2009 Mini E: I Can't Live Like This

I freak out when my gas-light goes on, with a good 60 Miles until empty. Then I start to have like the placebo effect, where I feel like the car is simultaneously loosing power as I drive.

I'm too paranoid for an electric.

I'm too impatient for a hybrid.

I think my best bet for alternative fuel is a diesel.

i would think that daily living with the car, knowing exactly how far your drive is, that you would get a pretty good feel for what it could actually do.

that is to say, that if you start your morning drive w/75% for 5 mornings and every morning you make it, and you end up with 10-20% left when you get there, you pretty much figure out that 65%+ is probably fine to make the trip and ignore the battery meter itself.

my point is: i think you would get used to it.

Surefire recipe for an anxiety attack.....

These electric cars have no future in US.

I hear you, but I don't think anyone with my commute would ever get used to this. If a car has a 100-mile range, I figure that 75 miles is your max in order to make allowances for unknowns. You don't ever want to cut it close in this car.

I did a same-day trip from my home to California Speedway and back for yesterday's regen braking test. That was a round trip of 68 miles and it was the same deal there on the return trip: I had to crawl back in the truck lane and I prayed FOR traffic to help get my numbers up. You can't be spontaneous or drive outside your normal routine in this car without making mental calculations and allowances for recharging time.

"Hey, come with us and stop over at restaurant X after work."

"Sorry, I can't. My electric car doesn't have enough surplus range today."

s197gt

If battery charge retension was guaranteed then maybe. Otherwise gasoline consumption is so much more consistent and the red light usually guarantees 3-4 gallons are left over to get to a gas station. The problem with the Mini is you can't guarantee a power source is nearby, much less one that will charge it in an acceptable amount of time. Even if recharging stations were plentiful it would still take much longer than pumping 15 galloons of gas.

Yeah based on Dan's latest comment it's clear to me that the Mini actually sucks the fun out of driving long distances- especially those of us who drive to REDUCE stress. I'm all for alternate fuels but I'll be damned if it means spending thousands of dollars on a car that kills the fun factor.

OK Dan, you're not electric car material, understood. Here are a couple things to consider though:

The MINI-E is not a production vehicle, and will never be. I'm not really sure why Edmunds is doing a long term test of it since the car will not be produced for sale. I guess the whole "electric car" aspect would be intriguing for your readers so you decided to take one.
A lot of the complaints I have read from your writers are centered around charging and range and I understand why. This car was not meant to charge at 110v as the primary method of charging as you are doing. To really test the car everybody that is using the car should have a 220v charger at their home (which I know is impossible for you) that way they could charge up when they get home and leave the next at 100% every day. The 110V charger that you are using is really for emergencies only. It takes well over 30 hours to fully charge and it using 110v verses about 3 1/2 hours on my 220v charger. Plus the 110v charger that you are using will occasionally trip the built in GFCI and stop charging with is what happened to you last night.
This car is a prototype test mule. If MINI had any plans on actually building and selling them there would be many refinements. The purpose of the MINI-E (besides satisfying CARB) is to test the components for a future all electric BMW that we are supposed to see in 2013.
I have a 220v charger at my home and another at my business so I can charge quickly at either location. This has allowed me the freedom to go basically anywhere, anytime. I drive the car 120-150 miles every day and have no worries at all about range. I have almost 18,000 miles on the car since June which is probably more than any of the test cars in your fleet have been driven in the past 6 months.
Electric cars are not for everybody, especially at this time when there are very few public charging stations and most cars have a range south of 100 miles, but that will change in the very near future. I just hate to see you judge all electric cars on one prototype when you don't even have the proper charging equipment at your disposal. I drive the hell out of mine and would buy it if I could. I'm happy to say I haven't bought gasoline in 6 months and don't even know what a gallon is going for these days. I have nothing against gasoline burning cars at all, I even like the smell of gasoline. I just hate giving my money to radical Islamic fundamentalist regimes that want to kill me. The MINI-E isn't going to change the automobile industry, but in my humble opinion, it's a small step in the right direction.

Tom M
MINI-E #250 @17,800 miles
http://minie250.blogspot.com

@actualsize(Dan):
You've just experienced: "Range Anxiety", but as someone else commented on earlier, I think you'd get much more used to what the car's real range is, if you were to drive it on a more regular basis, just like conventional cars.
I too have a 50 mile commute each way, and I wait until there's basically no remaining fuel level on the gauge, and go by just the DTE portion of the trip computer, or by the total elapsed miles on that particular tank - haven't run out of gas yet.
Also, at restaurants etc., there's plenty of free electricity around just waiting to be used, at least until electric cars become much more prevalent. Just pick a restaurant/road trip close to a laundry mat, or RV park - for the higher voltage available there.
I was originally selected to lease one of these MINI EVs, but declined last minute due to the total monthly lease cost - more $$ than my M3!
I still think there's some real benefits: going through a drive-thru, extremely short trips (which are real killers on engines), less maintenance, can't commit suicide in an EV by leaving it running in a closed garage, etc.
It definitely has its place as a "daily driver" type of vehicle for going to/from work, and then just use your "fun" car more on weekends, along with more gas to burn!
Happy Holidays!

Now we're talking!
Courtesy of IL's own Erin Riches:
December 16, 2009
BMW Concept ActiveE to Debut at 2010 Detroit Auto Show
http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2009/12/bmw-concept-activee-to-debut-at-2010-detroit-auto-show.html#more

Well Dan if you die tomorrow from a heart attack or something or other we can blame the Mini E.

To recover quickly take the Ram or the Challenger and just drive for a few hours then you should be just fine.

Me thinks you worry too much.

Yeah, I think I'll just stick with my 3.7 liter, 330 hp, fuel-guzzling V6 thanks....

That would drive me up a wall, if I had that kind of drive each day with that kind of range.

That said, as someone who has a 50 mile round trip every day to the UT campus every day this car would be ideal for me. Peppy on the freeway, just need to carry my backpack and an occasional art director while dealing with small parking spots in the C parking lot... that would just be perfection.

Oh well, I guess I'll just deal with my 25 MPG, 300 horsepower Neon instead.

Trouble is (unlike liquid in a tank) there is no really exact way to measure electricity in a battery. It's just a rough estimate.

The problem will disappear if range is doubled or more by the next generation of batteries but for now it a car best for people who take the time to understand it's quirks.

Find a place to drive this car til it dies and tell us the actual max range you guys obtain.

billt9 beat me to it. Follow it around with a flatbed for a few days and tell us the actual range in all stop-and-go city, all flat fast highway, and Mulholland. Let it go until it dies. Inquiring minds want to know.

The problem is not the car. It's your commute. Move closer to work :-)

This would be a perfect station car, to drive to the train statioon and back a couple of miles.

Also, all that traffic at 5:52am?! Wow... I am glad I don't live in a place like that.

@vvk: Moving isn't an option. The house came before this job, and I promised myself that my kids would have the luxury of staying in one school system from Kindergarten through high school. Also, the schools are excellent and my wife is PTA President; they are firmly planted. So I get up at 4:30am and make the 49-mile drive that takes 50~55 minutes (most days). It's something I do for them.

It's not that bad. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and entertain myself by constantly making the trip in different cars. Based on all of the above, I can say that an electric car with a 100-mile advertised range is not for me--even with a 220V charger at one end and 110V at the other.

As for the range tests, I'm all over that. We will do that next year.

And I also want to make the commute described above with a full charge on a traffic-free morning at the prevailing speed of traffic as a comparison to this to see how much more range would be consumed if I drove the Mini E as if it were any other car. I'll do that after the holidays--as long as the charger doesn't inexplicably click off during the night, that is.

@Dan,

Like you,I also have about 45-50 min drive to work. I actually like that time as everyday it allows me think, enjoy quietness or to listen to NPR or some podcasts. Living very close to work would rob me of that 'Me' time. I think of it as my meditation time. As long as people don't treat their commute as a battelground, they might begin to enjoy some monotonous activity once in a while.

And as someone once said'

We all work where we HAVE to & we live where we WANT to.

Jobs come & go. Wife+Kids would be with you for the rest of your life (for better or worse! Lol!)

EV's certainly aren't for everyone in the near term, but man have we gotten spoiled. Only a few generations ago we worried about whether we canned enough food and chopped enough wood to survive the winter. Now limited vehicle range is an undue burden. I think more awareness of how we use energy resources is a good thing, although waking from our mindless slumber will surely be unsettling. Just think of it as more driver involvement, akin to steering response and suspension feedback.

Dan:

Would simply exiting the freeway & taking surface streets have mitigated your problem? All the stop-and-go driving caused by traffic signals would've given the regen system a chance to charge-up the batteries a bit.

Of course, nobody wants to take surface streets on a 50-mile commute, but if circumstances require it...

Also, I don't know how many times it needs be said that the Mini E is not intended for long-distance, highway travel. Why are your editors ALWAYS surprised by the rapid drop in range when they're doing 65 on the freeway?! I submit yet again that this car is intended for relatively short-distance, urban travel...and that nobody should be surprised by a change in performance when the car is subjected to the opposite of those conditions.

EV is interesting, but man, it is very costly at this point. I wish it were comparable to hybrids or non-hybrids. Then I would buy in on this, because the Mini is very cool.

"The problem is not the car. It's your commute. Move closer to work :-)"

Don't change where you live, change where you work.

It's not always easy but it should be everyones long term goal to find a good job as close to home as possible.

Not just to save energy but to save precious hours in your day. Stress kills and nothing is more stressful then wasting your life away in endless traffic jams.

You don't have a problem with electrics. You have a problem with a FAULTY CHARGER.
I've driven a few electrics, and their indicators were quite deterministic. Last one I drove had a range of 120 miles, which should be way more than enough for any commuting, even without a charger at the office.
Obviously, the mini is not ready for prime time.

Absurd. There's no way I'd even consider an electric vehicle at the current level of range and reliability. Even if I only had a 30-40 mile commute and 8 hours for a recharge, what if something unpredictable happens? A construction detour? Unplanned errand? Boss asks you to pick him/her up at the airport? In Atlanta (like most major cities that will have electric infrastructure), all these things can easily hgappen and conspire to add 40-50 miles to the daily mileage tally. I'd much rather see Mini/BMW, VW, Ford and Honda, all of whom have excellent 4 cylinder diesels continue to refine them and increase their market availability in the US. The Jetta/Golf TDI is an amazing car, room for 4, tons of luggage room, 40+ mpg and acceptable performance. The choice between a turbo-diesel Golf, Focus/Fusion, Accord, Mini and 328 wagon would do much to expand American buyers thinking of diesel. Even better, a Ford Flex with a DuraTorque 4 cylinder diesel making about 225 horsepower and 300 lb ft of torque while returning 30 mpg would fit my family perfectly! Improving diesel technology has got to have a much higher return on investment than pouring millions into batter technology all to trumpet a 50 mile increase in range.

People have to stop thinking that there is only one solution.

Pick the one the suits your needs.

If drive a lot on the hwy or suburbs, drive a diesel.

If you drive a lot in the city core in stop and go, drive a hybrid.

If you drive alot but don't travel a lot of distance, drive an electric.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money, drive a small car.

If you don't drive a lot, drive whatever you like.

No one solution will ever be perfect but they all have their value.