MINI-E #345 Stops By For Some Juice

#345 Charging at 50amps

During the MINI-E lease program, I've made it know to the other Pioneers that they can charge up at my Restaurant in Montclair, NJ if they ever find themselves in need of a boost. I'm more than happy to supply them with the electrons needed to allow them to continue on their journey when it's longer than their single charge limit will allow.

I haven't kept count, but by now I'd imagine that I've probably had close to two dozen different Pioneers stop by and charge up; and many of them have dropped by more than once. Yesterday it was Michael Granoff's turn. Mike's day took him from the Northern part of the state to Central Jersey and on his way back he decided he'd be cutting it a bit close so he shot me an email asking if the EVSE would be available. If this had been the summer and the temperatures warmer, the distance wouldn't have been an issue, but now that it's cold and we use the car's heaters, our range drops off quite a bit. I think we both felt he would have made it without the charge, but he wasn't in a rush and it wasn't too much out of the way so why not stop by just to be safe.

Mike & I in front of our MINI-Es

I have a 50 amp EVSE at work which charges at nearly 12kWh. That really supplies a lot of electrons quickly, so after only about a half hour, Mike had plenty of juice to make it back home. We had a nice conversation about electric cars and EV infrastructure and the upcoming BMW ActiveE program (both of us are getting one) and then Mike was on his way.


Once I get my ActiveE, I'll convert my EVSE at work to be J1772 compliant. I can then charge my ActiveE there and offer the same free charging to anyone in the ActiveE program. I'm sure I'll continue to get occasional visitors in need of some electrons, and I'll be more than happy to oblige.