My current car is 12 years old and in need of some expensive repairs. I can't justify the cost of the repairs, and I've tried doing the repair myself to no avail.
I went for a test drive of the i this weekend and was pleasantly surprised. I've never driven an EV before. Acceleration was fine, handling was what I expected, and braking was a little different though not entirely bad.
The brakes are front pads/rotors and rear drums/shoes. Not thrilled about the drums as I'll be doing that replacement myself when the time comes, and hopefully later then sooner due to the regenerative braking extending their life. Any repairs will be done by me when possible.
My commute is 40 miles round trip, so plenty of wiggle room in the battery capacity. I have access to battery charging at home and at work (free).
The size of the car is appropriate for our family too.
I started looking at the 2012 Mitsubishi i MiEV and ran some numbers. I've calculated the cost of ownership over the remaining life of the car to be approximately $0.25-$0.27 per mile to drive. In comparison, a modest used gas car with similar features would be approximately $0.33-$0.35 per mile.
These figures average out the depreciation, insurance, energy, and maintenance costs over the expected life of each car based on my anticipated mileage. So, the numbers are 'normalized' to a per year basis.
The one upfront expense would be tinting the windows to keep the interior cooler, to help with the battery usage on hot days.
Everything on this seems to make sense.
Am I missing something? Did you have the same 'unknown' hesitation before buying your EV? Do you own an i and have a story to share?