Mitsubishi i-MiEV Earns Best Value in America Award
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV was announced the winner of the 2017 Vincentric Best Value in America™ award in the electric/plug-in hybrid vehicle segment.
The Vincentric Best Value Awards have been running for 13 years and look at vehicles from both the United States and Canada to determine cost of ownership. Eight factors come into play: financing, insurance, maintenance, fees and taxes, repairs, depreciation, fuel costs, and opportunity cost.
Award winners are identified by measuring which vehicles have lower ownership costs than expected considering their market segment and price.
With a starting MSRP of just $22,995, the 2017 Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the most affordable EV in the industry. It can go 62 miles on a single charge, making it ideal for city commuters, and comes with plenty of standard features and amenities despite its low cost, such as heated front seats and a leather-wrapped steering wheel.
Check It Out: The incredibly efficient Mitsubishi i-MiEV
It’s probably no surprise, then, that the Mitsubishi i-MiEV won Vincentric’s Best Value in America™ award in its segment, even though the car itself only sold fewer than 100 models last year, which was even fewer than the year before.
Clearly, value isn’t the only thing that matters to customers; or rather, not when it comes to electrics. The Mitsubishi Mirage and Mirage G4 are also extremely value-oriented cars—and in fact were identified by Vincentric as having the lowest cost of ownership of any subcompact or subcompact hatchbacks in America—and their sale figures are in the same ballpark as the much more established and feature-laden Outlander SUV.
That the i-MiEV is comparatively so much less successful than the Mirage, despite essentially filling the same role in the market (relatively low on features but very affordable) except on the electric side, is either a sign that customers are not yet ready to buy electrics or that they seek other things when shopping for them.
Or maybe it’s the styling.
Value Oriented: 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage G4 spotlight
Source: Vincentric
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