Today I went to lunch in Carlsbad. I started from Laguna Beach and the Google map distance is 93.6 miles round trip. 67 miles of freeway driving at 70 mph, although I slowed to 60 the last ten miles to make it home. When I parked the car the dial read 1% battery left .

Observations:

I noticed that the battery % went up by about 5 percentage points after I stopped for an hour and then restarted after lunch.

I really nursed the car from the San Onofre power plant to home (about 16 miles). The energy use is much better traveling 60 mph then 70mph.

Driving the hills and stops through Dana Point and South Laguna I used only about 3% battery, although it was 7 miles of distance.

I also had a 110 cord and I was prepared to stop and charge somewhere (?), if needed.

 

Way to cut it close Greg. I could only imagine you running out of juice outside of some guys house, you knocking on the door with plug in hand saying "Can I charge my car for an hour or so, so that I can get home?"

 

Very interesting to see how well these perform. 100 miles on a charge doesn't seem like a lot when in reality it is more than enough for the average commuter to live with. Not a great roadtrip car perhalps, but more than enough for around town.

Using the 110, do you know how long it would take to get, say, a 1 or 2% charge in case you come up short?

 

It's about 4 mile per hour charge on 110-115V
On 240V 36 amp it is 25miles an hour
On 240V 50 amp it is 33 miles an hour

Also I have heard but have not tried that when the range indicator hits 0 there is approx 10 miles of distance left, the last 3 or 4 will be at slow speeds.

My max trip so far has been 91 miles to temecula, 50% freeway at 70mph and 50% slow windy roads 45mph. I had 11miles left on the range indicator.

Observations,

The range indicator does flucuate a little, going up or stationary at times if you do city driving and down faster if its all freeway, but for the most part it is right on and a reliable gauge.

The car maintains freeway speeds 70mph+ all the way down to 0 range indicator. Below 10% I can notice a bit slower takeoffs, less torque but all in all very little difference from 100% charge in normal driving.

Cheers
Peder #183

 

Here is a potential solution for when you run out of juice:

http://www.waterway4.com/mini-e/

Hopefully most Mini E drivers will sign up and we can reduce 'range anxiety' a bit.

 

If you knocked on my door with the plug, I'd gladly let you borrow an outlet... providing you let me take the car for a quick spin!

 

Car and Driver did a quicky test drive of a MiniE in this month's August issue that I just got. They had 89 miles of range left when they got it for an afternoon of shopping stops. They drove 45 miles and used up 68 miles of the 89 mile range projected by the time they got it back to the BMW lab. They admitted to "flogging it some" lol. So it had 20 miles left. That was the main thing they didn't like, the range. They rated the acceleration as soft, the braking as strong and the handling as typical Mini. Sounds like an iPhone or a Android phone owner could have a ball, just charge phone and car every night (just don't charge the phone using the car)

 

Today was another great day in the MINI E! Decided to see if a 100 mile highway trip was possible and I'm happy to report it was with miles to spare. Even better, 96 of these miles were highway miles with speeds from 65 - 70 with no traffic. We drove from Long Beach, CA to Upland, CA and back. It was a fantastic drive and best of all, no gas. As I was coming home I was right next to a Shell Gasoline double tanker truck for a few miles. As one who was spending close to $300 a month on Shell Gasoline, it was one of those many happy moments I've had driving the MINI E. Setting aside the problems and the sometimes bad press, it's moments like that that really make me thankful for being part of this field trial.

101 Miles Traveled, 10% charge left, 11 miles left as I drove into garage.

See today's blog posting for all the details about this trip: speed, weather, battery temp, etc:

http://electricminicooper.blogspot.com/

 

Thought i might chime in here. 128 miles on one charge! On the highway 55-65mph. To everyone with range anxiety, please stop worrying and go drive your car. When it got to --- miles remaining, i still went another 15 miles at 60mph. Only after those 15 miles did it slow down to 45 mph. It never slowed to 10 mph like i heard it would. This was with the AC, headlights and radio on. Since i got the 32 amp wallbox, every day i have put over 100 miles on the car! Some days I drive around just for fun knowing its not ever gonna need gas.

 

Yesterday I almost became the first inductee into the MINI E hall of shame. Starting off with a full charge I traveled to a very remote site north of Santa Barbara just off Highway 1. My recollection of the distance turned out to be off, and I arrived 54 miles later with a 30% charge. Fortunately the first part of the trip home included some long downhill runs so I got some re-gen time. From Gaviota to Santa Barbara I drafted behind one of those gigantic custom motor homes at about 60MPH to conserve power. The meter flatlined well before reaching SB and finally, while driving in the middle freeway lane the power dropped off to about 25MPH max. After a rather abrupt exit I crawled along surface streets hoping to get as close to home as possible. Maxed out at 25MPH I cruised on the shoulder along Las Positas, which has a 55MPH speed limit. I now understand and appreciate the prominent location of the hazard light switch on the top of the speedo. The next hurdle was a 1/2 mile steep uphill section of road. At the base of the hill I was flooring it and traveling at 3MPH, then 2MPH, then 1MPH, and finally yet another flatline indicated a speed less than 1 the rest of the way up the hill. So pathetic that an old guy on a beach cruiser bike passed me and rang his little bike bell as he went by. 20 minutes later I reached the top of the hill and turned on to a street which slopes downhill most of the way to our house. On the last corner the MINI "overpowered" a tree root bump in the street and it was smooth sailing all the way to the house. No way I was going to get up our driveway, but I made it home without a tow truck!! The max range of number 224 is EXACTLY 107 miles.

 

That is certainly to become a classic range story, maybe even a movie gig

 

Be damned there yonder tow truck!
Stay the hell away from my Mini-E
lest I suffer the scorn of my
Fellow Mini-E pirates...err....pioneers
in the most mini of halls of shame.

Much better to put up with the ring a ling ling
of one single beach cuiser than the scorn of
400 pirates.

Does the hall of shame have any pioneers willing to admit they ran out of juice?

Well done juiced, great post.

#183
Cheers
Peder

 

I've driven 118, 120 121 & 123 miles on single charges. Unless you really drive the car hard you can almost always get over 100 miles per charge and that's with some highway and some city driving (I do about 50/50) Maybe if you did all highway and drove 70mph+ you might not make 100 miles, but any other way you should definitely get to 100. I have 3,800 miles on mine (#250) and the range really has not prevented me from my normal driving of 80 to 120 miles a day.
Tom
http://minie250.blogspot.com/