Anyone had a HAPPY motoring time lately?

 

Not me. I've been doing a self-imposed test this week to see how much I can extend my range (which is currently about 105 miles) if I REALLY take it easy on the accelerator pedal. As a fellow Mini owner, you know that this kind of schlepping does not come easy to a Mini (or its driver!).

The weirdly good news is that - I don't seem to be getting much better range at all! Maybe a couple miles, but nothing life-changing. So I think next week it's back to driving it the way it was MEANT to be driven!

 

Hi Steve

Do drive normally - I find that accelerating normally, not milking it which prolongs drain, then back off once at speed gives best results and in fact iy may tick up a few points - don't punch it, just get to 3 bars max. Once at speed stay there by not going above 2 bars and try not to lose speed even when doing regen....unless you need to

Also try the top off trick. Once your MINI E stops recharging - wait 10 or 20 minutes and then put it back on the juice - might give you a few extra miles if it starts charging again.

I'm getting around 117 consistently and I'm at 56Ah/100mls with lights, wipers (NJ rain) and some A/C. Have 1400 miles on the car and it seems to be getting better.

Good luck

 

Hi, Cnef. Good advice, and that's basically what I've been following this week. Still can't seem to break below 70 Ah/100mls, though.

I think the basic problem is that 85% of my driving is on SoCal freeways, which often involves cruising at 3 bars, and forays into the 4-6 range, at least for short tactictal bursts to get good lane placement!

Keeping it to 2 bars cruising, as I've been doing religiously this week, does help a little on the range, but it means I'm topping out on the freeway at about 70mph except in downhill segments. This qualifies as slow-lane trucks-and-clunkers territory in SoCal. Not my favorite place to be. Trying to keep up with the faster traffic in the 75-80 mph range finds me hitting those 3 bars quite often.

I like your idea of the top off trick - but unfortunately I'm still on the 110V charger and I'm rarely in that end of the charge spectrum. But I will definitely give that a try once the inspector allows the charger to be installed.

Even so, it's really no biggie. I'm at 105, and 117 would not open up a whole new world of destinations for me, so like I say, this kind of improvement wouldn't be life-changing.

The only real reason I'm trying to stretch the miles out right now is that on the painfully slow 110V charger, I can only manage 4 commuting days out of 5 before #156 needs to rest up and charge for a whole day, and I was seeing if I could stretch that to 5/5 with more careful driving, letting it charge to 100% again on the weekend. I now don't think that's possible, and in any event will become a non-issue when the charger arrives.

BTW from the "it's a small world department" (and it REALLY is - only 500 of us!), I read your road-kill blog-entry and responded with some info on deer whistles - you may already know about this since you live in deer-country, but I thought others might benefit.

 

Wow, still no 220v charger! Any estimate on when it will get approved and installed? Are they still defering the lease payments?

 

Thanks Steve - I saw your post. We have more deer than people out by me

By the way - I am also still on the 110 so I feel your pain. Highways do use more juice but I definitely get an extra bump from a reset of the charging. What I do is I wait until the blinking charge light stops then I unplug the connector to the car and plug it back in...8 out of ten times it starts to charge again for 1 more hr even if the dash says 100% and I do notice the extra distance I get.

I've also noticed the car charges faster if it is in a cool space...that fan eats up a decent % (maybe 10) of the charge if it is going full blast to keep the batts cool. I heard from #250 that he cracks his window when his car is charging in the garage and it helps. I charge outside - rain and all - still here to tell the tale.

Chris

 

The last I heard from CFCI, Stan, was "several weeks". The problem apparently is that Irvine City Inspectors absolutely insist on the charger box having a UL sticker - and CFCI says they are waiting on Clipper Creek to deliver them. Sounds weird to me, but that's the story.

Yes the good news is I will have at least another month of "free" driving - though that's one more month we'll have to continue to be a three-car family since I can only use the Mini about 4 days out of 5 before it needs a full days r&r (rest and recharge).

 

Hi, Cneff. I'm going to try the "overcharging" trick this weekend, when #156 will finally be able to crawl back to 100% after a week's commuting. I had noticed once that it was still charging even though it read 100%, but I unplugged figuring it was just wasting the juice - but a few more miles would be worth it.

It also stands to reason that a cooler environment would help the charging. I'm already leaving the windows open on the car so it can breathe properly - but tonight I'm also going to try leaving the garage door open about a foot or so, so it can get some outside air - the garage can get pretty toasty this time of year.

 

Is MINIUSA collecting your data?

What is your overall customer satisfaction level?

 

Funny you should ask, Jeff. It's been a little quiet since I took delivery at the end of June. We all received a "welcome" gift pack from Mini that referred to a special website they are setting up to log our impressions, take surveys etc. - but when I tried to log in, it said "thanks, but please wait for the e-mail invitation." Don't know how many drivers are already on. I think maybe they are waiting until I''m fully up and running with the 220V charger. But I don't feel "neglected" as my local dealer rep has been very responsive with my (few) questions.

Overall, I'm very happy with the driving experience of the car. It does not feel or drive like a prototype. My one post-delivery experience, when my PEU messed up - was also positive. They gave me a nice loaner and I had the Mini E back in a couple of days. It's on par with my usual BMW customer experience.

Overall, I'm satisfied, but I am anxiously awaiting the charger installation, as right now I can only drive 4 days out of 5 on the 110V. I'm not getting the car's full potential at this point. Then again, I'm not paying any lease payments either.

 

Steve, I haven't been able to log in yet either, still waiting for the email and I've had the car and charger for about 6 weeks. There hasn't been much discussion of this on Facebook either so I bet most people haven't received the invitation.

 

hmmm... less than 2 hours after my post above, I got the invitation! Coincidence?

Actually I hope the Mini E folks are monitoring this and the other sites. I think we have seen evidence of that in the weekly Plugged In newsletter

 

No coincidence, Stan! Same thing happened to me, so the Mini Gods must be listening. So, for my next wish . . . 20 miles more range!

(I'd have asked for a 220v charger, but that's up to the Irvine inspector, and no power in heaven or earth can influence that!)

 

Anyone had their E out for some FUN lately?

 

Steve, see any difference with the overcharging trick - did it work?

 

Curious Question?

Are there fail safes built into the E, so that if one got into a bad rear wreck, that you would not be bathing in battery acid?

 

No battery acid in these batteries, they are Li-ion - there is a kill switch in the back, but, one must be able to reach it of course.

Lots of safety features in the car, the maker of the powertrain has been doing this for well over a decade. AC Propulsion.

 

Interesting video on youtube.com - 'How Lithium Batteries Are Made":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqywKcJ0J2M

 

Battery Electric cars are hundreds of times safer than gasoline cars and thousands of times safer than hydrogen cars.

 

Cneff - tried the "overcharging" but didn't seem to get any range bump out of it. After it shut off the first time, I waited more than 20 mins, probably an hour or so, then plugged back in. The charge light only blinked less than 15 mins, and my indicated range didn't go up.

I know I have the latest software (at least as of July 5 or so) since in my first week having #156 they had to do a complete PEU transplant - so maybe that trick no longer works with the latest gold box?

Thanks for the tip anyways, it was worth checking out.

 

I actually have picked up some range with the 'top-off' technique and use it a few times a week now. One kind of odd thing about it was that it doesn't display right away on the chargeometer. For example, I had a fully charged car, said it had 102 miles remaining on it. Topped it off, and it still had 102 miles left. Drove about 1/4 mile and all of a sudden it had 106 miles on it and the needle on the analog gauge had also moved a bit past 100%.

 

GoDucks

That's right - it happens after you begin to drive...strange but wonderful

 

good tip from the Mini-E team.

I'm trying it in the am.

Cheers

#183
Peder

 

SE, great video, thanks. Fun to learn new things

 

Sorry, mini cooper mini, we've hijacked your post a little bit in all this talk about batteries and range.

Back to the important subject of fun. This weekend, my brother-in-law is hosting his annual family beach bbq in Huntington Beach. My wife will take one kid in our family battle-wagon while I take the other on a nice cruise up PCH from San Clemente to Huntington Beach (yes I know - not great for the carbon footprint!). I think that would qualify as fun in anyone's book.

I just hope I'll have enough excess range to give a few test rides. Ooops, hijacked again!