Whenever I drive our 2009 Mini E, I do so without the heater/air-conditioner on, as the case may be, or even the radio. Nope, I'd rather save the car's charge for driving it like I would a Mini S. It's actually pretty fun once you get moving. It zips, it zooms.
Because of this wasteful driving style, I got the charge down to about 40% after having driven it about 51 miles from Santa Monica to LAX to downtown LA and back, mostly fast-flowing freeway miles.
Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 4,853 miles
dragonflight says:
11:45 AM, 02/24/10
If you're not worried about capacity/range, this makes it a lot more guilt-free to be zooming around town, and then come back home, plug er in, and know you're still doing the environment a lot of good!
nomercy346 says:
12:32 PM, 02/24/10
How does driving an electric car do the environment a lot of good? It's less bad than driving a conventional vehicle. Not that I believe in global warming or that driving cars has such a huge impact on the environment as some of the media would like us to believe, but that is just plain wrong and contributes to the smugness just like the Prius commercial where it lets the flowers grow by driving past them...
mikedrud says:
12:55 PM, 02/24/10
Less carbon monoxide emissions in the atmosphere for one, nomercy.
hybris says:
03:02 PM, 02/24/10
I think the big advantage is not being environmentally friendly but being able to drive hard and not have to pay $2.55-.60 a gallon to gas up after the fun is over.
cr_driver says:
10:24 AM, 02/25/10
I only drive without radio when I have a very good exhaust note. Sometimes u just wanna enjoy it a bit more.