Tuesdays Driving

Just a quick update on todays driving, I left this morning with a 95% charge, and a range estimate of 93 miles, did quite a bit of driving had a few errands to run. The MINI E preformed flawlessly even took a co-worker for a spin, and really pushed it showing just how fast and fun the MINI could be. Returned home having driven 59.2 miles with a 40% charge left and a range estimate of 41 miles.

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.

Now Driving MINI E #304

I picked up my MINI E #304 a few hours ago from Morristown MINI and drove it home, what a great ride. Thank you Magdalena and Dean for going through all the details and making for a very smooth experience. Sandy from Facebook, was there too getting his MINI E the same time I was, and they had 3 more for some lucky drivers they were prepping.
The ride home went well, the regenerative brakes were fun, especially going down hill, I did have to us the regular brakes a few times, as I pulled out of the dealership, it accellerated faster then I'd planned, and later at a cross walk I had to stop quickly. I tried to drive normally home, though I just had to gun it a few times, even so I got home with 85% charge left after driving 17.3 miles, and a predicted 83 miles of range left.
Had a little trouble when I got home and had to plug in the 110 charger, at first the car fan whined faster, but I didnt see the charging light come on. After a few times unplugging and replugging I realized I hadnt checked the Amperage setting on the car, went and looked, it was set to 12A, but I cycled through the choices anyway. After that I plugged it in and the charging lights came on.
Well its not going to get much of a charge as Im going out again:)
stay tuned for further updates, and pictures coming soon

My MINI E is on its way

Heard from my MINI dealer that my MINI E is on its way from California to New Jersey and should be here by the middle of next week, even gave me the VIN and first payment information. but he didnt have the side plate number I asked. :( The Dealership (Morristown MINI) sounds very busy, said they had 60 MINI E's to move out by the 26th, going to be a lot of happy drivers in the coming weeks.
Need to call the insurance company, and ask them if that quote they gave me back in January is still good, then be ready to pick up my MINI E when they call.

Wall Charger Installed

Had my Wall charger installed this morning, took about 2 hours, still no cable but otherwise no problems. Next step is for the Township to inspect it, and for the electricians to come back with a charging cable when it arrives, right now MINI doesnt have enough charging cables and the ones they do have are being installed in California.
Some bloggers in LA had mentioned having their wall charger installed and inspected right away, I wonder if LA is pushing EV charger installs to the top of their priority, dont see that happening that fast around here.
This is the 40 Amp charger, I asked the electricians about this and was told all they had recieved for New Jersey was 40 Amp chargers, I was a bit surprised, I know some people in NJ have the ability to use a 60 Amp charger and it seems a real shame not to use them where possible.

First MINI E delivered

Congratulations to Peter Trepp,

The very first MINI E Pioneer to receive his car #111 on Friday May 22nd
Read his blog about the experience and a article on USA Today

Hope to be seeing more notices about others receiving their MINI Es soon.

MINI E Charging Cable Announcement

This weeks weekly update letter from MINI, was sort of a good new bad news read, with a lot of good information.

• The good news the Charging cables have finally gotten UL approval so they are starting to install them.
• The bad news they only have 150 of them and they are going to the west coast pioneers first.
• The good news they are waving the first months lease fee for everyone.
• The good news they will be delivering the west coat MINI E's as soon as the cables are installed and inspected.
• The good news they will be delivering the east coast MINI E's the second week of June.
• The bad news the east coast MINI E's will only come with a 110v charging cable initially.
• The good news they will continue to wave the lease fee until you have a fully functional charging box installed.
• The good news is they will give you the option to extend your lease so you have a full 12 months of driving with the charging station.
• The good news they expect the east coast wall boxes and charging cables to be ready in July.
• The good news is they want all pioneers to take delivery of their MINI E by June 26th

So what does this all mean to me? Well at first I was a little upset about having to deal with 110v charging, but since most days I'm only expecting to use less then half a charge, and on days I'll be fully depleting the battery I can drive my other car the next day, I dont expect this to be a major inconvenience. Im a little jealous of those on the west coast who get the free months lease and have a working charger. But maybe I'll get a second month or more where my lease fee is waved, if so I wouldnt mind if it ended up being another 6 months before the charging station was installed, driving the MINI E for free is well worth any charger hassles. The important thing is I should be driving electric in 3 weeks, just wish it was sooner.