Squirrel – our Mitsubishi Minicab Miev electric van

 

A page with information about our adventures with our first electric vehicle, bought in 2018, used for various trips around the country, to transport our ebikes, and to act as a camper van using an awning on the back to extend  its capacity.

 

Bought in 2018, here is the blog written just after we bought it. First Four Wheeled Electric Vehicle.

A few weeks later, I wrote this more detailed post and review of the van. Squirrel – the Mitsi Miev Minicab.

It wasn’t long before we took our first road trip in the van, city vehicles don’t have to stay in the city! Squirrel – and our South Island camping road trip, Feb 2020.

During the first trip we discovered many things about the van. mostly good, some not so good. In particular, the batteries have no active cooling, so can over heat. More here Squirrel, and the case of the hot batteries!

Another issue with the van is that it costs more for tyres than it does for electicity to run it. Here is a post about changing our tyres after just 20,000 kms. New Tyres for Squirrel.

However, we don’t let much stop us enjoying our van, our electric bikes, and we did a major trip to Central Otago, to cycle the Cycle Trails on the Clutha River and the Otago Rail Trail. Road Trip 2021 – Central Otago.

Ideally, Lynn and I would have repeated the 2021 trip in 2022, reversing the direction of the cycling, but weather conspired against us, and we reschedule until August 2022. Otago 2022 – an EV winter road trip. This trip took us further than all previous trips, getting as far south as Slope Point – the furthest south point in mainland New Zealand And the post about the original proposal and the cancellation is here Otago 2022 – another roadtrip – cancelled.

Here are some links to imported Facebook posts, which I exported when Facebook “unpublished” Squirrel’s Facebook page and all its posts. As I am no longer a Facebook user, I have reposted the  better posts from Squirrel’s page here, and some posts to other groups EV groups etc here.

We sometimes have interesting experiences trying to charge at chargers we have not visited before, it hasn’t happened for a while, but new chargers like those at bp Petrol Stations are currently causing issues.

If you require a method of looking at your battery status, your state of health or are just curious, here is my take on software and hardware available for the MIEV Minicab.

If you don’t understand air conditioning and heating in an electric vehicle, this page probably won’t help, but try anyway.

Comment on a post if you want more information about anything you read here.

If you need facts and figures and a sales pitch, open this website in Google Chrome, and use Google translate to translate it into English or your chosen language. Click on the Japanese language buttons around the pages for a mystery tour of the Minicab Miev! This page has recently been updated to reflect the new version of the van to be sold in Japan from December 2023 onwards. This version has new 20kWh battery, a new motor/inverter combination, and quite a few driving aids as well as some cosmetic changes inside.

Download the Mitsubishi Owner’s Manual for the MIEV Minicab (Japanese Language, PDF)

Thanks for visiting.

Dave and Lynn Glover, and Squirrel the Mitsubishi Minicab Miev