Nope, I don't win the award for the longest single trip in our Mini E; this one was only 78 miles. But I believe I'm the first Inside Line editor to witness "----" on the distance-to-empty meter.
I didn't set out to achieve this milestone. I didn't even plan to be driving our Mini E over Christmas break. But circumstances and weather dictated otherwise.
My longest trip to date in the Mini E is 84.6 miles, so I didn't think twice about driving to Walnut, California, on Sunday -- it's a 74-mile round trip from my house. But this time temperatures were in the mid-50s (about 20 degrees cooler than on my earlier trip), and mileage ticked away steadily on the first 37-mile leg. I never went faster than 70 mph, sitting at 65 for most of the trip. Parking the car in the sun for two hours restored some of the DTE meter's optimism, but driving an extra 3 miles to this ramen house in Hacienda Heights whittled it away once more.
Again, though, I got some miles back because it took an hour to get seated at the ever popular Foo Foo Tei. And really, there's nothing the like Mini E likes better than sitting inert.
Still, I decided to play it safe and hang out with a friend in Monterey Park that afternoon while letting the Mini charge slowly at his house. When I parked it, I'd driven 56 miles. The analog charge meter showed about 38 percent charge remaining, while the DTE meter showed 26 miles of range remaining. It's 24 miles back to my house from here.
Five hours later, several rooms in my friend's house went dark. I walked outside and, sure enough, the LEDs on the Mini E's emergency charger cable were dark. Yes, indeed, the electric Mini tripped the circuit breaker -- this time in a circa 1980, two-story house.
After we reset the circuit, we continued charging the car. I finally left at 1 AM. After 10 hours of 115-volt charging, the car gained back 10 miles of range -- 1 mile per hour.
Thirty-six miles should be plenty, right? Well, perhaps, not when it's 45 degrees outside. By the time I reached mid-city LA, I had the heat and the radio off. By the time I reached the Interstate 405 interchange, the DTE meter clicked off its last mile and I had to make a decision.
My choice? Get off two exits early at Bundy Avenue in hopes of gaining back some charge while stopped at traffic lights. And if the car did go dead, at least I'd be on an empty city street instead of the freeway.
This was the right move. The battery did indeed "regain" charge, and by the time I parked the Mini E at our office and plugged it into its fast-charge box, the meter read about 8 percent. The DTE meter still offered no hope, just "----".
Thoughts on the experience? I'm happy I didn't get stranded. And as Dan has written, this car (or at least its battery pack) is highly ridiculously sensitive to temperature and the DTE meter is not to be trusted. Also, this was the most exciting trip I've taken to date in the Mini E and it still wasn't that exciting.
Erin Riches, Senior Editor @ 4,027 miles
wobbly_ears says:
12:17 PM, 12/29/09
BMW lawyers better be careful, this Mini E might be responsible for some heart attacks among IL editors.
Unless Electric cars give 200-250 miles of RELIABLE range under any climate, they won't succeed. Until then, a regular ICE or a Volt-like system is the answer.
throwback says:
12:42 PM, 12/29/09
"Also, this was the most exciting trip I've taken to date in the Mini E and it still wasn't that exciting."
Erin as one an enthusiast to another, this line speaks volumes about why EVs have a way to go.
hybris says:
12:46 PM, 12/29/09
This might make a pretty good short film.
subytrojan says:
01:25 PM, 12/29/09
What a story!
robert4380 says:
01:29 PM, 12/29/09
Has anybody at Edmunds purposely tried to drain every last bit of charge out of this car? You know, like when the warning on your laptop comes on, saying your battery will die in 5 minutes, yet you keep going just to see how much longer you can last before it shuts off on you? I think Kramer did something similar in a Saab convertible, once... ;-)
benson2175 says:
05:58 PM, 12/29/09
"Hey can I come over?"
"Uhh yeah."
"I'm right outside I need to charge my car"
"Oh."
Eco-Friends, the kind of friends you don't want to have.
vt8919 says:
07:57 PM, 12/29/09
Robert4380: Sounds like an awesome experiment, but if you do that to your laptop, it's easy to just plug it right back in seconds later. Do that in a car, and you may end up stranded in the bad side of town.
And anyways, I bet the Mini E just loses power and turns off like a flashlight would if left on overnight.
fundango says:
05:43 AM, 12/30/09
I'm all for reducing our fuel dependence, but this entry convincingly demonstrates why it would be too much of a hassle to own this car.
old_volvo says:
07:25 AM, 12/30/09
This is why I really believe purely electric cars will always be only as good as their batteries. A simple small gas powered motor used as a generator wouldn't take up that much space and would provide infinitely more peace of mind (the storage is already mostly gone anyways, why not just go the little extra). The gas infrastructure is already in place and if they want to still be super-green, they can make it a hydrogen powered generator.
Take a cheap honda generator capable of 240v, attached it to fuel tank throw it in the back. Additional 200+ lbs, but from what i've read, handling isnt that great anyways on this car. Drivers want peace of mind.
If I wanted blown circuit breakers and a car that just might die at any moment, I'll go vacuum while microwaving popcorn and drive an old Alfa Romeo. At least that way I'll have a clean house, popcorn and a cool car, instead of pissed off friends, a poor handling Mini and a huge speedometer.