We've had our Mitsubishi MiEV electric auto for three weeks as of today. Current mileage totals for our "fleet":
EV: 629
Prius: 240
Total: 869
Gallons of gasoline consumed: 4.8
Gallons of gasoline displaced through trade-in of Honda Insight hybrid for EV = 14.5
Fleet mileage: 869/4.8 = 181 miles per gallon
Fuel savings @ 4.5 cents per EV mile = 629*4.5 = $28.31
These numbers suggest annual gasoline displacement of roughly 250 gallons and fuel savings (counting the electricity consumed) of about $500. As previously mentioned, that's based on trading in a 40-mpg auto, so for a 20-mpg auto, those numbers could be doubled.
- The EV is performing very nicely--it's now clear that we can consistently drive it twice to "town" (the "micropolitan" area consisting of Hanover, Lebanon, White River Junction, and Norwich) each day, with overnight fillups, even at the "slow" charging rate (using a regular 110 outlet), for at least several days without running low on battery charge. We've used it exclusively, except when we have multiple commitments that conflict or overlap.
- As with the Honda we traded in, the range indicator is flighty--after the car is fully charged (the "charging" indicator light goes out), the range has so far read anywhere from 72 to 81 miles. It seems to go down faster when it's 81 than when it's 72, but that could just be my imagination--variables such as temperature, precipitation, cargo weight, headlight use, etc., all make it difficult to get precise, comparable measurements. In any event, the lowest the range has gotten is about 40, except for the deliberate deep discharge described in my previous post. While the EV takes 22 hours to charge from 0 to full, 10 hours of charging will take it from 40 miles on the range indicator to more than 70, so the charging fits well into a regular daily schedule.
I'll write a bit more about the MiEV's transmission settings in a future post.
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