I got mine, #486, in NJ on Friday. It's been as fun as expected. Apparently you can apply for a discounted EZ-Pass toll device because it's electric (might save me a few bucks a month). But my first assessments on range are not encouraging: Have gotten 50 miles but have had to charge it 70% (combining two separate periods of use). That's only .71 mile/1% charge, well below the 1 mile/1% I would feel comfortable with for my 89-mile commute and that others seem to be getting.

 

Got mine #152 yesterday. Picked up from Monrovia. Absolutely fantastic experience driving it.
My only hesitation in signing that lease is that the waived lease payment(s) is(are) not part of the contract in writing. Also, since the city of Pasadena (who are getting five of their own by the way) has deemed the 220V charging cable unacceptable, I am using the 110V cable -- but again, it would be nice to have it in the contract that I don't have to make a payment until the 220V cable is installed.
I have yet to read through the whole manual - but one thing I've noticed I find odd is that at the rear of the vehicle there is a fan (presumably to cool the batteries?) that keeps whirring away even when the vehicle has been off for several hours.
Anyone else notice this?
Next - get the plates and apply for the white HOV sticker.

 

Pix please!

 

Tim,

Just want to give more info on the milage so you can assess.
I have 500 miles on #183.

Yesterday, an 85 mile drive to San Diego a few hard charging test drives of a mile or so and back with 13miles left on the readout. 70% freeway 70mph, 20%city 10% enthusuatic test drives.

Today, 90 mile trip to Temecula wine country, 6 miles left on readout 50% freeway 70mph, 50% back county roads 50mph.

cheers!

 

Peder,

Love your solar panel pics... wish I could do the same.

I hope your mileage experience turns out true for me. I've only done driving around my 5-mile neighborhood so far, about 10 test drives for neighbors and local errands, but I thought that was supposed to be better mileage than highway... anyway, I'm going to start measuring things in a log so I have a record. My wife gets it for a few days for her 10-mile commute until I find a business, near my government work site, that will let me charge it for a few days. I think I will need that for assurance, unless I get to work and have 60% charge left. And still working the Federal bureaucracy to get permission at work... looking daunting.

 

Well, no joy today. Apparently my car was not on the delivery truck to Monrovia on Saturday or today, so still waiting with no firm date

 

For those of you that have cars and/or cables, how long is the 110 volt cable? 220 volt cable?

 

I bet it's like a Blackberry phone, the battery gets better after a few charges . It's cool reading about these things. The cooling fan in the back doesn't sound too sporty though .

 

110v charging cable from Clipper Creek (PC-15) looks about 15 feet.
At home it reaches into my garage outlet fine.
At work, I plug it into a 14ga 25ft extension cord to plug it into an outlet.

Pasadena didn't let the electrical contractors install the 220v cable in my home but it looked 15ft as well. Hope that helps.

 

My 220V cable is about 24 1/2 feet long. I don't have a 110V cable (or car) yet.

 

Bummer Stan! Hopefully it won't be long.

 

Better news today, Monrovia called and the car is at the dealership and I will pick it up on Thursday

 

Sorry in advance for the long post, but 059 is finally home after an eventful day.

My wife and I arrived at Mini of Monrovia when they opened at 9:00 yesterday morning. Roger, my Mini E rep, had been there much earlier sorting out the huge Mini E delivery the last night. All 17 of the Sheriff's Departments had come in and somehow their keys had been misplaced. I counted 22 Mini E's on the lot including mine.

After an orientation with my car, we settled down to sign paperwork and discovered the tax had been calculated for LA county, not SB county where I live, so it all had to be redone. I finally got on the road about 11:30 and noticed the charge had already dropped to 70% after just a few freeway miles (was at 85% at the dealership). I had been a little concerned about my 70 mile drive home up the Cajon Pass, so I had arranged ahead of time with Joshua at AC Propulsion to stop by and get a quick charge if needed.

Most of you know that AC Propulsion in San Dimas did the electric conversion of our cars, and Joshua had put their location on the Charger Share list run by David F. (www.waterway4.com/mini-e/) Thanks again for doing this David! I may be the first driver to take advantage of this? Anyway, once at AC Propulsion we plugged my Mini in and topped it off at 100% in about an hour. There were lots of neat converted cars to look at in their shop, and several employees stopped by to talk about the Mini E program. They did all 500 Mini E's between February and November last year. I assumed they started with #001 and ended with #500, but in reality Mini added the scuttle numbers later and it doesn't necessarily correlate with the date the car was completed.

I left AC Propulsion at 1:30 and it was getting fairly warm outside. I had the A/C on and I keep my speed to about 65 mph on the freeway. When I got to Devore at the base of the Cajon Pass the outside temp was 92 degrees. Highway 15 climbs to the top of the 4100 ft pass over about 15 miles. Just before the top of the pass two warning lights on the dash went on. The first was the "energy recovery limited due to hot high voltage battery" which means the regen braking is off. The second was the yellow "motor power is noticeably reduced" lamp. The manual says "you can continue your journey with limited motor power" so I did. The battery temp was 104 degrees, outside temp was 96 degrees. I don't know what the battery temp was earlier as I didn't have that screen up on the info center.

I didn't notice the reduced power on the freeway for the next 15 miles to Victorville, but once I got off the freeway I could feel a definite lack of oomph. I could still get up to the speed limit on surface streets but it took some time. When I finally pulled into my neighborhood, battery temp was still 104 degrees, outside temp was 96 degrees. About 2 blocks from home the 10 mph restricted speed kicked in and I crawled the rest of the way. No more warnings had appeared, just the two mentioned above. I had 32% charge left when I shut it down in my garage around 3pm.

I let the car cool for about 5 hours without recharging. Unfortunately, my garage stays hot in the summer as it is south facing, so the Mini didn't cool that much! At 8pm I took it for a drive and there were no warning lights, regen was working again, and I had full power. The battery charge was up to 35% and temp was at 98 degrees and steady for the rest of the drive. Back home again the charge was down to about 20% and it was after 9pm so I plugged it in (cheap electricity after 9pm with my TOU setup) and it got a full charge overnight.

So temperatures may be an issue for me this summer. I'm sure it was a combination of the relatively warm temps with the long climb using a lot of power that warmed the battery and motor. Plus, I know from my experience using lithium polymer batteries flying large RC airplanes that they come off fast charge fairly warm, so the fast charge in San Dimas probably got the Mini batteries hot to begin with. I wish I had looked at the battery temp at the beginning and end of that charge.

Fortunately, I have a short commute so at least in the morning there should be no problem. I plan to park the Mini in my driveway one day this weekend to simulate the heat soak it will get while parked at work all day. I don't want to get stuck trying to drive home at 10 mph!

Two other small issues: First, I didn't get a 110v charge cable with the car. I was told I wouldn't because I have the 220v box/cable installed, but maybe later when more are available. I thought everyone got the 110v cable and there wasn't a shortage of those. Anyone know?
Second, I checked my tire pressures this morning for the first time and they were about 45 psi all around! I lowered them to spec so hopefully the ride will be better. I know they are firm anyway since they are runflats.

Finally, the car is a hoot to drive! I loved sneaking it around the neighborhood silently last night. I felt like a stealth fighter pilot flying under the radar. I really like the aggressive regen braking.

Apologies again for the long post, time to go out for a drive (I got the day off!)

 

Great story Stan! Congrats on getting your car! Now I'd like to go check out AC Propulsion some time.

I had thought in one of the MINI updates they mentioned that they had to wait until the second week of June to deliver cars with 110v cables. I took that to mean that there was a short supply of them but I could be wrong.

Good tip on the tire pressure- I will check that out.

- Scott

 

First - Stan - congratulations on your delivery - and absolutely no need to apologize for the length of your post - this detailed and useful feedback is exactly what we need (and BMW too, I think).

Now to my story. Those of you who've been on this board for a few months may remember that I had basically dropped out because of the exorbitant (to me, anyway) cost of an extra-long cable run to hook up a charging station at my home - couldnt justify it for a one-year trial. This happened just a day before the May LA Mini E Event, so I decided, what the heck, I'd attend anyway. There I got an idea (from Jeff U - who ironically (see his recent post) seems to have been "excused" from the program by BMW - which I find very odd and somewhat disturbing - Jeff, I really hope BMW reconsiders) - anyway Jeff mentioned he was maybe looking into getting a 2nd charger installed at his workplace. So that got me thinking, and I approached our building manager. So to make a long story a little less long - they agreed and the inspection went off without a hitch.

I had some minor drama on Friday because the building had initially asked for a digital meter so they could monitor and invoice me, but that was going to cost $1,000! On CFCI's suggestion I negotiated an up-front flat fee for the electricity - they agreed - and the meter will be installed next week. And my Mini has already arrived at Irvine Mini - probably picking up Tuesday!

I had some reservations about my Mini sleeping 25 miles from its charger - what would I do on weekends? But really, my weekend solo driving is often zero - we have two kids and always use the family battle-wagon, and virtually always less than 20 miles. So even assuming just 90-100 miles/charge, a 50 mile commuting round-trip between chargings still leaves 40-50 weekend capacity - plenty, and I can always top-off using the 110V.

Now, I must apologize for the length of my post - which is much longer than Stan's and probably contains less generally-useable info. But I'm back, baby!

 

Thanks Steve for the kind words and congratulations on the work charger.
Charging at work makes a big difference, it gives you a new hub and extended radius to travel from.

 

Picked up my Mini today. I drove about 30 miles and had 62% left. I was fairly fast and accelerating pretty hard most of the time. Hopefully it charges in time for me to take it out tomorrow.

 

Picked up #156 from Irvine Mini yesterday - my thanks to Huw John who has just been wonderful throughout the process.

Drove it home through South Orange County through a combination of freeways, high speed arterials and of course a snippet of PCH. As most of you now have your cars I can't say much you don't already know, but I'll offer one observation. On a twisty and/or scenic road, any semi-sporty car is going to be fun. How the Mini E manages to provide an almost equal dose of fun on a dead-flat, straight slab of South OC arterial is beyond me. Maybe it's the tight handling and neutral/everything-where-it-should be ergonomics that are part of the regular Mini pedigree, combined with that always-linear acceleration curve and the near-silence (except for that futuristic-sounding electric whine) that makes you think you're in some kind of Ironman-like power suit that fits you like a glove and responds to your thoughts even before your actions. . .

One other observation - my route home passes a little open canyon area where you can often see hawks wheeling and gliding off to the side of the road, but they tend to stay away from the road. In 5 years of living there, I've never seen one swoop low right over my car - which is exactly what happened as I was taking one of my daughters for a test-ride (by the way, they decided #156 is a girl and her name is Electra). Now, is it just coincidence, or does engine noise normally keep these magnificent birds away?

But . . .

One problem to report - the 110V charger simply . . . wouldn't. When I plugged it in at home, the charger's "power" and "charging" lights would come on okay, and the Mini's fan would start up, but the charging light would go off after 5 blinks. I thought maybe I had the same problem that Robert Hooper was reporting with GFCI outlets, but it was the same thing at every outlet I could reach. I called roadside assistance, but while they were very friendly and offered to tow the car, at this point I think all of us actually know more about the car than they do. Called Huw at the dealer and he walked me through some "reboot" procedures - but same thing. Luckily I still had a range of 30 miles and the dealer is only 20 miles away, so I was able to return it under its own power to the dealer this morning (though had a few anxious moments with the fluctuating miles-to-go reading, down to 6 miles at one point, when I was still a fair ways away, but ended up with 10 miles to spare).

Haven't heard yet what the problem is. My guess is its the cable itself - obviously power is flowing because the fan comes on, but it doesn't seem to be communicating well with the car, and I did notice that one of the 3 smaller comm pins is pushed in further than the other two - maybe a bum connection.

 

Did you make sure it was on the correct setting to receive 110v charge? Unless they showed you at the dealership, it would be difficult to find how to change from 220 charging to 110 charging. The dealership would have charged your MINI at 220 before they gave it to you.

 

Congratulations on picking up Electra! Hopefully the problem is just a cable malfunction, and Irvine will have a spare handy.

I too love how quiet the car is. My neigbor a couple doors down is usually working in her flower beds when I go to work in the morning, and she always gives me a wave when I drive by. This morning she never even looked up because she didn't hear the car!

Let us know what the problem is when you find out.

edit - good point Greg about the setting. Mine was set at the highest amp setting when I got the car, and my wall box is only the 40 amp unit.

 

Thanks for the advice Greg and Stan - but yes that was one of the first things my dealer and I verified - and he wouldn't let me drive off the lot until I could demonstrate that I knew how to change the setting. And in any event, Irvine Mini does not have their 220V charger approved yet (see other posts about the by-the-book approach of Irvine electrical inspectors) so they are charging off the 110V for now. Funny thing is, it apparently was charging just fine until my dealer decided to pop the hood mid-charge while he was giving me the orientation - this of course shuts everything down. Even at the dealer, we weren't able to get it charging again, but Huw was convinced the system was just momentarily "confused" by the cut-off, and would settle down later. But it didn't.

Oh well. I'm not too bummed out right now since I need to be out of town tomorrow and Friday - but hopefully they'll have it licked before the weekend.

 

Hope you get car back soon. Good tip not to open hood while charging. Stop by my house in Laguna if you need a 220v zap.

 

I appreciate that, Greg!

 

Well, a roller-coaster day for me to say the least. I awoke to good news - Electra had taken a full charge yesterday at the dealer, and she was good to go. By the time I arrived at the dealer this afternoon, things had turned for the worse. Electra was acting erratically, refusing to start sometimes, and just generally losing her marbles. Apparently, they've had 7 or 8 of the "PCU's" - the gold suitcase-like boxes in the engine compartment from AC propulsion - go wonky. Apparently this is a problem with the very first set of delivered boxes. Electra is getting a new brain from AC, hopefully tomorrow or Sunday, and then she should be back to normal. FRUSTRATING

I'm currently in a loaner, a regular gas Cooper - not an "S" but a nicely upgraded interior. At least, it's allowed me a good A/B comparison since I've never had a Mini before. One thing off the bat as you would expect - the NOISE and vibration of the 4-banger. Of course the Mini E is quieter than my regular car, but that's an SUV with a relaxed low-revving V6 and plenty of steel and insulation between me and the engine compartment, so the difference in noise/vib was apparent but not dramatic. Not so between a regular Mini and a Mini E. That little high-reving buzzbox which is practically in your lap is LOUD when pushed - the exhaust note is sweet, but overall I think I prefer the quietly-efficient futuristic whine of the E which gives you better acceleration with a lot less fuss. Doesn't (literally) scream "Look at ME!" just gets the job done. The upgraded interior and the back seats are nice - but I want Electra back.