Yesterday, you saw our 2009 Mini E on a trailer in my driveway with a full charge. Here you see the Mini E on the very same trailer, but this time with a fully depleted battery pack.
That's right, it's got zero, zilch, zippo in the electron department. We ran our Mini E until it stopped deader than Floyd Landis' cycling career.
How far did we get? We'll keep you guessing on that point while we cut some video. But I will let you in on the ground rules and the goal.
We started from our Santa Monica offices with a full charge. Our Mini E's charge point is less than a mile from the I-10 freeway, but we waited until the morning commute traffic eased up before we hopped on and headed east.
Our Mini pilot (yours truly) drove at 60 mph, even though the freeway limit is 65 mph. Why? Well, this is a car that appeals to the eco-set, so why thrash it? We want to see what kind of range we can get out of it, right? Besides, our 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 chase truck and U-haul trailer are, by California law, limited to 55 mph. So we split the difference. Turns out the truck's speedo reads 55 mph when the Mini E's pizza-size speedometer reads 60 mph, so the Ram's driver would have plausible deniability.
Our goal was to reach the dinosaurs at Cabazon, made famous in the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. "Tell 'em Large Marge sent you!"
If we got past that point, we'd consider it gravy. If we fell short, well, we resolved to tow the Mini to the dinosaur viewing area located between the "EAT" restaurant and the Burger King, one way or the other.
Did we make it? Mini initially claimed that the Mini E had a 156-mile range, but the EPA window sticker that came with the car pegs the range at 100 miles. Google maps says Cabazon is 105 miles distant. On the other hand, our I-10 route is uphill all the way. Cabazon sits at 1792 feet and Santa Monica is at sea level, more or less. And then there's the whole freeway speed issue to consider. The electric Mini's best consumption rating came in the city test, not the highway test.
Place your bets.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ ?,??? miles
tomm250 says:
07:26 PM, 06/16/10
After more than 12 months and 33,000 miles of MINI-E experience let me give you all a tip: Bet the house he made it...
I have driven the car over 120 miles on a charge about 10 times already and still had plenty of power left over and I know of three other MINI-E drivers that have gone 141, 147 & 148 miles respectively on a charge but they were all driving slower than 55 so that probably had a big effect. 105 miles should be a walk in the park.
The big wild card here is Dan drove the car the entire trip on the highway which provides the worst range the car offers.
Nicely done, I'm looking forward to the results.
Tom M
MINI-E #250 @ 33,380 miles
http://minie250.blogspot.com/
tomm250 says:
07:34 PM, 06/16/10
Oops, sorry I just read the whole post. 100 miles and 1792 feet all uphill? Probably not. Now if you did it the other way, you probably would have done the 105 miles and had 30% SOC left over!
I'll sit this bet out
ddoouugg says:
07:59 PM, 06/16/10
I say you barely made it. This is a great test by the way. Very useful and no one else would have the resources to pull it off.
keijidosha says:
08:11 PM, 06/16/10
If you kept driving until the car stopped, you made it. If you stopped when the car wouldn’t hold 60 (actually 55 on all the Es, the Dodge was right) you stopped at around 95 miles. Your miles remaining went to “----“ at 80 miles, and your Batt% to “0” at 85 miles. You lost 7% of your range with the 1700 foot climb.
anthonylam66 says:
08:32 PM, 06/16/10
I agree it's a fun test, but useful? Not really. How often do you need to drive 100 miles uphill? I would have preferred if you drove 50% highway and 50% city and simulated what an average day of driving might entail. Understandably everyone had a different and unique "average day" but this seems more like a torture test for an electric car than a test to see how far it can really go.
keijidosha says:
08:41 PM, 06/16/10
It can really go 148.3 miles
http://web.me.com/soareyes/Stans_Mini_E/Mini_E_Blog/Entries/2010/6/13_148.3_Miles_On_ONe_Charge!.html
brn says:
09:21 PM, 06/16/10
I can't believe you didn't save that photo for the caption contest.
mswain3 says:
10:07 PM, 06/16/10
I was the test driver for MINI E #033.
I've driven the MINI E for exactaly one year today, June 16th 2010. Saddly it goes back in less than 12 hours. It's a wonderful car for town and short trips, but long trips on the freeway are hard on battery life.
So for the game, I'm going to guess 85 miles and then the car was loaded on the trailer for the rest of the way.
I was driving in the canyons around my house on Tuesday all up hill and drained the battery to 52% driving at 40-50mph for 37.8 miles. It was lucky I was driving back the same way as I gained all that power back on the way down and got home with 22% power.
Hills and freeways really kill range!
Be sure to checkout the Facebook MINI E group!
=====SWAIN::::
thomasbarker01 says:
10:30 PM, 06/16/10
Having to plan your trips around a car's electric range is why cars like the Volt are going to be much better recieved than pure electric cars. (range anxiety)
yellowmiata says:
03:08 AM, 06/17/10
The Mini made it 128 miles (my guess).
Kevin
lowmilelude says:
04:43 AM, 06/17/10
I'm just going to assume since it's on the trailer in front of the dino, it didn't make it. I'll call it blind at 98mi.
lmbvette says:
05:06 AM, 06/17/10
I'm with lowmilelude, the car on the trailer in front of the T-Rex tells me that the Mini came up short, around 93 miles.
hybris says:
05:56 AM, 06/17/10
Mini came up short.
johnmarco says:
07:14 AM, 06/17/10
If that isn't the next caption contest you can call me Large Marge.
jeepsrt says:
08:09 AM, 06/17/10
I would say 90 miles. If altitude affects it that much I would never be able to have an electric car, just my commute to work has a 600 ft altitude difference. Going to Denver and back which I do often is over a 1000 ft difference in less than 60 miles
minie183 says:
08:29 AM, 06/17/10
The unknown is wind, headwind, tailwind or no wind. The Mini-E is a brick on 4 wheels.
I did 8o miles with a 4500ft climb, and then went down the otherside of the mountain and arrived at the hotel after 97 miles with 20% charge left. At the summit we were at 5% plus whatever reserve and then generated about 15% going down the mountain into the desert.
My guess is you made it, perhaps on fumes...err, what the heck do we call fumes in the electric car vocabulary?
Cheers
Peder
addicted2sp33d says:
09:44 AM, 06/17/10
You could have just hooked up the Mini-E to one of the turbines on the other side of the freeway... then you could have made it all the way across the continent.
half_ton says:
10:58 AM, 06/17/10
All freeway AND uphil!?!?
I say 80-90 miles.
GREAT test though!!
soareyes says:
11:56 AM, 06/17/10
My guess is that you were able to make it all the way to Beaumont or Banning before you weren't able to maintain a safe freeway speed, then you exited the freeway and took the surface street paralleling the freeway the final 5 or 10 miles. You made it to Cabazon, but the final few miles were slow.
When I did my 148.3 mile run, I stayed on secondary roads and never went over 50 mph, but I did maintain posted speed limits so I wasn't a hazard to other drivers.
http://web.me.com/soareyes/Stans_Mini_E/Mini_E_Blog/Entries/2010/6/13_148.3_Miles_On_ONe_Charge!.html
Stan
Mini E #059
(now gone!)
cr_driver says:
06:50 PM, 06/18/10
I`ll say it did not make it.
keijidosha says:
12:27 PM, 06/26/10
And the answer is ... ???