2008ish Mini Cooper E: Commuting Car Wonder

A $50K commuter?

I like EVs, I really do. They're just not ready.

The price thing is an early-adopter/prototype price, not an inherent flaw with an electric car. A electric car would work perfectly for me, I could go to work and back in it just fine, and on the weekends take my wifes car for long trips (just like we do anyway)

umm, that's great, but most city people live in apartments and park in a garage or on the street. How is that going to work? Oh, and how are you getting to Fontana after you've blown 50k (actually closter to 100k) on a wheeled blender? You won't have enough coin left for a bus ticket, let alone your power bill.!

For $50k, there are better commuters. For instance, you could have your pick of some of the best motorcycles in the world.

Or you could drive an Ariel Atom, or a Campagna.

Or you could buy an old Escort and a condo in Vegas.

Or...

To the people who commented earlier... THANK YOU!!!

There are too many better ways to spend $50k on a "commuter" than on this POS Mini E... As for the early adopter comment, I say let the Hollywood tree-huggers to spend their "hard earn" money on that.

By the way, do you know what $50k means?

It means I can get a Prius as my "commuter" and sill have enough cash left to get me a pretty fun weekend car like Genesis Coupe, Miata or even a used E46 M3!!!

Nice to see some positive feedback on the Mini E.

Obviously some readers don't appreciate how technology pricing works. Yes EV's are expensive... for now. If it wasn't for early adopters, you wouldn't get IPhones for $99 (instead of $500-600) or 50" plasma TV's for under $2000 (instead of $10k).

As for electric bill increases, most EV owner's I've read about see a pretty small increase: like $10-$20/month. It's much less than you'd spend on gas to cover the same mileage, plus no oil changes, timing belt changes, etc that increase your cost/mile on gas.

Charging for apartment dwellers is an issue, and it's why workplaces, businesses, and cities will likely start installing curbside charging stations if EV's take off (and yes, you will have to pay to charge).

While a motorcycle or Atom or the like are efficient transportation, they're also exposed to the elements unlike a car, something that most people aren't willing to commit to for an every-day ride.

Most of the electric cars problems will disappear over the next 5 to 10 years as it becomes more mass produced.

Even the apartment/Condo issue....

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/07/09/bc-vancouver-electric-cars-plug-ins.html

Not sure about people who park on the street but if you can't afford a place with parking then you likely won't be buying an electric car anyhow.

I'm not too surprised to hear that this car is great as an in-town commuter. I know plenty of people who live in the city and never leave. As a result, they rarely, if ever, go more then 100miles in a day. This is an ideal vehicle for them.

Granted, the price is high but it is, after all, a prototype. I don't know what people expect here.

In answer to the early adapter argument in support of the Mini E being a "brilliant city car", I have two words: Honda Insight.

lowmilelude - Only if you have no friends with heads. As much as it pains me to say it, I would rather have a Prius for a 'city car' than anything else out there. If only someone besides VW made diesel-hatchbacks, I would be sold (after my G8 GT gets too expensive to run).

Considering the backseat on the Mini E looks relatively small (by this photo, anyways), I figure they probably offer almost the same package when it comes to passengers/cargo.

Besides, headless friends are highly under rated.

A smart would do the same and cost less. Or go Honda Civic and oh wait that's too roomy.

I understand technology pricing. EVs are quite a bit less complicated than ICE vehicles. It's the freaking battery. Batteies are the reason for the range issues, charging issues, and the cost. Batteries aren't ready.

"Batteries aren't ready."

BINGO!!

And there is no need to "prototype" the battery on a car, they can run that all day long in a lab or any simulated environment.

The Mini E is just a big publicity stun so Mini (or rather BMW) can say that "Hey look at me, I got something green too"...

Funny that some people actually bought into that and trying to lecture people this is the price to pay in order to have a feasible EV.

@firstwagon:

> Most of the electric cars problems will disappear over the next 5 to 10 years as it becomes more mass produced.
<

The problems with producing the cars and batteries in volume at low cost are probably amenable to mass production techniques.

But the infrastructure problem isn't. The fast charger for the Mini apparently draws 15+ kW. That's like about 10x the average power draw of a typical household, maybe even a little more.

If any substantial number of people start using these things, the power grid is going to be in even more trouble than it already is. (Most built-up areas already experience some problems during daylight hot weather hours; adding 15 kW loads to any substantial fraction of houses is going to be a disaster.) It would help if you could force people to charge only at night, and stagger their charging times throughout the night. (But what do you do if someone needs to meet a flight, say, during his scheduled charging window?) And anyway, at some usage rate of EVs even staggered charging is going to be problematic for the grid. You just can't transfer that much energy demand from the oil distribution system to the electric distribution system without some major infrastructure issues. (both premature obsolescence of the existing infrastructure and inadequate capacity in the new.)

*GROAN*

I can't afford to have both a city car and a long distance car, unless they cost less than $10k each.

Nor do I know anyone who can.

Game over. Insert quarter.

"But the infrastructure problem isn't. The fast charger for the Mini apparently draws 15+ kW. That's like about 10x the average power draw of a typical household, maybe even a little more."

Quite! Don't spoil my chances of getting my own nuclear reactor!

But seriously you make a valid point that the grid can't take the added strain and here is the irony of the matter.

In order to drive "green" EV you need large plots of land for solar/wind or bunch of coal/NG/Hydro power plants or a hand full of nuclear power plants to handle the demand after grid upgrades of course. Now brake that down to cost per kW and the dreaded Nuke is the only real answer and its green...glowing green.