Mini range - is it really this bad?

[Maracus]

gangzoom said:

TheGinger1 said:

It seems in this thread that people are not considering that the range is greater than the simple maths by not considering the additional range caused by regeneration?

Regeneration doesn't add any range, the most efficient way to drive any car (Ev or not) is to not waste energy braking or accelerating once up to speed. The biggest impact on efficiency is wind resistance caused by speed, a constant 40mph is usually the most efficient speed for any EV.

I have been 'tasked' with getting my mother-in-laws 2022 Mini EV from Cardiff to Leicester, its 160 miles, a none stop trip in the Tesla but looking at the numbers for the Mini, I think I would be pushing my luck to get it to Hoopwood (100 miles).

Am currently considering if I did the old follow a lorry at 55mph might get me to Hoopwood. I really dont want to stop twice given the max charge rate is only 50KW.

What's amazing is this is the 'technique' of lorry stalking is what I had to use back in 2015 with our old 24kWh Leaf to do the same trip, nearly a decade on, I'm still having to consider a similar approach in a 'premium' EV. I'm not sure if this reflects just how little progess there had been in 10 years interms of EV battery technology, or just how awful the Mini is as an EV.

There was a post on a group last week where someone had driven 100 miles and had 38% battery left, now I can't recall the roads/speeds they were doing.

In our experience and sticking to the limits, you will see 120 miles without trying on a day like today.

[g40steve]

Any more info on the mini e, currently considering level 2 or 3.
Also looking a Honda E but the door handles seem to be weak link, anyone had both what’s the verdict?

My ST3 mk8.5 is not getting used, 6k in 20 months, all short trips

[stargazer30]

g40steve said:

Any more info on the mini e, currently considering level 2 or 3.
Also looking a Honda E but the door handles seem to be weak link, anyone had both what’s the verdict?

My ST3 mk8.5 is not getting used, 6k in 20 months, all short trips

I went from a focus ST mk 7.5 to my current mini se L3 for similar reasons. ST was heavy on fuel and I was doing all local short journeys. The leccy mini has similar performance up to legal speeds. I do miss the 5 doors but the mini is so much nicer to drive. It’s like getting your first dvd player after watching vhs for years.

Mine will do 100 miles easy per charge, 120 at a push in the summer.

[g40steve]

stargazer30 said:

I went from a focus ST mk 7.5 to my current mini se L3 for similar reasons. ST was heavy on fuel and I was doing all local short journeys. The leccy mini has similar performance up to legal speeds. I do miss the 5 doors but the mini is so much nicer to drive. It’s like getting your first dvd player after watching vhs for years.

Mine will do 100 miles easy per charge, 120 at a push in the summer.

How’s the reliability been?
Can i ask how old, the earliest seem 20/21 plate & what’s insurance like?
Did yours come with service pack or any additional options?

[Big Nanas]

g40steve said:

stargazer30 said:

I went from a focus ST mk 7.5 to my current mini se L3 for similar reasons. ST was heavy on fuel and I was doing all local short journeys. The leccy mini has similar performance up to legal speeds. I do miss the 5 doors but the mini is so much nicer to drive. It’s like getting your first dvd player after watching vhs for years.

Mine will do 100 miles easy per charge, 120 at a push in the summer.

How’s the reliability been?
Can i ask how old, the earliest seem 20/21 plate & what’s insurance like?
Did yours come with service pack or any additional options?

My wife has had hers for two years now, so I can add in here too.
Zero reliability issues, absolutely nothing has gone wrong which has been great.
Insurance isn't too bad, we're in Surrey and her recent premium was around £375 I think, much the same as her previous ICE Mini was.
Service pack is significantly cheaper than the previous ICE mini., In fact, she had it serviced a few weeks ago which was over £200, so she bought the service pack going forward. Typical dealer tried to charge £80 to replace front wipers (I did it £18 Bosch wipers from Amazon), and a slow puncture in a rear tyre which they wanted £200 for a new tyre. A local tyre place fixed the puncture for £17!
She's very happy with it, and regularly does longer journeys in it - including Surrey to Northumberland. She's not had any issues on that journey with charging at all.

[Mark-ri571]

23 months into ownership of my SE Level 2. No issues other than minor creak/rattle cured by treating doorseals with Gummiphledge. Just run my stats :
Total spent on electric £ 198.70 . However first 4 months I charged free at Tesco which is no longer free).
Current mileage 8,072.
Obviously Octopus IO is a no brainier and in addition to 7.5p pkwh 23.30-05.30 I regularly get additional cheap hours during the day which has brought my whole house average unit rate down to 17.5p pkwh.

[g40steve]

Thanks for info keep if coming

Are the differences between 2 & 3, Sunroof, matrix headlights, front park sensors, full leather seats, wireless phone charger, harmon k audio & switchable heads up on plastic screen?

Which wheels are prefered the plug design or spokes.

Which colours or combos do you consider, will defo avoid black for main colour body.

Good point about Octopus, currently with So & have solar setup & 7kw charge point but it’s old dumb version Rolec

[stargazer30]

My 73plate l3 has all those extras except the matrix lights, they were removed from the spec a while back by mini. It’s lights are excellent though regardless.

Mine has the roulette wheels which look great even if they are curb magnets.

[Maracus]

g40steve said:

Thanks for info keep if coming

Are the differences between 2 & 3, Sunroof, matrix headlights, front park sensors, full leather seats, wireless phone charger, harmon k audio & switchable heads up on plastic screen?

Which wheels are prefered the plug design or spokes.

Which colours or combos do you consider, will defo avoid black for main colour body.

Good point about Octopus, currently with So & have solar setup & 7kw charge point but it’s old dumb version Rolec

That is pretty much it. I quite like the grey woven seats, although the leather does look nice.

My wife has had her L2 for 2.5 years, bought as an ex demo. No issues at all. It's now on 21k and we've recently taken out the extended warranty which is pretty good value for a BMW Product. There is a 4th year service that was included in the 4 year service pack, the total cost was £270.

Hers in White Silver with the Plug wheels, although we have a set of 16" spokes that have winters on. She works in social care, so has to visit oldies no matter what.

It's always charged at home as she never does more than 40 miles a day.

It's a keeper for her

[g40steve]

Took mini e out for test drive today, very nice & defo point & squirt.
The go cart terminology seems accurate, very nice cabin & materials.
They offered my 18k for my car, Motorway was £18.4.
The car I like is in preparation 72 plate, BRG, level 2, Sun glass rear pack, black pack & Sytner 12 month full warranty & recovery ( car still has 16 months full cover.
Daughter ran the mini through Motorway & only returned £15.6 but cannot buy one for similar spec from mini for less than £19/20k
Do you think i could squeeze them for anything, ie service or extras?

[Mark-ri571]

Mark-ri571 said:

23 months into ownership of my SE Level 2. No issues other than minor creak/rattle cured by treating doorseals with Gummiphledge. Just run my stats :
Total spent on electric £ 198.70 . However first 4 months I charged free at Tesco which is no longer free).
Current mileage 8,072.
Obviously Octopus IO is a no brainier and in addition to 7.5p pkwh 23.30-05.30 I regularly get additional cheap hours during the day which has brought my whole house average unit rate down to 17.5p pkwh.

Bit of an update. Just got my latest electric bill yesterday and now got my whole house average down to 15.51p pkwh thanks to IO Go tariff

[timmymagic73]

Just thought I'd add my experience as we're coming to the end of a 3 year lease with the mini electric.

Fun car, have enjoyed driving it. Performance seems to surprise some people - I guess they haven't cottoned on yet that there's an electric version of the little mini they must overtake at all costs....

Not getting anywhere near the suggested range, ours is lucky to do 80 miles before I start getting twitchy. Obviously much worse in winter than summer, but not really a problem for us as we're mostly doing local journeys and have another car.

It's been... mostly reliable. On a number of occasions we've had a "drivetrain fault" on start up - which results in getting out of the car, locking it, waiting for a couple of minutes and then setting off. Last week however it did this at 60mph joining a busy A-road and cut out completely which was fun. Managed to coast to a safe place luckily and wait it out. Needless to say we don't trust it anymore.... dealer unable to diagnose.

Have ordered the new electric mini as a replacement though, surprisingly not much info on this in the real world yet - too new I guess. Have only seen one other one on the road so far.

Edit to add - we've had the charge flap replaced and also the key/TPMS receiver replaced under warranty, both appear to be common faults - so something to look out for when buying. The new charge flap seems a much better design.

Edited by timmymagic73 on Tuesday 11th June 15:02

[Mark-ri571]

timmymagic73 said:

Just thought I'd add my experience as we're coming to the end of a 3 year lease with the mini electric.

Fun car, have enjoyed driving it. Performance seems to surprise some people - I guess they haven't cottoned on yet that there's an electric version of the little mini they must overtake at all costs....

Not getting anywhere near the suggested range, ours is lucky to do 80 miles before I start getting twitchy. Obviously much worse in winter than summer, but not really a problem for us as we're mostly doing local journeys and have another car.

It's been... mostly reliable. On a number of occasions we've had a "drivetrain fault" on start up - which results in getting out of the car, locking it, waiting for a couple of minutes and then setting off. Last week however it did this at 60mph joining a busy A-road and cut out completely which was fun. Managed to coast to a safe place luckily and wait it out. Needless to say we don't trust it anymore.... dealer unable to diagnose.

Have ordered the new electric mini as a replacement though, surprisingly not much info on this in the real world yet - too new I guess. Have only seen one other one on the road so far.

Edit to add - we've had the charge flap replaced and also the key/TPMS receiver replaced under warranty, both appear to be common faults - so something to look out for when buying. The new charge flap seems a much better design.

Edited by timmymagic73 on Tuesday 11th June 15:02

Not had any issues with our 2 year old SE. My mothers petrol 1.5 Cooper has had the drivetrain fault warning on a couple of occasions which has necessitated switching off and back on again.

So far as range is concerned I always seem to see 100 mile range at 100% battery but if I go on a long run the range creaps steadily upwards and using low regen on the motorway ( in Summer) have extended the range to close on 140 miles

Edited by Mark-ri571 on Tuesday 11th June 16:53

[Olivera]

timmymagic73 said:

Not getting anywhere near the suggested range, ours is lucky to do 80 miles before I start getting twitchy.

Jeez, 80 miles before worrying about charge is absolutely gash. No wonder MINI have binned this half-baked model off and finally released the proper EV hatch. IIRC the new one has a minimum (depending on model) WLTP range of 184 miles, so will be interesting to see what people get in the real world.

[Richtea1970]

Olivera said:

Jeez, 80 miles before worrying about charge is absolutely gash. No wonder MINI have binned this half-baked model off and finally released the proper EV hatch. IIRC the new one has a minimum (depending on model) WLTP range of 184 miles, so will be interesting to see what people get in the real world.

The big worry I’d have at the moment, because of the poor range, is the depreciation. EVs with poor range don’t hold their value for long.

[GeniusOfLove]

Richtea1970 said:

The big worry I’d have at the moment, because of the poor range, is the depreciation. EVs with poor range don’t hold their value for long.

I've seen a Mini-E level 1 with 74k on it for £8k at a trade auction, a 13k mile 2022 L2 CAPs at £15k, a 23k 2020 L3 at £14k. They do seem to lose 1/2 of their value overnight but then level out a bit.

Part of the problem is 100 miles might be just about ok when it's new, but as the battery degrades it's going to be a useful car to fewer and fewer people.

As others have said, they are brilliant to drive while the charge lasts though. My stepfather has one because he is retired and has nothing better to do than sit around while his car charges, and he adores it.

[DT1975]

timmymagic73 said:

Just thought I'd add my experience as we're coming to the end of a 3 year lease with the mini electric.

Fun car, have enjoyed driving it. Performance seems to surprise some people - I guess they haven't cottoned on yet that there's an electric version of the little mini they must overtake at all costs....

Not getting anywhere near the suggested range, ours is lucky to do 80 miles before I start getting twitchy. Obviously much worse in winter than summer, but not really a problem for us as we're mostly doing local journeys and have another car.

It's been... mostly reliable. On a number of occasions we've had a "drivetrain fault" on start up - which results in getting out of the car, locking it, waiting for a couple of minutes and then setting off. Last week however it did this at 60mph joining a busy A-road and cut out completely which was fun. Managed to coast to a safe place luckily and wait it out. Needless to say we don't trust it anymore.... dealer unable to diagnose.

Have ordered the new electric mini as a replacement though, surprisingly not much info on this in the real world yet - too new I guess. Have only seen one other one on the road so far.

Edit to add - we've had the charge flap replaced and also the key/TPMS receiver replaced under warranty, both appear to be common faults - so something to look out for when buying. The new charge flap seems a much better design.

Edited by timmymagic73 on Tuesday 11th June 15:02

That's weird as the drive train error is the default on ICE models that doesn't actually mean much. We have 3 x F56 in the family and it could literally mean anything from low oil to well..nothing. Good to know they kept the same default setting, probably never programmed out . However on not one occasion have any of the cars cut out.

That aside a potential 80 mile range would freak my missus despite not doing more than that a week. It would weigh heavy on her more so than the sodding fuel bars on the F56 so she'd plug it in nightly. Any less than 3 bars (100 miles ) gets her twitchy.

Let us know how you get on with the new Mini.

[Mark-ri571]

GeniusOfLove said:

I've seen a Mini-E level 1 with 74k on it for £8k at a trade auction, a 13k mile 2022 L2 CAPs at £15k, a 23k 2020 L3 at £14k. They do seem to lose 1/2 of their value overnight but then level out a bit.

Part of the problem is 100 miles might be just about ok when it's new, but as the battery degrades it's going to be a useful car to fewer and fewer people.

As others have said, they are brilliant to drive while the charge lasts though. My stepfather has one because he is retired and has nothing better to do than sit around while his car charges, and he adores it.

Does your step father not have home charging ? I mainly sleep in my bed whilst I am charging or if I get a Smart Charge do jobs around the house or sit with my feet up in front of the TV.

[Mark-ri571]

DT1975 said:

That's weird as the drive train error is the default on ICE models that doesn't actually mean much. We have 3 x F56 in the family and it could literally mean anything from low oil to well..nothing. Good to know they kept the same default setting, probably never programmed out . However on not one occasion have any of the cars cut out.

That aside a potential 80 mile range would freak my missus despite not doing more than that a week. It would weigh heavy on her more so than the sodding fuel bars on the F56 so she'd plug it in nightly. Any less than 3 bars (100 miles ) gets her twitchy.

Let us know how you get on with the new Mini.

I have never seen an 80 mile range on our Mini on a full battery. Even in Winter it would show a minimum of 98 miles which is pessimistic and would increase on a run.

[DT1975]

Mark-ri571 said:

I have never seen an 80 mile range on our Mini on a full battery. Even in Winter it would show a minimum of 98 miles which is pessimistic and would increase on a run.

Sorry, I was replying to the 'twitchy range' post of 80 miles.

Like most I wonder what that range would equate to in ten years time. Whereas our 9 year old ICE F56 filled to the brim shows an optimistic 400 mile range.

It's the what ifs that prevent us sticking cash into one of these. I can understand lease.