Yes although vision out the front is Very good for a small car there is a lot of glass and potential heat. Although a larger than normal strip at the top of the front window is factory tinted very very dark almost black. The side windows are also factory tinted quite dark - darker than a typical factory in glass tint. This along with a white painted exterior there isn't much more I could do. So will have to see how I go.
Apparently the electric Air conditioner /climate control is very effective on the I-miev (Mitsubishi electric make some of the most energy efficient home AC units if that's anything to go by) So hopefully its a good one. Though I cant see it consuming anything less than say 800w or 1kwh or so over a 1hr trip.
The heater on the other hand is a let down . Some people call it the kettle. Its a 5000w element that heats a tank of water (although thermostatically controlled ) Its just like a conventional car so it then gets pumped into a heater core. They have included in seat electric warmers that apparently only use 70w or so and do a good job of keeping you warm if you don't want to use the hungry cabin heater.
If I find the heater to be an Issue with consumption. I will have a reverse cycle valve installed into the AC unit. As it might be worth the trouble (though In QLD cooling is more common than heating)
As for instrumentation the factory dashboard layout is basic but quite logical for everyday use.
You basically have a big analog amp meter in the middle of the dash. When the car is off the needle is in the center. As you accelerate or use power the needle moves to the right and the range of movement its divided up into 3 sections 16kW,32kW,48kW (the motors max consumption is 48kw) When you regenerate power Amp meter needle can swing to the left from the zero point in the center to 16kw!! (yes it has very powerful Regen ability) I like this analog guage as you can just try and keep your consumption in the green as neer to zero center line as you can . It makes a quick calculation of your real time Kw consumption easy while driving.They make it look smart and stylish but its basically just an Amp meter
The SOC gauge is a digital bar cut into 16 segments (the battery is 16kwh capacity) each segment represents 1kwh. If you use all the power the car puts its self into turtle mode and gives you 10km of range at slow speed to get to a charger.
I would like to gain access to the CAN bus and from what I have read you can get access to individual cells to monitor health.People are working on a plug in divice to read all this info. I have asked Mitsubishi to provide me with a cell report and capacity test from there Canbus reader and pack tester.
To start with I will just use the on board AC-DC charger it has a max output of 3300w but it gets a signal from a little box on the external charger cord to tell it what rate to charge at . The AU version has been set to 9.4A around 2200w. There is a modification to the charge cord box that you can do to make it adjustable from 1A - 13A in 1A increments. I like this modification as I can charge slowly if I like or if I don't have much PV power to spare.
The direct DC fixed charging stations that plug into the other side of the car (two fuel flaps) can charge the pack in 20mins to 80% they must be pumping 30kw or so into the battery
Another member of a Ev forum showed me a pic today of his emergency E-jerry can

It consists of 4 x160Ah LiFePO4 cells for 12v = 2.048kW and some huge Anderson plugs and thick cables connected a asian no name pure sine way inverter 5000w. It works fine on the factory 2200w charger and even a modified factory charge lead at 3300w .Runs the lithium's down at 200A just over 1c This adds an extra 15km- 20km or so to the tank.
I might look into the range extension options in the future. If the trip from Brisbane to Sunshine coast hinterland become to taxing on the battery's SOC. The factory charger works fine down to 90v and its constant current so at 120v it will just output 1100w and around 750w at 90v. Not sure if I can use that to any advantage off grid.
My wife asked me If we needed to fit a duel battery to the I-miev. We have dual battery system in both our old cars to run a 32lt Engle car compressor fridge/freezer . Used to transport fresh food from Brisbane to sunshine coast house. I first thought about it then just laughed. I can simply plug the fridge into the cigaret lighter plug and the 12v of the I-miev is powered by a on board DC/DC converter from the 16kwh pack. My reply to my wife was no dual battery and it will run the little 36w fridge for a very very long time
Kurt