Robert's MINI E Field Trial

From June 2009 to June 2010 I had the privilege of Driving an All Electric MIMI E for a year, it was a great experience, and got me hooked on electric cars. I've since moved on to other electric cars which I will blog about.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Charging Slowly but Driving

Last night I charged #304 for 1 hour then I drove to the Mall and back all on highways going about 75 mph.
The charging added 3% so I started with a 88% charge, drove 21.1 miles, and ended with a 66% charge, and an estimated 64 mile range.
I then plugged it in and let it charge overnight, of course I had to sneak out and see how it was doing during the night, one thing I noticed is that blinking charge light is bright, if you have windows on your garage the neighbors will think you have a strobe light going all night, it should dim based on time and ambient lighting.
Anyway after about 5 hours the charge was at 81%, after 10 it was at 92%, and after 11.5 it was at 95%
110V 12A charging is very slow, this really wouldnt be practical for everyday driving, but I do have another car I can use when the MINI E's charge is too low.
On the good side I'm finally driving an Electric car, and BMW is waving my lease payments while I dont have the wall charger.
Posted by Robert at 9:16 AM

4 comments:

  1. NeWDL@AOL.COMJune 9, 2009 at 2:46 PM

    Congrats on receiving your E! We have a Tesla at home...what are the specs of the wall charger that you having coming?

    ReplyDelete
  2. RobertJune 9, 2009 at 3:14 PM

    Thanks, the wall charger is the Clipper Creek CS-40 http://www.clippercreek.net/images/ClipperCreek%20CS%20Brochure.pdf
    but apparently with a special cable BMW came up with which has been the bane of everyone in the MINI E program.
    Was talking about stopping by at a friend's boss's house to get a charge from his tesla charger, but I dont think the connectors are the same.

    ReplyDelete
  3. EdjuJune 9, 2009 at 3:37 PM

    According to ClipperCreek (Gary Gruber), the connectors are made by ODU in Germany. Their US website doesn't show the connector for MINI-E:
    http://www.odu-usa.com/index.php

    Ed

    ReplyDelete
  4. Newdl@aol.comJune 9, 2009 at 4:34 PM

    I do not think they are the same....I believe Tesla developed their own connector....if you post a photo I can tell you if it is in fact the same or not...

    Or simply email me a photo...

    ~Neal

    ReplyDelete

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