iMiEV Heater Installation

February 14, 2016

Overall, I love my little electric car, the Mitsubishi iMiEV. It’s a good, affordable, all electric commuter car. It’s one shortcoming is that it was never designed for COLD Wisconsin winters. The heater is electric (of course!) but it heats a liquid antifreeze (coolant) which then circulates through a heater core, where a fan finally blows […]

Read the full article →

Free Car and More: Read the Sticker!

February 12, 2016

I finally found what I was looking for – the official EPA/DOT window cling for a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiEV. Since I bought my car used, it didn’t have the window sticker that describes the car’s fuel economy and several other important pieces of information. Recently, I found a photo of one from another car that […]

Read the full article →

Fired Up! Testing the fuel heater

February 7, 2016

As much as I like the all electric Mitsubishi iMiEV car, it’s Achilles Heel is the heating system. The combination of a small battery pack and inefficient heater just slays winter driving range. So, it’s time to upgrade the heating system! Several other iMiEV owners have experimented with “parking heaters” – fuel-burning heaters to supplement […]

Read the full article →

Prius 12V Battery Replacement and the Ice Pick

January 24, 2016

I like ice – in a glass with a drink. So, when it was time to replace the 12V battery in our Prius, I wan’t pleased to see it frozen in place, encased in a block of solid ice…. Recently, we’ve had a spell of extra cold weather – multiple days of 0 degrees Fahrenheit, […]

Read the full article →

Electric Car Heater Thermal Imaging

January 17, 2016

Lately, it’s been cold – which has me thinking quite a bit about electric cars and HEAT. I realized that I own a thermal camera, so maybe it was time to go into the world of VISUALIZING heat in an electric car! My Mitsubishi iMiEV is a bit of an oddball when it comes to […]

Read the full article →

Too Cold for EVs?

January 14, 2016

After a strange, warm, “El-Nino” start to the winter, temperatures have suddenly plummeted. Which begs the question – How cold is TOO cold for an EV? I bought my Mitsubishi iMiEV electric car on the day of the first snow-storm of this winter. Other than that, we had unusually warm weather all the way past […]

Read the full article →

LED Headlights

January 8, 2016

Recently, I did a few small LED lighting upgrades to my electric car. Those went well, so I thought I would tackle the big one: Installing LED DRIVING LIGHTS! And I thought it would be easy…. The car has separate bulbs for the low beam, high beam, and parking light. My plan was to upgrade […]

Read the full article →

LED Daytime Running Lights

January 7, 2016

Seeing how nice the LED dome lights work on the Mitsubishi iMiEV electric car, I wanted to tackle converting the rest of the lights to LED. Up next would be the daytime running lights. The Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) are a natural choice, as they are on pretty much all the time that the car […]

Read the full article →

LED Lighting Upgrade!

January 1, 2016

I just got done upgrading the lights on my electric car. Nope, not the headlights, just the dome lights and license plate lights. One of the things that I didn’t care for on this car is that the incandescent light bulbs just feel “old-fashioned”! For some time now, cars have been going towards HID and […]

Read the full article →

The iMiEV is back!

December 30, 2015

I got my car back yesterday! The dealer had my car for 20 days! I was told that much of that was waiting for parts, and then “well it’s the holidays…”. I originally took the car to the dealer to get some open recalls taken care of: vacuum pump, impact sensors, and underbody corrosion prevention. […]

Read the full article →