Had to bus back to base (2hour wait) then go back next day (a Saturday) to stick it on charge and got a lift back up there on the Monday to drive it back.

 

Never used it again.....

[somewhatfoolish]

What kind of fruit takes the charging lead out of the car?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, somewhatfoolish said:

What kind of fruit takes the charging lead out of the car?

Probably because of bloody local authority nonsense.  They used to insist that the charging leads for our electric 106s stayed in the cabinet the charging socket lived in... despite it being capable of charging from any normal 13A socket with the adaptor (same as the ones used for caravan hookups).

I did get permission to take the lead with me after an unnecessary amount of wrangling...

Admittedly I only needed it because I wanted to take the car home after work on the Friday so I could have it at home for the weekend (was a 35 mile drive).

Why did I want to take it home?  Because I wanted to valet it!  Work never so much as washed it and I was the only person who used it regularly in the latter days.  They were slightly baffled when it reappeared on Monday morning, gleaming inside and out.

Was gutted when they ditched them.

The i-Miev has some pretty good onboard battery diagnostics from what I've read over on the French Car Forums.  You may well find that there are a small number of cells in the battery pack which are responsible for the drop in capacity (they're in series, so the available capacity is essentially determined by the weakest cell in the pack).  It's not beyond the realms of a competent DIY job to swap out cells in the pack...it is a lot of work, but it is doable.