Let me start by saying I love Mini Coopers. We have our second one, a 2019 Iconic in the garage. I want to get into an EV and have been looking at options available. First off, I like smaller cars. Mini 3 door is perfect for my wife and I. It's like a little station wagon that has met every hauling need we've had (even a 55" LG TV from Costco fit in the hatch). Fit and finish on the Mini is very good and we find it a most pleasant car to own and drive.

So here is my quandary: We looked at the 2022 Chevy Bolt EV. The interior quality isn't quite up to the Mini in quality, it is very close (it is surprising good especially at its price point). You can nit pick this or that, but from my perspective it's a wash. The Bolt offers a few extras not available on the Mini, but again, some of these are not deal breakers for me (remember I love out Mini S and will always cut it some slack when comparing vehicles). Overall I like the Mini appearance over the Bolt EV, but again, the Bolt is not ugly to my eye. My wife and I find the slightly higher Bolt is easier to enter and exit compared to our Mini S (this is of some concern since my wife has a bad back).

Where my indecision comes into play is the rather large range difference between the two cars. Most all our travel is local so the Mini would meet our most all needs, but we do travel to tend to grave sites twice a year and that is 200 mile round trip (mostly interstate). Bolt can do that easily but the Mini cannot.. I would like to be able to use the EV for 100% of travels, but only one vehicle fits that need. Certainly I could justify using the ICE Mini for the two trips, but spending close to $40K for a vehicle that falls a bit short has me in a "quandary".

Living in Florida, we use the AC 100% of the time in any car I own and we also listen to our music on a thumb drive....We also get hit with cloud bursts that start my wipers and activate my lights - all which use battery power (I feel this would further handicap the Mini compared to the Bolt). If the Mini had the option to order a 65KW battery ($30$4K more) to extend the range to approx 250 miles, I wouldn't even be writing this. I see no indication that BMW is considering increasing the battery or offering a larger battery option until maybe the next gen Mini When Mini becomes a dedicated EV platform.. .

Before anyone starting discussing Bolt battery fires, Yes, I've read about them, and the 2022 battery packs seem to be as safe as any other EV's.

Not expecting to hear anything revelatory, but maybe some perspective on my concerns.

 

I also live in FL, so I am very familiar with the need for AC and the occasional strong shower. We've had our SE since Dec and have found it to be almost perfect for us. Most of our driving is local, which fits the car perfectly. We have never used green mode and normally keep the AC set at 72-74 and have never experienced range of less than ~110 miles. To date, the most miles we have accumulated between charging is 109.3 and we still had an estimated 30 miles remaining. I know that a lot of folks question the accuracy of the estimated range, but our experience has been that it is pretty accurate. As for battery size, I am very happy that MINI limited the size (and weight) since the car drives and handles as a MINI should; in fact, in some ways it is better since the CG is lower and the weight distribution is much closer to 50-50. In short, it is a blast to drive, not to mention much quicker than the numbers suggest.

To be fair, we also have another car ... a 2017 F56 JCW that we use for longer trips. However, since acquiring the SE, the JCW needs a battery tender and rarely gets used more than once a week. In reality, we probably don't need to keep the JCW, but I'm very attached to it and every now and then I feel the need for ICE noise and performance.

 

I have a pristine low mileage 2017 BMW M240i that sits on a tender almost full time now too. Our MCS gets 100% of the use now.

 

Have you looked at charge stations along the out of town route? It seems doable with a pit stop in the middle. Otherwise, why not drive the BMW?

 

I would hate to trade the 2019 Mini S for a Mini E. I was leaning towards trading the BMW for a Bolt and keep the Mini for any long range trips and use the Bolt for just about everything else. Then I revisited the Mini E on Youtube and thought maybe there was a way of covering all the bases with a Mini E. Yes I could certainly use the BMW for the longer trips and replace the 2019 MCS with a Mini E. I still have warranty on the 2019 to 2023. I may just wait and see if BMW offers a longer range Mini in 2023 and than trade the 2019 for a 2023. These are some real first world problems. LOL

I see that for 2023 Mini will shift some manufacturing to China and a redesign (more compact outside without losing interior space). Hopefully we will have the option for a larger battery in that new design. Actually these redesigns fit well into my scenario as our 2019 goes out of warranty at that time.
http://www.motoringfile.com/2020/10/...re-crossovers/

I do hope BMW management sees that they are losing market share with the choice to go with a small battery (if not a base battery increase, at least an option for buyers to go for a long range option). I have not read an EV review where evaluations didn't praise the fun factor and acceleration of the test cars.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't choose a car based on a trip you take a few times a year. It's easy to find fast charge points on your route with food or shopping near by (at least in the northeast, not sure about Florida). I'd rather a super fun to drive SE with shorter range than a boring to drive other brand EV with more range. I'm not kidding that I look forward to driving the SE every day. It brings me back to the fun I had in my original R53.

 

FWIW, I sharpened my pencil and did some side by side comparison of price and what each vehicle offers. A fully option (Iconic) comes in at $37750 and the 2LT Bolt with all the options comes in $36560 (restating, I am a Mini fan, so a thousand$ or two more isn't a deal breaker going for the Mini)

Comparing the options, The Bolt 2LT and Mini Iconic stack up pretty evenly. The Mini has a HUD and Home link, the Bolt 2lt doesn't. While I enjoy the integration of Homelink on the Mini, a small opener remote on the visor is something I have used on other cars for years. The HUD on the Mini is nice for the display of MPH, the Bolt's digital screen has a large and easily seen MPH numbers. So for me these sacrifices are pretty trivial. Stereo diff HK vs. Bose. I had the Bose in my C7 and liked as well as the HK in my BMW and Mini (that's my opinion so it's a "wash".

Mini reports 0-60 6.1sec Bolt 0-60 6.5sec- no review I have read states either car is lacking performance to merge or do what a normal driver would expect. All reviewers seem to appreciate either car's performance with smiles on their face.

The 2LT Bolt on the other hand offers the following which the Mini does not"
Blind spot monitoring
Auto emergency braking
Forward collision alert
Pedestrian braking
Following distance indicator
Lane departure warning
Auto High Beams
One pedal driving
Android Auto
Full top down back up camera
4G hot spot
Power Driver seat
259 Mile range vs. 110
@ present GM will pay for an electrician to install a 240V charging outlet in your garage @ no cost.

I have gone over the interior of the Bolt and quality of "soft touch" material, stitching, and appointments are comparable to the Mini (again IMO). Bolt seating height is a bit higher making entry and exit a bit easier..

Oddly, I'd still opt for the Mini E w/o the extras the Bolt has if the range was just a touch over 200 miles. Why BMW chose to produce an EV with least amount of range of any competitor still baffles me.

 

The Mini does have these things:
Forward collision alert
Auto High Beams
One pedal driving

The range is short because they retrofitted to an existing chassis vs designing from the ground up. The next gen Mini EV will have significantly improved range.

Drive what you want. You're on a Mini forum, so people here are going to recommend the Mini (no way I'd be caught dead in a Bolt). If you go to a Bolt forum I'm sure they'll recommend the opposite. You're not going to get unbiased opinions on here.

 

In my experience so far, range has never been an issue on the SE. Personally, I think they were right to limit the battery size to what most drivers need. That accomplished two things - it kept the weight down (and performance up) and allowed them to offer it at a competitive price. I think that the market's obsession with range is misguided and is resulting in electric cars that are large, heavy, expensive and not as green as many think. Most people don't drive 100+ miles a day and, with a level 2 charger at home, you can start with a full battery every morning. And ... it drives like a proper MINI!

Just my thoughts. I will admit that I was a little concerned about the range at first, but so far it has not been an issue. FWIW ... I have exceeded 100 miles on two occasions and in both cases still had ~25% battery capacity remaining and I did not have to rely on green or green+ mode.

 

I was only hoping for a reasonable discourse when comparing two vehicles. Apparently checking bias at the door may be too much too much to hope for.....................

 

Of course, it's a MINI focused site. I did consider other cars also, but I just liked the MINI. The Bolt is a nice car; nothing wrong with it, other than its not a MINI.

Most of my comments pertain to the industry as a whole. The current issue of (Jul/Aug 2021) has a very interesting article addressing electric vs gas life-cycle emissions. They also have a nice decision tree for determining how much range someone needs. All of the articles on EVs tend to focus on range, as if it is the most important aspect of an EV. The result is that almost all of the upcoming EVs from traditional manufacturers are large, heavy and (when considering the life-cycle environmental impact) may not really be that green given the driving style of the average person. For me, the MINI has been perfect, but I can also see where it may be a bit too limited for some.

 

Have you driven a Bolt? Chevy finally fixed the seats but they'll never match the MINI's handling. It may be difficult to believe without driving an SE, but it is even more fun to drive than your ICE MINI. However, there's the chip shortage problem: You can no longer get the Harman/Kardon sound system in the Iconic and the rear parking sensors, once standard on all trims, seem to have disappeared. There, I tempered my pro-SE bias with some unfortunate realities.

 

I have not driven a Bolt EV yet. I know how much I enjoy everything about our ICE Mini and can only imagine how enjoyable an SE would be. I like the idea of being about to "fuel up" at home rather than a gas station. With all the craziness that goes on when a pipeline gets hacked or a storm approaches and the typical American propensity for hoarding ensues.

Our local dealership just got a few in, but I have been battling some medical issues and hospitalization related to side effects of the Moderna vaccine. Now that I am finally feeling better I will pop in and give the car a "go"..

Reviews of the Bolt say it is improved in most all measurable ways to the 2021 model (including a reduced MSRP), seating and interior material being among the most mentioned. I've watched enough Youtube videos of comparo's of EV's to know that diving one EV first usually ranks that car "as great", until they test the next one. One video did a test between an earlier model Bolt, Kona and Tesla model 3. Tester loved the Bolt until he drove the Kona (mentioned the seats being uncomfortable and interior being cheap in the Bolt -compared to the Kona. Then the Kona fell for best to second best after they tested the Model 3..

Admittedly, I have not test driven any EV's. My Mini dealership does not have an an SE to test. I am not in a rush to buy or trade for any car @ present (as both our cars are paid for). Both of my current vehicles are like new and extremely low miles. I have noticed a change in my driving habits also. A desire to have a higher performance cars (tuned M240i and JCW Tuned Mini S) is way down on my list of wants. I am looking for "quiet" and comfortable w/ good AC and a decent stereo system (and middle of the pack range if an EV). As to brand loyalty, I like BMW products.. As long as they offer something that fits my needs and is well appointed i will continue to patronize them however I will always investigate other buying options that offer more value for my money (even granting a willingness to pay a $1-2K up-charge for a BMW or Mini over competitors - where everything else is equal).. My loyalty starts to wane when I find I am paying more $ for for less car.

Losing the HK option on the SE is really disappointing to hear.

BTW thanks for response and input.

 

A huge reason I was drawn to MIni as our primary errand car. I prefer small and as you stated most EV's offered are much larger. My F56 is perfect and the only direct competitor to the Mini in size is the Bolt (at least that I've found). The Mini SE or Bolt seemed like a perfect EV choice. Apparently the smaller EV's are offered in Europe and not in the USA. The VW ID 3 looked like an excellent possibility. (as its size is in my "sweet spot", but have not read anything where there are plans to bring it to North America.

As with all things, one has to determine who is funding or sponsoring a study to determine if there are bias' or not. Often not as easy as it appears..