I got to drive an i-MiEV electric car (and a Chevy Bolt, and a Prius Prime plug-in)

[MetroMPG]

An acquaintance of mine bought this car. ^

I went by his local business to ask him how he liked it and he said, "let's go for a drive!" He let me drive it too.

It was cool to drive, and it's pretty efficient. I love how quiet it is -- makes for very relaxed "motoring". But it's pretty basic inside, and not a rocketship like some other electric cars (GM Bolt, any Tesla).

The official EV range is 62 miles / 100 kilometers. In summer weather, with the windows down instead of AC on, it's easy to beat this by a pretty wide margin.

Probably my biggest complaint about the car is that it didn't have a "fuel economy" gauge. In other words, there's nothing in it like the Mirage's "A" and "B" resettable MPG gauges. Feedback is critical for making efficient driving into a game against myself. I want to know how well I'm doing before my next fill-up or plug-in.

I love the car's looks. It's got a funky alien space pod thing going on. nobody really has any idea what it is, since so few have been sold in North America. I've seen more Lamborghinis (2) than iMievs (1) around here this summer!

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This has been the summer of EV's for me: I've also had a chance to drive:

2018 Chevy Bolt...



The Bolt EV has a combined EPA-rated range of 238 mi (383 km).

It's much more up-scale than the iMiEV, and goes like snot! It was something else to hit the accelerator at ~25 mph and hear the front tires start to lose traction.

2018 Prius Prime...



A friend bought this one recently, and I just spent a week driving it while she was away -- "The owner's manual is in the glove box!" she said. "Figure it out and teach me all about it when I get back." Well, twist my rubber arm!

It's a plug-in hybrid: it has a 25 mile / 40 km electric range, and then it reverts to working as a normal Prius hybrid, running on gasoline.

I didn't use any gas during the week I had it -- was able to get 63 km (39 miles) out of it on my first charge, just by using basic eco-driving techniques and with the windows down instead of using the A/C.