Electric MINI Pre-Orders now open

[jeff10049]

It's a keeper,

No real issues so far minor stuff like the charge door not opening after driving in freezing weather. And then it says it's open even when closed but that goes away if we get a day above freezing.
I won't hold that against the car as we have never owned any make of car or truck that could handle the extreme weather here without some issues. We experience 60 degree swings in 12 hours here.

The climate system is a heat pump system it works well a/c will freeze you out and doesn't seem to change the range much at all. Same with the heater to about 20 degrees I'm assuming some sort of resistive element takes over when too cold for the heat pump as the range seems to change a lot when I turn on the heat at say 3 degrees.

Cold weather definitely affects the range and power available on really cold mornings -15 F or colder it only shows 70 miles range and I can only accelerate with 50-60% power. But what I have noticed is as the car warms up the range goes up I have left the house with 70 miles range and got to work 30 miles away showing 72 miles range so the longer drive warming up the battery and systems helps. If you only did short drives I think the range would suffer more as much as 60% loss. But on a road trip not so much maybe 20% max range loss due to cold.

Still using the 3.2 kW cable it's fine for my needs. No trips this year between covid and business just didn't have time or want to. But in the 10 months, I have had it I have done 15k miles so far. It's a great car I have more to say about it when I get a chance. I have been thinking about posting an update thanks for asking I will continue with more technical stuff later. 

[BruceK]

Having no maintenance to do on an electric car sure sounds appealing.

Have you computed the running costs for charging it? 

[MiniDave]

Looking forward to reading all about it.....I didn't think I would come around to electric cars so quickly, but I sure could see the use of one for a daily, around town car for us.

Unfortunately she's still convinced we're going to take long trips in our cars.....with pretty much any Tesla and maybe a Bolt we could make it to Dan's shop or her brother's place in the Ozarks on one charge. Both are about 185 miles away.

[BruceK]

I was thinking that the longest trip I regularly take is about 65 miles, round trip.  Trips longer than that are more of a rarity for me and my wife.   And I guess for longer trips as an electric car owner there are some strategies. 

- Plan ahead to recharge the electric car along the way.  That prospect should get easier over time as more charging places come on line.

- Or, if you have a second car (gasoline powered), just take that car instead for the longer trip.

- Or, leave the electric car at home and rent a car for the longer trip. 

I guess it's just the ability to spontaneously take a longer trip that is the issue.  But I'm not in college anymore so there are a lot less spontaneous road trips happening.

[tsumini]

I like my Tesla. 71.gif

[jeff10049]

my tesla stock is the best investment I ever made.