MINI-E #250

The End

2012-01-21T19:25:00.001-05:00

My wife Meredith and I speaking to BMW NA President, Ludwig Willisch at the BMW ActiveE First Delivery Event

Well not really, but it is the end of MINI-E #250. On Friday, January 13th, at the BMW ActiveE First Delivery Event in Woodcliff Lake NJ, I handed in my keys to #250 and was presented with the keys to the very first BMW ActiveE by BMW North American President, Ludwig Willisch.

Who would have thought? Back in 2009 when I first started this blog I could have never imagined I'd be standing there with the BMW president accepting the keys to the very first BMW electric car leased to a customer in the company's history. However there I was with my wife, accepting the keys and making a short speech about my MINI-E experience and thanking BMW for the honor of choosing me to be the very first ActiveE customer delivery.

As fantastic as the day was, and as much as I love the new ActiveE, lost a bit in the shuffle was the fact that I no longer have my MINI-E. For the past 31 months it's been my primary vehicle and I put over 72,500 miles on it in that time. It proved to me electric cars are ready for prime time. They are fun to drive, easy to recharge and really offer a great overall driving/ownership experience. I became so convinced I'd be driving electric from now on I installed a solar array on my roof so I can produce my own energy, and my electric cars would all be truly zero emission using renewable energy.

Yes, I transferred EF-OPEC to the ActiveE

The MINI-E saved me from needing to make about 250 trips to the gas station, kept me from buying about 4,000 gallons of gasoline and provided me with too many great experiences to recount and too many fond memories to list. I wasn't constantly worried about my range like everyone that has never driven an EV say's will happen and the car never left me stranded because it ran out of power. It was just like any other car, I got in it and drove.

So now a new journey begins. I have enjoyed this blog so much, and all of the comments and emails I have received from people all around the world have been so encouraging and really were the reason I continued to blog about my time with the MINI-E. A while back I started an ActiveE blog because I knew the day would come when I turned in the MINI-E for an ActiveE. From now on I'll be posting there and I hope everyone that stops by here and reads this transitions over to that blog and continues to follow.

All that's left from #250 is wall charger and my side scuttle numbers. That and a lot of great memories.

When the ActiveE First Delivery was over and we were getting ready to leave, I asked if I could take the side scuttle number off my MINI-E as a memento and I was granted permission. I hear some of the other MINI-E pioneers scuttle numbers have been mysteriously falling off right before they return their cars to pick up their ActiveE's. Hmmm, very strange.

All of us in the MINI-E program knew the program was ending, and BMW needed to move on with a more advanced, more refined electric vehicle to test before they sell the i3 in 2013. However knowing that didn't take the sting out of giving our beloved MINI-E's back to BMW. Besides our side scuttle numbers we all have the memories of the great experience of driving our first electric cars. Some day, when electric cars are everywhere we can look back and say "I was there in the beginning. I was a Pioneer"

My BMW ActiveE blog can be found at: http://activeemobility.blogspot.com

I already found a home for my old side scuttle numbers! Life goes on...

MINI-E #250:The Final Hours

2012-01-13T09:51:00.000-05:00


Charging at home for the last time. It's the 1,383rd time I've charged up in the 31 months I've had MINI-E #250

"This is the end, my only friend the end." In a couple hours I'll get in MINI-E #250 for the last time. :(
I'll be driving with my wife to BMW's North American headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ and handing the keys to Richard Steinberg, BMW's manager of electric vehicle sales and strategy and my time with the MINI-E will be over. My final odometer reading will stand at about 72,500 all electric miles, not bad for only 31 months of driving.

It's been a wonderful 2 1/2 year journey that has amongst other things, proven to me unequivocally that electric cars, even one with only a 100 mile range, is perfectly suited to be the primary car used in a household. I specifically want to point out the word primary, because it wasn't the secondary car in our household, it was always the car my wife and I went to first.

I'm not going to go into all the reasons why we loved this car so much, there are over 200 posts here if anyone that hasn't followed already can read. I will say the sting of having to return it has been soothed a bit by the fact that when we leave BMW HQ today, we'll be driving a BMW ActiveE electric car. The ActiveE is BMW's last step before they make a series production electric car, the 2013 BMW i3. The ActiveE is another test car like the MINI-E, however this car is completely engineered by BMW and has all the actual components that the i3 will have in it, so we are basically field testing all the new electronics, motors and battery cells before they are offered for sale to he public in the i3 in about 20 months form now.

I'm heading to BMW HQ because BMW asked me to be the first customer to accept delivery of an ActiveE and they are having a press ceremony today where BMW North American President, Ludwig Willisch will present me with the keys to the car. I've been a very vocal proponent of the MINI-E program and a supporter of BMW's efforts to develop electric cars so they thought it appropriate I accept the first ActiveE and I am certainly honored they choose me for this event.

Now that I won't have the MINI-E anymore, I'll be transitioning this blog to my ActiveE blog, which will eventually give way to my BMW i3 blog. However I'll do one more post here in a couple days to review the ActiveE handover event and offer my final thoughts on the MINI-E program. Thank you all for following the past few years and for offering your comments and questions. Without your input, I would have certainly stopped doing this a long time ago if I though nobody was reading or cared what I had to say about this experience.

MINI-E #345 Stops By For Some Juice

2011-12-22T20:28:00.000-05:00

#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 their journey when it's longer than their single charge limit will allow.

I haven't kept count, but I'd imagine I probably had close to two dozen different pioneers stop by and charge up by now, 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 cars heaters, our range tapers 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-E's

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 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.

My Last MINI-E Milestone: 70,000 All Electric Miles

2011-12-02T20:10:00.001-05:00

I've often written about the miles I've logged on MINI-E #250 during the nearly 30 months I've been driving it. Not that driving a lot is some kind of accomplishment, because surely it isn't. In fact, I really wish I didn't need to drive so much but I do. The reason I frequently bring it up is because one of the criticisms of electric cars is that the limited single charge range renders them useless to people that need to drive a lot.

Driving around New Jersey

Since most current electric cars(that aren't made by Tesla) can only go about 100 miles per charge many people assume that means you wouldn't be able to drive one more than 100 miles in a day without extreme inconvenience.What it really means is you can't drive more than 100 miles without stopping, which in my life happens very rarely. Even with my rigorous driving regime, I'm only in the car driving for about 2 hours a day. That means it's parked for about 22 hours every day and might as well be plugged in and charging up for the next trip. As long as you have charging where you park, you can drive and EV much more than it's single charge range limit on any given day.

My odometer rolled past 70,000 miles exactly on the 900th day I've had the car. That means I've averaged 77.78 miles per day, every single day I've had it. Now obviously I haven't driven it every single day I've had it, even though I did on the majority of them. If you take away the days I didn't drive it at all, I actually averaged about 85 miles per day of use. The only way that could be possible is by driving it much more than 100 miles on many days, to offset the days I only drove it 20 or 30 miles.

Charging at work

I have an advantage over many people with EV's and that's because I have a level 2 EVSE at my job. This allows me to plug in and quickly recharge while I'm working. That, combined with the MINI-E's robust charging rate makes it very easy to drive a couple hundred miles in a single day. Some other EV's like the Nissan LEAF have a pathetically slow 3.3kW charging rate and that severely limits the owners ability to charge up quickly and get back on the road. It the LEAF's defense it does support level 3 DC quick charge, but there aren't any level 3 charge stations installed anywhere near New Jersey so I wouldn't be able to use anyway if I owned a LEAF. BMW has incorporated 7.7kW charging on the ActiveE so hopefully they understand that robust charging is necessary, especially on a premium electric vehicle. Additionally, I hope they include level 3 DC quick charge on the 2013 BMW i3. By then, I think level 3 charge stations will begin to be installed or at least the planning will have begun. Level 3 DC quick charge stations will make long distance travel much easier with EV's, however a robust charge rate on level 2 charging combined with workplace charging like I have will definitely enhance the EV experience for everyday use and make the cars much more versatile.

So back to my milestone. It's been quite a run with MINI-E #250, but it's soon to end. I have applied and been accepted into the BMW ActiveE lease program which begins in about two weeks. At that time, I'll hand in the keys to #250 and drive home with an ActiveE. It will be bittersweet, no doubt. I love this little car and have has so many great moments in it during the 70,000 miles I've logged, but it's time to move on. The ActiveE is a much more advanced electric vehicle. It has an active thermal management system which will help to alleviate the drastic range inconsistencies throughout the year, it has a new glide mode to increase efficiency during highway driving as well as other improvements and better instrumentation.

Hello, thank you. Send us your money!

Before I got the MINI-E my daily driver was a 2009 Toyota Tacoma pick up truck that I still have. I only drove it about 4,000 miles since I got the MINI-E, mostly in the winter when I used it to plow my restaurants parking lot and on days I needed to use the bed to haul large freight for the restaurant. It gets about 17-18mpg so by driving the MINI-E 70,000 miles the past two and a half years I didn't need to buy about 4,000 gallons of gas. (Rant Warning): That's one of the most satisfying things for me. I hate buying gas. I hate that about 65 cents of every dollar I spend on gas leaves the US, and some of it ends up in the economies of radical nations that support terrorism. I produce much of the electricity that I use myself, on my home solar array. It's clean, renewable energy. However even when I use electricity that was supplied by the grid, I know that 100% of it was domestically produced, and 100% of my dollars stay local, or at the worst regional. Electricity is 100% a domestic product that employs American workers in every step of the supply chain. Even if it's "dirty" coal, it's still employing US workers and keeping the money in our economy. Money that is then reinvested in America. There is nothing more American and patriotic than driving an electric car and it is mind boggling to me when I hear politicians and media blowhards criticizing them. I can only imagine these people have agendas against EV's due to alliances with big oil and lobbyists that line their campaign pockets, because in my opinion there really can't be any reasonable reason why anyone that is capable of thinking would think they are a bad idea for our country. Perhaps one of them can tell me how exporting over a billion dollars for foreign oil every day helps make us a stronger country. Perhaps one of them can tell me how investing in improving our electric infrastructure to a smart grid where EV's can supply energy on demand wouldn't be a good idea. Perhaps if we diverted even the smallest percentage of the external costs of keeping gasoline cheap here(fighting wars in the Middle East to protect our oil supply and subsidizing oil exploration for companies that then make billions of dollars and never pay a penny of federal income tax) we could put tens of thousands of Americans to work upgrading the infrastructure and installing EV charging stations across the country. We can invest more in renewable energy and continue to offer tax credits and rebates for zero emission vehicles. The money is there, we just need to take some of it from oil. Some people complain that governments shouldn't pick the winner in the fight of oil vs. electricity. They already have and have been subsidizing oil for decades. All electricity needs is a small percentage of what we already give oil and EV's will dominate passenger cars, I'm certain of it.(End Rant)

So as my MINI-E journey is about to end, I'm absolutely convinced I'll be driving electric from now on. Thank you BMW for giving me the opportunity to experience electric mobility. The 70,000 miles I put on the MINI-E is just the beginning. Hopefully, I'll be around long enough to drive hundreds of thousands of zero emission, solar powered EV miles.

And I'll continue to tell everyone just how great it is...

Mega-City Car? How about Open-Country Car?

2011-11-25T13:16:00.001-05:00

My house is straight through this field and on the hill you can see in the background

Electric cars are perfectly suited for urban environments. The low speed, stop and go city driving uses a lot less energy than higher speed highway driving does, plus the regenerative braking is used more and this helps to recover more of the already used energy. This has prompted some people to even say the electric cars are only good for city driving, and that nobody that lives in the country would want to buy one.

This general thought is so prevalent that BMW dubbed the upcoming i3, the first electric they will sell, the "Mega-City" car. The thought behind the name is that the car will be primarily marketed for people that live in some of the largest cities in the world. BMW views Mega-cities as urban areas with more than six million people – places like New York, Los Angeles, London, Barcelona, Paris, Tokyo and the Ruhr Valley area in Germany.

Wild life, not city life on my way to work

I agree that EV's work very well in urban environments, but it's the notion that they aren't well suited for rural areas that has me scratching my head. The reason: I live in a rural area about 50 miles west of New York City and have been doing just fine driving MINI-E #250 for nearly 30 months now. In a couple days the odometer will roll past 70,000 all electric miles, many of which were driven on the winding country roads of Northern New Jersey.

One of the resident horses in my town

When I drive to work every day, I don't pass the skyscrapers you would find in a Mega-city. I drive by horses, farms, streams and open fields and the MINI-E is perfectly at home there. Of course I'm not saying that an electric car with a 100 mile range would work in rural middle America where you need to drive a hundred miles to get to a grocery store. Obviously there are limitations with the current crop of electric vehicles, but ranges will increase and charging times will decrease as more and more companies are investing in them. However even today and EV can work perfectly in areas that aren't big cities.

I doubt I'll get BMW to rename the i3 the "open country car", but perhaps someone out there that lives in a suburb or rural area that reads this will now realize an EV may just work for them. Plus, remember that I've been driving around the past two and a half years without the benefit of a single public charging station anywhere I've ever driven. Now that they are beginning to be installed, it will only help to make EV life even easier. Whether you plug in under the bright lights of a big city or in a barn next to your horse stable, the future for electric vehicles is sure looking good.

You can see the solar panels that charge #250 on the roof of my home in Chester, NJ

MINI-E Meet ActiveE

2011-11-18T21:00:00.001-05:00

It happens all the time. You bump into your old girlfriend or ex-spouse while you're out on a date with your new one, it's usually really awkward so rarely do you purposely bring the two together. Today I did just that. I took My MINI-E up to BMW's North American Headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ to get another close up look at the ActiveE. I have to admit, I felt a little bad for the MINI-E. It's served me admirably for the past 29 months. It's proven to me that an electric car with a 100 mile range is perfectly fine for my everyday driving needs, even though I drive about 30,000 miles per year, which is much more than the average American. It's never left me stranded and given me many great memories.

The ActiveE is in just about every regard a more complete electric car than the MINI-E but doesn't mean I won't always hold my MINI-E in the highest regard. It was my first electric car, and it allowed me to kick my gas addiction, hopefully for the rest of my life. However to deny that the ActiveE isn't a better all around car, would be denying the obvious truth. In my opinion, the biggest flaw of the MINI-E has been it's lack of a sophisticated thermal management system. It didn't cause much of a problem in the hot weather for me, but in the cold winters of the Northeast, the MINI-E's range can shrink by as much as 40% in certain conditions. The ActiveE has a liquid thermal management system, which is generally regarded as the best way to keep an EV's battery at optimum operating temperature. In my 40 mile test drive of the ActiveE last month in Munich, the battery temperature didn't vary more than a degree or two, and was about 85 degrees the entire time even though it was in the 40's outside. The ActiveE can also precondition the battery and cabin while you are plugged into the grid, so you can set the car to warm up or cool down before you begin your journey. By doing so, you leave 100% charged and the car doesn't need to use a lot of energy to warm or cool the batteries and cabin. That allows you to use more of your stored energy for it's primary purpose; to drive as far as you need to.

The ActiveE also has what BMW calls the Eco Pro mode, which reduces the amount of power the car supplies the drive motor and cabin heating & cooling systems, this may make the car a little less enjoyable to drive, but will increase the range by about 10%. I don't plan on using the Eco Pro mode all the time, but I will on days that I know I need to drive far. Then there is the new "glide" mode. By backing off the accelerator a bit, the car de-clutches and coasts, neither using energy to accelerate or recoup energy via regen. If the driver backs off a little more, the regenerative braking begins, and if they depress the pedal at all, the car will accelerate. My guess is that this feature may take a bit to get used to after driving the MINI-E for so long. Besides the technical improvements, the ActiveE is a lot bigger and more luxurious. Unlike the MINI-E it has two back seats and a trunk and will be much more functional. It's also well appointed with white leather seats highlighted with cool blue stitching. An integrated GPS with improved electronics round out the interior.

All of this adds up to a much more sophisticated, luxurious and functional electric vehicle and I'm sure I'm going to love driving it for the next two years. We haven't been offered the exact date that we'll be getting our ActiveE's, but rumors have it some of us will be getting them in about a month and I suspect I'll probably be in the first batch of MINI-E drivers that get one. (BMW doesn't want me to continue pestering them any longer than absolutely necessary!). While I will no doubt really appreciate the technical improvements as well as the extra room and added luxury, I will always have special appreciation for the MINI-E, after all you never forget your first.

BMW i3 Special Sneak Peek Review

2011-11-13T15:41:00.001-05:00


Me next to the i3 concept. The production version is said to be VERY similar to this concept

On November 9th, BMW introduced the i3 & i8 concept cars for the first time in North America and I was one of only about 75 people to be invited to the event. It was particularly rewarding to see the car that will be the fruit of the MINI-E and upcoming ActiveE programs. This is the car that we have been driving the MINI-E's for, so BMW can collect data and get feedback from us so when they sell this car in 2013, they will have had millions of miles of real world driving experience and thousands of people that have driven them giving them feedback and offering their opinions of what they like and what they don't. This approach will allow BMW to bring a car to market that will be much more polished than a typical 1st generation car because it is, in a sense the third generation. I REALLY liked what I saw and did some reports on my i3 blog as well as on a couple EV websites. Click here to jump over to my i3 blog to see what I have to say and also get the links to the reviews I did on the GreenCarReports.com and PlugInCars.com

How Much Does it Cost to Charge an Electric Car?

2011-11-08T13:08:00.002-05:00

With all the talk about electric cars lately, one thing that I keep hearing is people wondering how much electricity will an EV need? Are they simply ditching the gas pump only to pay just as much in their electric bill? I made a post on this subject last year and I think it's important enough to put it up again for anyone that hadn't seen it already. It's consistently one of the top questions I get when readers email me so I figure a re-post is in order...

One of the questions that people frequently ask me about the MINI-E is "How much electricity does it use?" Sometimes they'll just say "I love the car, but I wouldn't want to see your electric bill!"

When I tell them the car costs between $3.00 and $6.00 in electricity to go 100-120 miles they usually smile and say "Wow, that's great". The reason the range is between $3.00 and $6.00 is because there is such a difference in electricity rates throughout the country. The MINI-E has a 35 kWh battery pack but only 80% of the pack is usable which means it has 28kWh of available power. That 28kWh can move the car between 90 and 120 miles depending on how efficiently you drive. It is less in the winter months because the heater uses a lot of energy, but for most of the year these numbers are correct as an average.

The national average cost for electricity is $.12 per kWh which means it would cost the average person $3.36 to fully charge a depleted battery on the MINI-E. However rates do vary. I pay $.11 per kWh at my restaurant in Montclair, lower than the national average, but it costs me $.18 per kWh at my home in Chester, only 30 miles from Montclair. So if I "fill up" at work it costs me $3.08 but at home it costs me $5.04! Obviously I take advantage of the lower rates and charge at work as much as possible. So basically for what it costs for a gallon of gas today, you can drive an electric car like the MINI-E or Nissan LEAF about 100 miles.

Since I have a solar PV array at my home, I sell the electricity back to the utility at the rate they sell it to me ($.18/kWh) so every kilowatt-hour that charge at work saves me $.07. The average person drives about 15,000 miles per year. If they had a MINI-E they would need to use about 4,200kWh to drive 15,000 miles. If you use the national average, you would pay $504 for fuel for the entire year. If you use my rate at my restaurant, it's $462, at my home it's $756. So figure anywhere between a $40/month and $65/month increase in your electric bill if you had a MINI-E and drove it the average of 15,000 miles per year.

One of the great things about electric cars is that you can easily reduce your electric bill by $40 to $60 per month just by being more efficient and therefore completely eliminate your transportation fuel cost! You can't use less gasoline unless you drive less, but you can reduce your electricity usage at home and still drive as much as you always have. Simple measures like a programmable thermostat and the use of compact florescent light bulbs(and LED's now) can make a big difference. In fact, five 100 watt light bulbs left on continuously for a year use the same amount of energy as it takes to power the MINI-E 15,000 miles! Here's how: five 100 watt light bulbs use 500 watts per hour. In 24 hours they use 12,000 watts or 12kWh. In 365 days they use 4,380kWh. What does the MINI-E use to go 15,000 miles? Remember above I calculated it to be 4,200kWh? So five 100 watt light bulbs use 180 more kWh than it takes to power 3,200lb MINI-E for 15,000 miles!

If you take a good look at your home electricity use, I'm sure you can reduce your usage enough to drastically offset the cost of electricity to power an electric car, if not completely eliminate it. Then, every penny of the money you would have spent on gasoline can go right into your pocket!

If you are considering an EV, you can basically figure that for every 100 miles you drive, you'll use about 25kWh of electricity. Today's EV's average about 4 miles of driving on every kWh of electricity used. Then look at you electricity bull and see what you are paying for a kWh of electricity. Then take the total miles you drive and divide it by 4, and multiply it by what you pay for a kWh of electricity and you'll know your annual fuel cost for an EV like a Nissan LEAF or a BMW ActiveE.

Lets say you drive 20,000 miles per year and pay .15 per kWh(which is higher than the national average). Your fuel cost would be about $750.00. Now if you drove those same miles in a car that gets 30mpg(much higher than the average car) and gas cost an average of $3.50/gallon(less than it has averaged the past year) your fuel costs would be $2,333.00! Now imagine if you had solar electric, or simply made your home more energy efficient and reduced your electric bill. You could probably cut $40 or $50 per month off your homes use pretty easily. That could add up to $500 to $600 per year of savings! With an annual fuel cost of only $750 to power an EV 20,000 miles, your transportation fuel expense would now be virtually eliminated! That's a savings of over $2,000 per year, and that's at today's gas prices. Unlike gasoline electricity is regulated and the price is relatively stable. Gas prices are volatile and are constantly increasing drastically before slowly lowering only to jump back up suddenly again and in the long run, always increase.

The Worst Case Scenario

2011-11-01T16:24:00.002-04:00


The next day the snow was melting off and I had to tow it up my driveway to the garage since the battery was completely depleted.

Where to begin. I've often written here about how I've done so many things with my MINI-E, but the one thing I've yet to do is drive it until it just won't go another inch. We'll, with only about six weeks left with the car, I can now check that off the list.

It's not how I would have liked it to happen, but then again, what ever goes as planned? Ironically, that is precisely the argument that many pundits have against electric cars. With the limited range that today's EV's have, coupled with the effect the cold weather has on EV's that don't have thermal management like the MINI-E, many that are not EV supporters point that because the unexpected happens, they can be unsafe, and leave their drivers stranded in traffic or during a snowstorm. Earlier this year, I even took Charles Lane of the Washington Post to task on this very subject. He wrote an article about how he was stuck in traffic in a snowstorm and he thanked God that he wasn't an a crappy electric car because he would have most certainly ran out of juice and been stuck to freeze to death by the roadside. I wrote a rebuttal article and posted in on plugincars.com and it was then picked up and posted on many other sites and managed to garner a lot of attention. I still stand by what I wrote, and I did correct some blatant inaccuracies about EV's that Mr. Lane wrote. However as much as an EV supporter as I am, I do admit that as of today, there are instances that are better suited for internal combustion engine cars. Wow there it is, I said it. Please note that I did say "as of today". That's because, I do believe that as long as there is support for EV's, the automakers will continue to improve and refine them, and it won't be long until they do everything as good or better than ICE cars, but we certainly aren't at that point just yet. Why would we though? The ICE has had 100 years of refinement, and today's EV's are barely the first generation of modern electric cars, and the MINI-E I'm driving isn't even first generation, it's a prototype test car.

Anyway, back to the topic. This past Saturday morning, my wife and I took a drive to New York City. The plan was to leave the city around 11:00am, and head back to my restaurant in Montclair where my wife would leave me and drive home. Since the trip to the city and then to my restaurant is about 75 miles, she would need to recharge a bit at the restaurant before she drove the 31 miles to our home. My 4wd pick up truck was waiting for me at the restaurant, and I would drive that home at night after work. I brought the truck there earlier because the weather forecast called for snow later in the day on Saturday, starting at around 2 or 3pm, and I might need it to deliver food if the roads got bad. NOTE: This would be only the 19th time in recorded history(145 years) that it snowed in New Jersey in October.

Charging at work in the snow

When we entered the Lincoln Tunnel headed to NJ, it was raining. When we exited the tunnel on the NJ side, it was snowing like crazy. We couldn't believe how hard it was snowing and how quickly it was accumulating. We still had to drive 18 miles to my restaurant, and then charge the car a bit before my wife would drive it home. At this point I wasn't really worried because I've driven the car dozens of times in the snow and the MINI-E being front wheel drive, and heavy because of the batteries does real well on snow covered roads. However, as we continued to the restaurant, traffic started backing up as the snow kept piling up. It took us much longer than usual to make it to the restaurant, and with the heat on all the while, the battery was down to about 5%, much less than I would have expected after a 75 mile journey. That meant it needed a longer recharge time and this would allow even more snow accumulation before my wife would set out to get home. We charged for 1 1/2 hours at 50 amps and this brought the state of charge to about 70%, much more than what would be needed for the 31 mile trek home. I've driven home in the snow many, many times, and in temperatures much colder than this so I knew she had more than enough juice to get home. My wife likes driving the MINI-E and is plenty comfortable driving in the snow so she didn't hesitate to set off home in complete confidence.

As Robert Burns wrote: The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The "wost case scenario" that all the EV hating pundits write about was about the happen and we didn't have a clue. When my wife left to head home there was about an inch or two of slushy snow on the roadways, nothing at all to really be worried about. The roads weren't cold enough to ice up, and as long as it was just snow, the MINI-E shouldn't have any problem at all getting good traction. Not long after she headed home she realized it wasn't going to be easy. Traffic was crawling along at a snails pace and she started to notice large branches were falling off the trees all over as she was driving. The problem with snow in October is that the trees still have most of their leaves. The leaves catch the snow and the branches become so heavy from the snow that they simply break off. As the snow continued to fall, so did the trees. Everywhere. She was stuck in one of the worst driving conditions ever in the area. Entire trees were toppling over everywhere. In only a couple hours thousands of trees were down, power lines were down and streets everywhere were closed. Her little 31 mile drive home became the "Worst Case Scenario" as everywhere she went the roads were closed and she had to turn around and try to find an alternative route, all while the snow plied up to over a foot of accumulation. I was on the phone with her trying to figure out a way to our house given all the main roads were closed. She was only five miles from our house, but seemingly no way to get there when she asked me what the large yellow battery icon meant. UGG! That means you are really, really low and only have a few miles to go before you run out. Not to scare her too much I said "Oh that just means you're getting a little low on energy now so it's probably best to shut off the heat now, just to be safe". It turns out she knew how low she was when she called me to help her with a route home, but didn't want to get me worried so she didn't tell me. At that point I was convinced she wasn't going to make it, and was already thinking of who I could call that was nearby to go out and rescue her. With the current conditions, it would probably have taken me two or three hours to get to her, so I figured it would be better to call on someone close to her if it was necessary. Anyway, after we consulted Google maps we found a back roads route that would get her home, provided none of the streets that way were blocked. If any of them were, and she had to turn around once more, then for sure she wouldn't have made it. She followed the route, crept along in reduced power mode at around 20mph, and pulled into our driveway about two hours of roadblocks, deep snow, falling trees and other motorists that need to learn how to drive(I won't go into that today). However, just as she pulled into the driveway, the car rolled to a stop, then went another ten feet or so and slowly crept to a halt. There was no way it was going to make it up my 350 foot, all uphill driveway; not a chance. I had to tow it up to the house the next day with my truck and push it into the garage.

No power meant most gas stations in the area were closed. No electricity = no gas.

Spoiled Food :(

So she walked up the driveway and found that the generator was on, so the area was out of power. About an hour later the power at the restaurant went out also. It's now over three days later and neither has had the power restored. Trees are still down across streets everywhere and millions of people in the NY/NJ/Conn area are without power. Most of the gas stations are closed because they have no power, and since my restaurant has had no power for three days I have to throw all of the food away as per the Montclair Board of Health (I would have anyway). I have no idea when we'll have power or when I'll be able to reopen. I've had to throw out about $15,000 worth of food!!! It was definitely the worst case driving scenario that the pundits were referring to, and yes she was lucky to have made it home. Just one more detour and she wouldn't have made it. I'm not happy at all my wife had to be the one that went through that, and I agree that's precisely the argument the EV haters have been saying all along. However I can't help but continue to point out how the MINI-E is a prototype EV, not a production car. Electric car technology is still in it's infancy and companies like BMW are still learning what works and what doesn't. BMW calls the MINI-E lessees pioneers. Sometimes that sounds a little corny, but sometimes when something like this happens I realize it is fitting. We are occasionally experiencing inconveniences and difficulty, and we are helping pave the way for future generations of electric cars. Electric cars that don't have the shortcomings that the current crop of EV's do. Electric cars that handle extreme temperatures with ease, have hundreds of miles of range and can be recharged in a few minutes. This will happen, and I believe sooner than most think. As much as I love the MINI-E, I am very much looking forward to the BMW ActiveE I'll be getting in a few weeks. Not because it's a fancier, luxury car with leather heated seats, a back seat and a trunk though. What I'm looking forward to is analyzing the technical advancements BMW has made, because the ActiveE is still just another learning experience, another step to BMW's first series production EV, the i3. The i3 is really generation one in e-mobility for BMW and that's the car that will have to endure extreme scrutiny by the media. I'd like to think my experiences(and my wife's!) with the MINI-E and soon the ActiveE will play a role in making the i3 a better car, if so then all this has been more than worth it.

New York City National Plug-In Day EVent!

2011-10-24T20:59:00.000-04:00

A Chevy Volt, a Nissan LEAF, my MINI-E, a Tesla Roadster & a Plug-in Prius in succession

Sunday, October 16th, 2011 marked the first National Plug-In day in America. Events were held in 29 different cities across America to celebrate the fact that the OEM's are finally giving us a choice in what fuel we choose to use for our personal transportation. We can finally choose domestically produced electricity over foreign oil and that was reason to celebrate.

The T-shirts made for the event trumpet "Welcome to the Free World"! As someone who drives an electric car and powers it with electricity I produce from my solar array on the roof of my home, I can really appreciate that statement. It's really liberating knowing I drive my car on sunshine, and in doing so I don't send my hard earned money to foreign regimes(many of which hate America), my vehicle is truly a zero emission vehicle, and last but not least, I'm saving a lot of money on fuel.

There were 20 electric vehicles in attendance including Michael Thwaite's Tesla(parked next to my MINI-E), Douglas Stansfield's Plug-in Prius, a LEAF, many volts (including one used by the NYPD), electric motorcycles, a converted Mazda, a Ford Transit Connect electric delivery van, and a few electric trucks. Clipper Creek, an EVSE manufacturer was also there.

Nate Pinsley addresses the crowd

According to Nate Pinsley, the event organizer, we had 1,200 visitors and 38 volunteers(including me) and had five hours of nothing but EV talk and demonstrations. Michael Thwaite had his Tesla Roadster parked next to my MINI-E and we were both barely able to talk by the end of the afternoon. We had talked to so many people all afternoon we were exhausted by the 4:00 end of the event. Michael and I frequently attend EV events so we are quite used to this kind of demonstration, but this was bigger than what we are used to doing and there were more people that had EV questions here, so we really didn't have a break all afternoon.

It was a great day, the first National Plug-in Day ever, with many more to come. In fact, we are going to start planning National Plug-in Day 2012 soon as with more and more EV's on the road, the event will certainly grow each year. I'll be at the 2012 event with my BMW ActiveE, and by then LEAF's will be available in the NY/NJ market as will be Ford Focus EV's and Mitsubishi i's. The electric car movement is certainly gaining ground, and the level of interest from the people that attended the event was really fantastic. Events like this really help the public get over any initial fears they may have about EV's. Talking to people like and Michael and I that have lived with electric cars for over two years really helps people realize that an electric car can work, and maybe is the right choice for them.

Montclair Becomes One of The First Municipalities in New Jersey With Public Charging Stations

2011-10-07T22:47:00.002-04:00

Montclair New Jersey, the town my restaurant in located in recently installed four public charging stations. Of course I have been advocating this every time I get the chance to talk to anyone in the township government that is willing to listen. However Gray Russell, the township's environmental affairs coordinator, didn't need my prodding, he had applied for a grant for four public charging stations financed by Sustainable Jersey and Walmart and was the recipient of the grant.


Randy Solomon

This week Gray hosted a Green Fleets Workshop that was coordinated by Sustainable Jersey (www.sustainablejersey.com) and the NJ Clean Cities Coalition. Participants were municipal, county, and corporate fleet managers from northern NJ. Randy Solomon works with Sustainable Jersey an he was the event facilitator and Montclair & Gray were the host. Representatives from NJ DEP were also there as presenters.

After the meeting, Gray wanted to show everyone the newly installed chargers and he asked me to stop by with #250 and say a few words. Everything went really well and the guests were already pretty well informed about EV's which is not something I usually encounter. I even let Randy take MINI-E #250 for a spin around the parking lot and he was impressed.

It's really great to see public charging stations slowly becoming available. The EV future really looks bright.

MINI-E Meetup Attracts Some Other Plug-ins

2011-10-01T22:10:00.002-04:00

Today I hosted what will in all likelihood be the final MINI-E meetup on the East Coast. I've done three meetups here at my restaurant during the time the MINI-E program has been ongoing. Now that we only have about two months left I wanted to host one more, kind of like a farewell to the MINI-E. In about 2 1/2 months, the 30 month MINI-E program will come to an end, just as the BMW ActiveE electric car program begins.

MINI-E pioneers Cliff Saunders, Michael Thwaite, Chris Neff, Timothy Schwartz and David Miller were in attendance as was BMW representatives Marian Hawryluk and Hugo VanGeem. Marian has come to every MINI-E meet I have hosted and Hugo has made the past two and their presence is definitely appreciated. It's nice to have people here that can answer questions and provide us with program information. They do this on their own time, it isn't required for their job. They genuinely want to be there to listen to what we have to say about our MINI-E experiences and offer support and they should be commended. My personal experience in the MINI-E program has definitely been enriched by the BMW employees involved in the electric vehicle division. The whole BMW EV team is really working hard to make the 2013 BMW i3 the best EV on the market when it is launched.

Aside from the MINI-E's, the meetup attracted some other plug-ins. We had an awesome black Tesla Roadster stop by as well as a plug-in Prius. After hanging outside in the parking lot for about an hour, we went inside Nauna's and sat down to a nice lunch. We talked a lot about the MINI-E program as well as the BMW ActiveE and other EV related topics.

Cliff Saunders drove 90 miles to get to the meetup so he needed to use my 50amp EVSE to replenish his battery pack. The timing was perfect and just as we were finishing the meeting, his car was fully charged and ready to go. That's the great thing about charging 50 amps at 12 kW, it only takes 3 1/3 hours to fully charge a depleted pack. For comparison, if Cliff had come in a Nissan LEAF, he would have had to wait about seven to eight hours to recharge it, since the fastest the LEAF can charge at is 3.3 kW.

We finished of the meeting with a MINI-E plug dressed cake(OK it wasn't perfect!) and I think everyone had a great time. The day was a little bittersweet though. The MINI-E is such a wonderful car and we are going to really miss them. I know the BMW ActiveE will be a much more polished EV and I just know I'm going to really love it, but I will always remember my days with #250 fondly. This fantastic little car really proved to me that electric drive is not only possible, but I now believe it will eventually replace internal combustion powered vehicles.

100 Mostly Highway Miles Still Possible After 65K

2011-09-26T12:22:00.000-04:00


I'm still getting over 100 miles of range after driving over 65,000 miles

Yesterday I set out with my wife for a shopping destination that was about 40 miles from my house, certainly no range problem for the MINI-E. However when we got there we realized this wasn't the place we wanted and a quick search on my mobile device indicated that there was another place that was ten miles further that would better suit what we were looking for.

That would bring the round trip to 100 miles, just about what I feel comfortable doing in the MINI-E without recharging. However this trip was just about all highway driving, and I wasn't driving conservatively (slowly) since I didn't think I needed to because I had only planned on driving about 80 miles. I didn't think twice about continuing onward though. In my twenty seven months with the MINI-E, I have never ran out of charge and needed to be towed. The car has never let me down even though I pushed it way past zero miles on the range meter many times. The funny thing is I think I'm almost hoping to run out one day before I turn it back in this December when the MINI-E program ends and the BMW ActiveE lease program begins.

I have done so many things with this fantastic little car. I've pushed it to it's limits many times. I've learned a lot about energy consumption and how to drive as efficiently as possible. I've driven it 131 miles on a single charge and I've seen my range plummet to about 60 miles when driving on bitter cold, snow covered roads. I've pulled up to a gas station and told the attendant to "fill er up" and watched as he walked around the car looking confused and I have listened to countless journalists write about how terrible these cars are because they will leave their occupants stranded alongside roads all across the country. I know it may sound crazy but I feel like I almost owe it to myself to run out of juice one day before I give it back.

So when the decision to go home or carry on came up I didn't even think twice. I knew I'd be pushing the limit once more, and that by driving 100 miles with about 80 of them at highway speeds (65-70mph) I wasn't guaranteed to make it home. The car has over 65,000 miles on it and I have recharged it 1,230 times so far so surely battery degradation at some level has taken place, even if it's not evident in my everyday driving. Would this be the test that the car finally failed?

We'll as you know it didn't let me down. I made it home but I did drive the last three miles with the range meter at zero. It didn't go into limp-mode so I still had a few more miles left, possible up to ten before it would have rolled to a slow stop. So for now there is still one thing I haven't experienced with my MINI-E. I'm not going to intentionally drive it until it runs out, but I definitely will continue to push the limit if I need to drive far on occasion. If it happens, it happens. I'll then be able to check one more thing off my electric car bucket list.

East Coast MINI-E Pioneers Meet Up Set for October 1st!

2011-09-23T21:58:00.003-04:00

MINI-E's lined up for the first MINI-E Meet up back in 2009

If you drive a MINI-E in New York or New Jersey then save the date! Next Saturday, October 1st, I am hosting what will in all probability be the final formal meet up of the East Coast MINI-E pioneers.

As excited as many of us MINI-E pioneers are about the possibility of getting a BMW ActiveE in a couple months, the thought of returning these cars that we have all grown so fond of is really saddening. However we all knew the day would come. We have in fact been allowed to keep the cars for much longer than originally promised. We all signed on for a one year closed end lease, but much to our approval BMW extended the program for another year, then for another six months for a total of 30 months. Of course nobody was required to remain in the program and many returned the cars after the first year. Most people that I know that returned their car after the initial 12 month lease did so for financial reasons, not because they didn't enjoy their time with it.

I've hosted two MINI-E meet up already, and the West Coast pioneers out in California have also had a few meets also. However with the program ending in early December, this will probably be the last one, at least for the East Coast MINI-E group. So if you're one of the lucky people here on the East Coast that is driving a MINI-E, please make sure to stop by. The plan is to meet in the parking lot for the first hour (11am to 12pm) and then move inside for lunch and to have a more formal meeting. There will be BMW representatives in attendance to answer questions, listen to our recommendations and hopefully provide some information about the upcoming BMW ActiveE lease program that most of us will be a part of.

I have a 50amp EVSE at the restaurant for anyone that needs to charge up. If you are coming and will need to use the charger, please leave a message or email me as I need to plan a schedule for charging so everyone knows their charge time slot. If you don't NEED to use it, please don't. There will be people that can't make it home without recharging. You may also come early in the day if you would like and charge up before everyone else gets here. There is plenty to see in Montclair that's within walking distance while your car is charging.

Here's the event details:

Where: Nauna's Bella Casa, 148 Valley Rd, Montclair, NJ 07042
When: Saturday, October 1st, 11am to 2pm

MINI-E #250 Stars at the Engadget Readers Meetup in NYC

2011-09-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

There's #250 parked right in front of the entrance of Gustavino's about an hour before the event

I'm a big fan of the tech website Engadget, so when they asked me if I would bring MINI-E #250 to their readers meetup in New York City to display it and talk to the guests about electric cars, I didn't have to think twice.

Engadget covers all kinds of the latest electronics, from cell phones to cameras to robotic devices, and recently they have been covering electric car news. A few months back, they even ran a story on me when I challenged Washington Post writer, Charles Lane to come and drive MINI-E 250 for a day to prove to him that it's not unsafe to drive in the winter, as he proclaimed that all electric cars are.

It was held on August 25th and the event was a huge hit. It was held at Gustavino's on 59th Street and they had about 1,400 visitors. I stood outside by the car in a roped off section and talked to people that had questions about it and electric cars in general. I was really surprised how many people really recognized the car and even knew about the upcoming BMW 2013 i3. I had to answer a lot of questions about it, unfortunately a lot of the questions were about price and availibility, and since BMW hasn't revealed that information the best I could do was to direct them to the BMW i3 website and tell them to check it out every now and then for updates. However there was plenty of people that wanted to talk about the MINI-E, the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt.

After it was over, I started thinking about how many of the attendees were really interested in electric cars and then it hit me that these are all tech-minded people, a perfect market for electric cars. Electric cars are more about technology than traditional car stuff like how many liters the engine has and what the transmission gear ratio is. I definitely think BMW and the other OEM's making EV's should pay extra attention marketing technology websites, they have a market there that may be more willing to be an early adopter than the rest of the general public.

I really love going to events like this and talking to people that are interested in electric cars. I really like explaining away the common myths that many people are worried about "What do you do when you run out of charge?" & "What happens when you get stuck in traffic and the battery dies?" are just two questions I get all the time. Many people are genuinely interested in EV's and once they get past the misinformation they may have heard or the baseless presumption that the cars are vastly inferior and have someone with real live EV experience explain to them how great these cars can be, you see them open up to the possibility of buying one. It's kind of like a light goes off and they say to themselves "Yeah, I could do that" when I explain the whole charging process and how I deal with basically a 100 mile single-charge range. I think I must have convinced a few dozen people that night that an EV would work perfectly fine for them, and that alone made the event a success for me. :)

The Red Battery Icon of Death

2011-09-12T12:40:00.003-04:00


So ominous

If you're one of the lucky few people selected to be in the MINI-E trial lease program, you know there will be occasional bumps in the road. We were all prepped and warned that this is an experimental car, a prototype that BMW is using to gather information about electric mobility. I'm not sure even BMW knew how reliable they would or wouldn't be, and one of the qualifications to being in the program was that we had a second car as a backup, just in case.

However the cars have proven very reliable, and rarely ever need repairs. I have nearly 66,000 miles on mine now, and this is either the fourth or fifth time I had to have the car brought in for a technical problem, I can't really remember. Of course that would be a problem if this was a polished production car, but it's not, and under the circumstances I think that's fantastic considering it's a prototype test car.

Electric cars are much more simple than internal combustion engine cars and require much less maintenance, but they still have parts that can fail. From battery modules, to the power electronics, to fans that cool the motor and batteries, things can break. One thing that the MINI-E pioneers have learned is that you do not want to see the a red battery icon on your center display screen. That basically tells you: Dude, you're screwed.

Well yesterday I woke up and was planning to take the MINI-E to a local cafe with my wife for some fresh baked pastries and coffee and when I put the key in the ignition, the Darth Vader of icons appeared. The good old red battery icon was staring at me, front and center. When you see that, you just give up. You don't try to reset the power electronics, you don't repeatedly try to turn the car on, you just give up. The dreaded red battery icon means there is a problem with the cars high voltage battery system, and that could be serious. What you do is just what I did. You call MINI roadside service and tell them to come pick up the car and take it to the Flying Doctors, BMW's name for the engineers that repair the MINI-E's, and you hop in your back up car, the one you were required to have to be in the MINI-E program, and you go about your business until your MINI-E is returned to you, which is usually not more than a few days.

So for the next few day's I'm back on gasoline driving my Toyota Tacoma pick up truck. It's not such a bad thing because I need to give it a workout once in a while. It mostly just sits in my driveway collecting dust and I'm sure the use will be good for it. I don't even know when the last time I filled it up and the gas may be a few months old so I'll burn through all the old stuff I'm sure.

What's gas even cost these days? I guess I'll find out later this week...

Hurricane Irene Blasts NJ. MINI-E #250 Unfazed

2011-09-01T21:59:00.002-04:00


This street by my house was still closed five days after the storm.

It's been five days since Hurricane Irene barreled through New Jersey, leaving in it's wake destruction, flooding, widespread power outages and unfortunately, a few deaths. There are still many people without power, houses underwater and many streets closed. The power to my neighborhood was just restored last night, but we still don't have telephone, cable TV or internet service.

Luckily I installed a home generator a few years ago so I had power the whole time. It's a 16kW natural gas generator and it powers most of my home. It doesn't however power my 220v EVSE that charges my MINI-E, as the electric draw is about 7kW which would use almost 50% of the power it makes for my entire house. I can still use the 110v occasional charger which only draws about 1.6kW, however it does take a long time to charge the car this way, actually about 36 hours to fully charge a completely depleted battery. The good news is that the battery isn't usually fully depleted and you don't have to charge it to 100% unless you need to drive 100 miles. I almost never use the 110v charger, but while I was running my home on the generator, I didn't have a choice the first day.


110V charging at home

On Monday morning (the day after the storm) I set out on my 31 mile usual trek to work. I left early because I figured there would be some closed roads with flooding and downed trees. It turned out to be much worse than I imagined it would be. After about 3 hours I realized that attempting to continue would be futile. Every different route I chose ended with a closed road and when I tried to take the highways, the cars were backed up as far as you could see and the cars weren't even moving. It was a disaster. I've never seen anything like it. It seemed everywhere you looked a road was either flooded or had trees with tangled power lines laying across the street. So I turned around and went home. Luckily most of my staff and manager lives close to the restaurant so they could all make it. The restaurant would have to live without me for a day.

When I arrived home I had been gone 4 hours and had driven 58 miles. The estimated remaining range was 42 miles to give me an even 100 mile range for the day. The reason this is significant is to point out the advantage EV's have over internal combustion cars. All the time I was sitting in traffic I was barely using any energy, while the gas cars were burning gas the whole time. This is something that people that don't understand EV's are quick to ask "What happens if I'm stuck in traffic and run out of charge?" You won't!!! Your EV is especially efficient crawling around at low speed, the opposite of the the internal combustion engine cars which are terribly inefficient while stuck in traffic.

The next day I left for work at 5am. I figured even if the roads were still closed, I could find a route to take as long as I didn't have thousands of cars clogging up the streets with me. The strategy worked and I was able to negotiate my way the 31 miles from Chester to Montclair in about 2 1/2 hours. It was difficult, but I was able to drive the whole way on back streets. Then, as I drove around the past three days I realized that many of the gas stations in Morris County are closed because they have no power. That didn't present any problem for me and MINI-E #250 though. My 62 mile round trip to work could be accomplished without a problem by fully charging at work so I didn't even need to slow charge at home, but I did anyway just to make sure it worked if I needed it in the future.

New Jersey is still in emergency mode but the rivers are starting to recede, the utilities are slowly restoring power and the public works departments are cutting up the downed trees and clearing the roads. It has been a really difficult time for a lot of people and will continue to be for some time to come. However MINI-E #250 was barley fazed by the widespread power outages and continues to provide reliable transportation and a great driving experience regardless of what is going on around it. If nothing else the MINI-E program has definitively proven to me that EV's are ready for primetime, regardless what some others that have no real life EV experience will try to tell you.

A Case of the Creeps?

2011-08-13T22:49:00.000-04:00

There's a hill at the end of my street and the car rolls backwards a bit when a release the friction brake if I don't activate the anti rollback feature. A simulated transmission creep would eliminate this.

There are a lot of differences in EV's and internal combustion cars. The fuel used to propel the vehicle is obviously the biggest difference, then the different sound and feel of the electric drivetrain followed closely by the regenerative braking which, if strong like it is on the MINI-E, can take a bit of driving to really get used to.

Then there are the less obvious differences like the single speed gearbox. Shifting gears is not necessary so it is like driving an automatic transmission car, however when you stop, the car will roll forwards or backwards if you are on an incline or decline like a manual transmission car would if it wasn't in gear and your foot wasn't on the brake pedal.

Virtually every car with an automatic transmission built in the past four or five decades has had what we have called the idle creep feature. Anyone that has driven an automatic transmission expects the car to slowly move forward when you release the brake pedal even if they don't depress the accelerator. This feature is useful when you are stopped on an incline as it helps the car from not rolling backwards the instant you release the brake. It can also be helpful when parallel parking. By slowly moving forward without needing the depress the accelerator, the driver won't run the risk of lunging forward too quickly and perhaps hitting the car in front of you when squeezing into a tight parking spot.

Yet, despite the benefits of having "the creep" most EV owners I know say they don't want it on their EV and implore auto manufacturers not to copy ICE vehicle features when they design their EV's. I don't necessarily want them to omit features just because by doing so it will keep EV's "pure". If the feature makes the car better than put it in, but if they are putting it in just to make the car more familiar to the drivers, than I'm not sure I'm in favor if it. The real question is do current EV drivers and potential future EV owners want it? That's what I'm interested in hearing. So what do you think? Do you want the creeps?

Please enter your vote on the poll at the top right side of this blog and leave a comment to explain why you voted the way you did.

Some Like it Hot - The MINI-E Does Not!

2011-08-06T19:43:00.000-04:00


The outside temp read 107 and the MINI-E's batteries were a sweltering 114

It's not too often that it is so cold or so hot outside that the primitive thermal management system of the MINI-E really can't cope with it, but it has happened a couple of times in my two years with the car.

I should remind everyone that this is a prototype EV and it was designed for research, so don't think production electric cars will be this susceptible to weather extremes. Most all EV's that you can either buy now or will be able to in the near future have a complex thermal management system, capable of keeping the battery pack at optimal operating temperature regardless of the ambient temperature, so you won't have to worry about overheating problems like I do. The BMW ActiveE, for instance, the MINI-E's successor, will have such a system and it's one of the features I am anxious to try out.


Temperature warning icon

So getting back to the heat wave we recently experienced here on the East Coast, we had a solid week of high 90 degree and even a few days of 100+ degree temperatures. On one particular day, I was in a bit of a rush and had about 50 miles of highway driving to do. I had the air conditioning blasting as you might expect, and was tooling along at 70-75 mph when I noticed the battery temperature warning light came on. It's really not a big deal, but the car is telling you it's time to monitor the battery temperature because the modules are getting really hot. Just by slowing down to about 60 mph I kept the temperature from getting any higher but it wasn't going down either. If I had continued to drive at 75mph, I'm sure it would have continued to get hotter.

Once I finished my journey I returned to my restaurant and plugged in. I was pretty low on charge, around 10% and needed to get up to about 35% to get home later in the day, but since I had about four hours, that should be no problem. In normal conditions, I would be charged up to 35% from 10% in about 45 minutes, as I have a 50amp EVSE at my restaurant, capable of charging at 12kWh. However, this wasn't normal conditions, and when I checked the charge level about three hours later, it was only up to 20%! Now I was starting to worry because I really wanted to get home as we were having guests over for an evening BBQ and swim and I didn't want to be late. I reset the charge rate to 12 amps, thinking the car may accept the lower amperage and charge rate. The reason the car wasn't charging is because when you charge or discharge batteries, the chemical reaction causes them to get hotter and the car is monitoring the battery temperature and basically saying they batteries are too hot already, so it's not allowing it to charge, especially at such a high rate because that will only get them hotter.

Anyway, either the lower charge rate worked, or by sitting for a few hours the batteries cooled down enough to allow charging and the car charged up to 32% in the next hour and that was enough for me to make it home on time. In all my time with the car this was one of the few times that I ever wondered if it would let me down and prevent me from getting to where I needed to go. Once home I plugged in and left the car alone. The next morning it was fully charged, however I don't know how long it took or if it was charging slowly because of the temperature, though I suspect it was.

One of the major reasons you wouldn't want your EV's batteries to get this hot is that the excessive heat will prematurely degrade the cells and you will eventually have to replace the pack sooner than if the temperature was kept at optimum temperature, which is roughly 75 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If thermally managed to keep the batteries at these temperatures, the cars range will be optimized and the life of the batteries will be extended. However the life of the MINI-E's batteries aren't really an issue for us, as the MINI-E trial lease program will end soon, giving way to the BMW ActiveE program which will ultimately lead to the 2013 BMW i3. Personally I think BMW intentionally left the MINI-E without any sophisticated thermal management to test the effects of the weather extremes. It's all part of the learning process. These cars are such a departure from the major automakers comfort zones, they really need to comprehensively test every aspect of the electric power train before they even think about putting an electric car in their showroom for sale.

BMW i3 Concept Revealed

2011-07-29T12:41:00.001-04:00

I usually don't refer the followers of this blog over to my other blogs unless there is a significant news story about either the BMW ActiveE or future i3(megacity).

The above picture is the just released concept of the 2013 BMW i3, the car that the MINI-E program was designed to help gather information for. This will be the first all electric car that BMW sells, since both the MINI-E and ActiveE are small lease only programs, and what all the work and investment that was made in the MINI-E and ActiveE programs was meant for. I'm still kind of busy getting the restaurant ready to reopen, but I had to do a post on my i3 blog now that BMW has finally released images of the car. You can read all about it HERE.

Little Bump in the Road

2011-07-21T19:19:00.000-04:00

I have been blogging here about my experiences with my MINI-E for two years now and I have tried to post frequently so there is always something new to read about when people check back ever few days or so.

I apologize that I have been MIA for a few weeks now but I've been a bit distracted. On Tuesday, July 5th, there was a fire at my restaurant, Nauna's Bella Casa in Montclair. It seems that a roof fan somehow caught on fire and a good section of the roof was damaged. The Montclair Police & Fire departments did a fantastic job and saved the building and made sure nobody got hurt, which is obviously the most important thing. However, I have now been left with the task of rebuilding, which in itself isn't that difficult, but when you need to deal with the fire investigators, get permits & inspections for all the different trades doing work, plus get every little thing approved by the insurance company, it becomes a really big job.

Plus, I have 40 employees that are out of work and without pay so I'm working tirelessly to get reopened as soon as possible and get them all back to work. I do have insurance that will pay a portion of their salaries, but we'll probably be reopened before they see any checks with how slow the insurance company works.

Anyway, sorry for no new MINI-E posts, I'll be back as soon as I have the time to put something together. I'm still driving #250 every day and it's still going strong. Have a nice summer everyone, I'll be back to blogging soon.

Solar Today Magizine Highlights EV's: Uses Me as an Example

2011-06-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

Solar Today, a magazine dedicated to the solar electric industry, highlighted electric vehicles in this months issue. Unknown to me though, they used a picture of me and my EV+PV story in the issue. I wouldn't have even know about it if a friend didn't send me a link to it. Then, a few days later I got a call from the owner of the company that installed my solar pool heater a few years ago and he even sent me a copy of the magazine. I figure my solar electric installer, Geogenix, must have sent the magazine the picture and information because I recognize the picture as one I took to send to Geogenix a few months back.

They asked me for the photo because they wanted to enter me in the New Jersey Garden State Green Awards, and as it turned out I was one of the winners and was recently recognized at an awards luncheon at Kean University.

Here's a link to the story in Solar Today:
http://www.solartoday-digital.org/solartoday/201106/?pg=32#pg32

60,000 Zero Emission Miles Later...

2011-06-20T18:56:00.000-04:00

Today the odometer turned 60k just as I pulled into the parking lot of my restaurant. It's been two years and seven days since I picked up MINI-E #250 now and the car is still running perfectly. Other than a couple of faulty battery modules very early on and the time I hit (well really was engulfed in) a huge pothole and needed front-end repairs, the car has been virtually maintenance free.

That's not unusual for electric cars. They really are basically maintenance free. When you buy one, the dealer isn't reminding you to bring it in for your regularly scheduled maintenance like oil changes and tune ups. These regular maintenance items add up, but you really don't think about the cost when you buy a car, because you know it's just part of automobile ownership and there's no way around it.

But there is...

Electric cars are extraordinarily simple compared to their gasoline burning counterparts and don't have hundreds of parts constantly moving and rubbing against each other causing friction and heat, and friction and heat are a cars worst enemy as they cause parts to wear out and need to be replaced. That's why you need to constantly keep fresh lubrication(oil) in your car to reduce the friction on all the moving parts and hopefully make them last longer.

EV's like the MINI-E have a simple brushless electric motor that will in most cases last longer than the car will, and that's really the only moving part of the drivetrain other than some small electric fans. Of course anything can break, especially electrical components, but by removing just about all of the moving parts in a car you are drastically reducing the mount of things that will wear out and need replacement.

So here I am at 60,000 miles and all the car really needed was a couple tire replacements and wiper blades. The range is surprisingly consistent, and just as good as when I first got it. There has been virtually no battery degradation after 60,000 miles and over 1,100 recharges. Take a look at the picture above, I just drove 76.7 miles and still had 26% state of charge. I could easily drive another 30 to 35 miles(and probably 40) with 26% SOC since I could drive at least 10 miles even after the meter hits zero. Even the brake pads are the original ones. With the regenerative brakes, I bet I could get 100,000 miles on a set of brake pads so even the brakes will cost you less with an EV.

It's cost me about $2,500 in electricity (actually less because I have solar electric, but I like to figure what I would have paid) to drive 60,000 miles. Take a few moments and figure out what you have paid in gasoline to drive the past 60,000 miles. Then add up all the oil changes, tune ups, vacuum hoses, belts, exhaust pipes or whatever else you've done to keep your gas car running along and maybe you'll start to think about giving an EV a try the next time your shopping for a new car. After two years and 60,000 miles of zero emission driving I know I'm sold and I'm never going back.

Two Years of Driving Electric

2011-06-13T22:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was two years to the day that I picked up MINI-E #250 and began a journey that would alter my life in many ways.

I had no idea I'd grow to enjoy electric drive as much as I did and I really had no idea I would become such an outspoken proponent of battery electric vehicles. The past two years have been a great ride, both figuratively and literally. The electric driving experience I have had with the MINI-E has been so great it has convinced me that I'll be driving electric cars from now on. The great news is that it is now possible, and that wasn't the case in 2008 when I filled out the application to take part in the MINI-E trial lease program. Back then you either had to buy a $100,000+ Tesla Roadster or build your own EV if you wanted a real, highway capable electric car.

Since I didn't have a spare $100k lying around or the time necessary to do a full conversion, I signed up to participate in the MINI-E Field Trial, not knowing at the time this program would take me off gas for good.
The program was initially supposed to be a one year, closed end lease. At the end of the year I would hand back the car and go back to gas, since there would still be no electric cars available for purchase at the time. However BMW offered one year lease extensions and now offered another six month lease extension, effectively making the MINI-E Trial Lease program 30 months for those who wish to remain in the program. Six months from now, I and the other MINI-E pioneers that stayed in the program can transition directly from the MINI-E into the BMW ActiveE, the final test car before the 2013 BMW i3 hits the market. The ActiveE is a 24 month lease and when it ends, the i3 will already be in showrooms. The significance of this is that BMW has offered me a clear uninterrupted gas-free path, from the day I took possession of my MINI-E two years ago to the day they will offer the i3 for sale. No other car major auto manufacturer (that isn't named Tesla) can claim they have done that for any of their customers. I know the MINI-E group was small, but I think BMW deserves credit for this program. Sure we have to pay to lease the cars, and they are getting valuable information form these field studies, but no other major car maker took any of their customers off gas for good in 2009.

Being in the program has made me more aware of my energy usage, both in the car and at home. I installed a solar array, bought Energy Star appliances, changed all my lighting to either compact florescent and LED bulbs, adjusted my programmable thermostats, replaced old drafty windows and are generally more aware of reducing wasted energy. In doing so I have reduced my home electric usage about as much as I need to charge the car, effectively eliminating my personal fuel expense and the solar array eliminates 90% of my homes electric cost. I even drive more efficiently, using the regenerative braking as much as possible and I definitely find myself driving slower, even when I'm not driving the MINI-E.

I have driven the car 59,500 miles so far. That's about 30,000 miles a year or double what the average American drives and the MINI-E handled it without any problem. So much for electric cars being only good for low mileage drivers that only drive short trips! Oh and another thing, I've never been stranded on the roadside because I ran out of charge. Something that everybody that hasn't driven an EV seems to be worried about. The car has been extremely reliable and has required very little maintenance at all. Another thing that I'm really impressed with is that I have now charged the car over 1,100 times and it still has virtually the same range it did when it was brand new. I know at some point, there will be battery degradation, but I can tell you for certain, it isn't measurable yet and I have the data to prove it.

Somewhere in an underground storage tank at the Lukoil station I used to go to before I got the MINI-E, there are about 3,300 gallons of gas that wouldn't be there if I never applied for the program. You see, I always went to this one gas station to fill up as it was conveniently located on my route from home to work. It I had continued to drive my Toyota Tacoma for the past two years and 59,500 miles, I would have needed to buy about 3,300 gallons of gas as the Tacoma gets about 18mpg. This would have cost me about $10,000. I would have also needed about a dozen oil changes and would be looking at a major (recommended) tune up for the truck. Electric cars like the MINI-E require virtually no maintenance and after driving 60,000 miles you would probably only have to replace the tires and wiper blades.

So yeah, it's really been a great run so far. I really look froward to the BMW ActiveE, but I'm going to miss the minimalist attitude of the MINI-E. Small, great handling, fun to drive and still the feeling of "efficient basic transportation" that I like. Electric drive in a MINI Cooper platform works and BMW would be foolish not to bring it back in a series production sometime in the future.

I always believed electric cars might be our future. They reduce our dependence on foreign oil, keep our energy dollars in local economies, improve our country's national security and are much better for the environment. The past two years in the MINI-E program proved to me that I was right.

NY Times Reports: MINI-E Drivers Have Bonded With Their Cars!

2011-06-10T13:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the NY Times published a story on how the MINI-E trial lease participants love their MINI-E's. The story was based on a yearlong U.C. Davis study that found an overwhelming amount of MINI-E drivers love the cars and have found that they are comfortable living with the cars 80-100 mile range.

If you have been following this blog, you know I feel the same way. When the MINI-E program began, we were all sent emails asking if we wanted to participate in the study, I thought about it and since I didn't know how much of my time it would consume I never replied, so my thoughts although broadcast here on this blog, aren't included in the study. However judging from the results, it seems that I wasn't needed and the other MINI-E participants love their cars as much as I do and the big thing is that they don't feel constrained by the range either, a point that I have been trying to get across to non-EV drivers for a long time now: The limited range isn't a big deal! People that don't drive an EV worry about range anxiety more than the people that actually do drive one.

Anyway, the results of this study don't surprise me one bit. The general public is going to love electric cars, they just need to get past their belief that they won't and give one a try. Another MINI-E driver, Peder Norby once wrote of the challenges facing the transition to electric cars: "Our greatest roadblock is the inertia of the status quo" and this study further proves that point if you ask me. The people that HAVE had the chance to spend time with an electric car overwhelmingly like them and say they want to continue to drive electric. That's the case whether the car was an EV-1, a RAV4-EV, a Tesla, a Nissan LEAF or a MINI-E. We just need to convince more of the public to give them a chance, the cars themselves will do the rest.

Workplace Charging: The Electric Car's Best Friend

2011-05-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

MINI-E #250 Sipping On Some Electrons While I'm Working

There has been a lot of talk about the necessity of public charging stations and the lack thereof. There are some that think we cannot expect people to buy electric cars unless there's a complex network of public charging points on every block, in order to compete with the multitude of gas stations that seem to be on the corner of every main intersection.

I've written on various websites that I just don't think that's necessary. I think a nice sprinkling of public charge points here and there will do just fine for now, until EV's really gain traction and we see sales of electric cars in the tens of thousands every month. I also think that the private sector(at least the smart ones) will jump on the opportunity to capture customers that drive EV's and install a charger or two in their parking lot. Let's face it, if an EV driver is looking for a quick bite to eat and they know that McDonald's has public chargers and Burger King doesn't, I bet they will stop at a McDonald's if there is one in the area. Even if they don't really "need" to charge, why not get a 1/2 hour boost or so while you grab a quick bite to eat. Also, if you do happen to need to charge, you know you can do so there, so they get a customer that they wouldn't have if they didn't have the chargers.

I know level 3 DC quick charge will be useful for long-trip highway driving, but we don't even have a standard and I think we are a ways away from seeing it available in any great numbers so I'm not going to really focus on it. For the most, I really think level 2 public charging is more important for the psyche of potential EV buyers, to give them peace of mind so they don't think they will be stranded with no place to charge than I think it will really be needed. It's mainly this reason that I am in favor of installing them, just not as many as I think some others feel is necessary and I hate to see public funds wasted by over-installing them in clusters where they will be underutilized.

Which brings me to the topic of the day, workplace charging. About six months into the MINI-E program, BMW offered the pioneers a second EVSE if we wanted one and had a use for it. I accepted the offer and installed it at my restaurant as did Cliff Saunders, a MINI-E pioneer that lives in New York who also owns a restaurant. I know what you are going to say "Not everyone owns their own restaurant and can install an EVSE there" and you would be right with that. However many of the other MINI-E pioneers were able to convince their employers to let them either install a 220v EVSE or simply charge at 110v. Charging at 220v is optimal, but even charging at 110v for a typical work day can add about 25-30 miles or range to your EV. That may be enough to give those with a long commute the extra cushion they need to feel comfortable and not stress out about making the return trip home after work.

I firmly believe workplace charging is by far the most important secondary charge point after home charging. Let's face it, today's electric cars with roughly 100 miles ranges aren't meant to drive 300 miles on holiday. They are however perfect commuter cars and can drastically reduce your fuel and maintenance costs for this driving. Commuting to work in an EV has been perfect for me and many others that I communicate with. Talking to your boss and explaining why you drive electric and how little the electricity will actually cost him/her will go a long way in helping them to decide to let you plug in at work. Always offer to pay for the electricity though, it's not fair to ask your company to pay for it unless they currently pay for your gasoline. There are obstacles, and many times it would cost too much to bring electricity to where you park and in that case you may be out of luck, but many times it is available and both you and your employer will benefit if you work together to come up with a way to allow you to charge while you work. You get the added security of a longer range and they get a happier employee, cleaner air and if they want to, I'm sure they can get some local press coverage about how they are encouraging green transportation for their employees and that's good PR for sure.

I wonder if the EVSE companies like AreoVironment, Clipper Creek, Columb and GE are approaching large companies that employ hundreds of workers at multiple locations. If not, they should be. My wife works at ADP and they have offices all over our area, with huge parking lots at every office and hundreds of cars parked at all of them. A big company like ADP could easily afford to install a bank of chargers at all of their locations, and could get an enormous amount of great public relations press coverage while inspiring their workforce to drive electric. They could even take it a step further and install solar carports that have the public chargers installed there. Big companies like ADP are always encouraging their workforce to represent the company in a professional manner and "do the right thing" here's a chance for them to lead by example.

After More Than 57,000 Miles, a 100 Mile Trip is Still No Problem

2011-05-24T19:03:00.001-04:00

The other day I needed to go to a meeting at an office that I had never been to before. As always, I checked Google maps to see how far it was for two reasons: how much time will I need to drive there, and can the MINI-E make it or do I need to take my Toyota Tacoma that day. It's not often when I need to take the truck because I'll need to drive further than the MINI-E range will allow, but it does happen once every couple months or so.

When I checked Google maps it was exactly 50 miles away, and about one third of it was highway driving. My initial reaction was that I wouldn't take the chance, it's cutting the range too close and why risk having a problem. A big part of my reasoning because it has been unseasonably cool and rainy here in NJ and the difference of driving in 50 degree temperatures in the rain from 70 degree temperatures might be 10 miles of range or so.

Anyway, I then checked the weather channel and learned that the day I was to go to the meeting we were supposed to have a perfect day, clear and in the mid 70's. So then I started thinking about it, and it didn't take me long to come to the decision to take the MINI-E and take my chances. The plan was to drive there as slow as I could do safely, meaning 55mph on the highway, and the speed limit on the secondary roads using regen as much as possible, even trying not to use the mechanical brakes at all.

As my journey progressed it didn't take me too long to realize I wasn't going to have any problem. In fact, I arrived there, 50 miles later with 60% SOC. I had only used 40% to drive 50 miles! I did drive as efficiently as possible, and drove slower than I normally would, but this guaranteed me that I would make the 100 mile journey and I could even drive any way I wanted to on the return trip without worrying about being extraordinarily efficient.

So I the trip home I drove 70mph on the highway and didn't concentrate on using the regenerative brakes as much as I possibly could. I arrived back at the restaurant with 15% charge remaining which would be good for at least another 25 miles and if I really wanted to push it probably even 30. I then plugged in and in under three house I was fully charged and ready for more another 100 miles if necessary.

When you add the 62 miles I drove to and from work that day, I drove the MINI-E 162 miles, not bad for a electric car with roughly a 100 mile single charge range. Anyway, the good news is that after more than 57,000 miles and over 1,100 charging cycles, the car still has the same range it had when it was brand new. This is significant because there are a lot of concerns about battery degradation in electric cars. It's going to start to happen at some point, I know that, but it is a bit surprising to me that I have been able to drive and charge the car as much as I have without noticing any decrease in range or battery capacity. This is good news for all electric cars in my opinion.

How Much Electricity Will An Electric Car Use?

2011-05-18T16:00:00.002-04:00

With all the talk about electric cars lately, one thing that I keep hearing is people wondering how much electricity will an EV need? Are they simply ditching the gas pump only to pay just as much in their electric bill? I made a post on this subject last year and I think it's important enough to re-post it again for anyone that hadn't seen it last year. With gasoline prices north of the $4 mark now and electric cars in the news, I have had a lot of new followers lately and I still get emails from people that ask me just how much does it cost to charge the MINI-E; so here it is, again....

Right or Left Pedal? Where Do You Want Your Regen?

2011-05-15T00:54:00.000-04:00

One of the great features of electric cars is the regenerative braking. It really enhances the driving experience as well as extending your driving range as it captures the energy that would normally be wasted when you need to slow down. With conventional braking, the energy produced simply turns into heat and is wasted, whereas the regenerative braking systems in electric cars turns the energy into electricity and puts it back into your battery.

This is something that most people would never even think of and really have no use for when driving an internal combustion engine vehicle. You've got all the energy you need squishing around in your gas tank waiting to be set on fire so it can release that energy and propel the vehicle. However electric cars need to be as energy efficient as possible since they can only store a limited amount of electricity without becoming prohibitively expensive and heavy, since the more batteries you carry the more the car will cost and the more it will weigh, and decrease the vehicles efficiency.

Most people I know are a bit apprehensive when they first drive a car with regen. If the regen is activated by the left(or normal brake) pedal then you probably won't too notice much of a difference. However if you drive an EV with right (accelerator) pedal regen than your initial impression is probably that it definitely feels wrong, especially if it has strong regen like the MINI-E does. After driving your whole life in a car that doesn't have it, it really seems unnatural.

However after driving with it for only a short while, I came to really love it. Now, when I drive a car that doesn't have regen, I feel like somethings missing. I have driven cars with both right and left pedal regen and I definitely prefer to have it actuated by the right pedal. I can really do about 90% of my driving with one foot and it makes the driving experience a bit more sporty in my opinion. Slowing down for a curve in the road or to keep a safe distance from the car in front of you only requires you to gradually back off the accelerator. If you need to slow down more quickly, then just back off the accelerator completely and the regen fully engages and slows you down pretty quickly while sending some juice back to the battery pack. Of course if it's a situation that requires you to stop really abruptly, you always have the mechanical brakes to step on and quickly come to a halt.

Most people I know that have EV's say they prefer right pedal regen, and BMW believes that having it on the right pedal is the way to go also, as the MINI-E and the soon to be released ActiveE both have their regen on the right pedal. There are some people out there that have stated their opinions to the contrary though and say they want EV's to be as much like their gas powered cars as possible, and want all the braking, regenerative included, on the left pedal.

I believe that most people, if given the opportunity to drive an EV with right pedal regen would choose it over left and most of the people calling for it on the left pedal simply haven't driven a car for any period of time with right pedal regen, because if they did, they would prefer it that way. Anyone care to chime in on this debate?

Have You Seen BMW's "Wherever You Want To Go" Film Series on The Future of Mobility?

2011-05-03T12:17:00.000-04:00

I know I mentioned this film series a while back, but I'd like to remind those that might not have taken a look yet to do so. In the picture above you see me and fellow MINI-E pioneers Todd Crook & Peder Norby. We were enlisted to participate in the series of four short films and to talk about our experiences driving the electric MINI-E's and to offer our thoughts on the future of mobility.

The film series may not be entirely what you would expect. BMW didn't use this as a glorified advertisement for their brand. In fact, I don't think BMW is even mentioned! The purpose of the films were to open a discussion and make people think about where personal mobility is going.

Todd, Peder and I are really the only people in the films that aren't famous public figures so we were all really honored to participate and offer our thoughts alongside people like Buzz Aldrin(astronaut), Marissa Mayer(VP of products for Google) and Wai Cheng (Director MIT automotive labs) just to name a few.

Anyway, If you haven't already, check out the film series. There are four short films (under ten minutes each) and they offer some interesting thoughts on where the future may take us. You can see them on BMW's Activate The Future website.

Infrastructure Issues? Did MINI-E #250 cause a Transformer Meltdown?

2011-05-02T20:28:00.002-04:00

When I arrived at work a few days ago, I plugged in as usual, just to top off my charge and be ready for the next 100 miles or so. However after about a half hour, I noticed some of the power in the restaurant went out. Not all of the power, just about a third of it. I have seen this before, so I knew exactly what happened. I had lost one leg of the buildings three phase electric supply. I quickly walked outside to the utility pole to take a look and just as I imagined, one of the transformers had a wire that was disconnected and was arcing with sparks falling from it.

I quickly called PSE&G, and they arrived about a half hour later and quickly repaired the wire and the restaurant was back to normal and my car resumed charging. Since the wire was arcing and sparks were falling, the Montclair fire department was on scene and made sure nobody walked under the area.

Now here's the problem: This happened about six months ago and at that time my car was also charging when the problem occurred. The PSE&G technician that repaired the line asked me "What do you guys have in the restaurant, I've never seen a the same transformer wire meltdown like this twice in six months" He than said the wire was all charred and looked like it had been in a fire. He suggested I call my electrician to better "balance the load" at the restaurant or this problem will continue to happen. I get what he's saying, perhaps the load isn't balanced well and I should analyze it and properly spread the load evenly among the three phases. However, I built the building eleven years ago and never had a problem, now this has happened twice in the past year that I have been charging #250 there, so I am inclined to think while there was an existing balance issue, charging the car at 12 kWh is definitely the draw that pushed it over the limit.

One of the things I have said I love about the MINI-E is it's ability to charge so quickly. It can charge up to 50amps at 12kWh and completely charge the 35kWh pack in about three hours. Compare that to the Nissan LEAF which only has a 24 kWh pack, and still takes eight hours to charge because it can only charge at 3.3kWh. This means it can only accept about 1/3 of the electricity that my MINI-E which isn't great when you want to charge up quickly, but definitely easier on your utility company. I definitely think this reason is why most of the major auto manufacturers are setting the charge rate of their EV's at 3.3kWh (LEAF & Volt) or 6.6kWh (Focus, Coda) instead of higher. Future BMW EV's (ActiveE & i3) will be limited to 7.7kWh which is probably a good decision, as balancing fast charging against not wanting their customers to blow up their transformers needs to be considered. Tesla on the other hand is going to continue to allow charging up to 16.8 kWh and uses the same AC Propulsion technology that allows the MINI-E to charge at such a high rate. They don't seem to be concerned about supply issues, only time will tell if they are correct. I know this, if after plucking down $60,000 or so to buy a new Model S, you find out that you keep overwhelming your utility supply and cannot charge your car, you aren't going to be very happy.

There will be growing pains. As electric cars become more and more prevalent, expect to hear about electricity supply problems from time to time. The one good thing about relatively slow adoption of electric cars is that it will allow the utilities to identify weaknesses and problem areas, and upgrade what need to be upgraded before there are millions of EV's driving around everywhere and not enough supply to charge them.

BMW "Conversations" Video From the New York Auto Show

2011-04-27T20:12:00.000-04:00

Rich Steinberg, manager of electric vehicle operations for BMW North America asked me if I would participate in a live Facebook Q&A at the New York Auto show last week. The plan was for me to answer general questions about living with and driving an electric car because of my experience with the MINI-E, and Rich would answer questions specific the the BMW ActiveE, which was being introduced at the show.

BMW does these Q&A Facebook sessions frequently and they call them BMW Conversations. You can view all the past Conversations on the BMW USA Facebook group page.

I had a nice time doing it and got to talk to the whole BMW electric car team. Everybody is excited about the launch of the ActiveE and that includes me. It looked fantastic and will have features like active thermal management, the ability to precondition the cabin and batteries as well as four seats and a trunk. As much as I love my MINI-E, I think I'm going to love the ActiveE even more.

Solar Energy Directory Runs a Story on My EV+PV Combo

2011-04-25T12:46:00.000-04:00

You can check out the story from this link.

MINI-E Pioneers Get Exclusive Look at the ActiveE!

2011-04-22T13:47:00.004-04:00


Aaron Singer of BMW explains some of the ActiveE features to the MINI-E pioneers				.

Last night the East Coast Mini-E pioneers were invited to a sneak preview of the BMW ActiveE at the New York Auto Show. The show doesn't actually open to the public until today, but BMW wanted the loyal MINI-E pioneers to get the first look at the successor to the MINI-E, and the final test vehicle they will be making before the 2013 BMW i3 hits showrooms. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the i3, it will be the first all electric car that BMW sells, and is scheduled to be offered for sale in 2013. The MINI-E, and now the ActiveE were low production test vehicles, leased to customers to help BMW refine the hardware and learn and overcome the challenges of introducing an all electric vehicle to the public so when they do sell the i3, it will be the best electric vehicle available.

MINI-E customers have been promised that if we want to lease the ActiveE this year when the MINI-E program ends, that we would be guaranteed to be the first in line for one, and last night BMW took the opportunity so show us here on the East coast the car in person. A similar event is planned for the West Coast MINI-E pioneers next month. After the roughly 45 minute Q&A and everyone had a chance to sit in and check out the car, we were all taken out to dinner compliments of BMW. I'd like to than Rich, Hugo, Marian, Teresa and Aaron of BMW for hosting such a great event and making the MINI-E pioneers feel special. Taking the time in a very busy Auto Show week to spend a night with some of your customers was really appreciated by all of us.

The cost will be very similar to the MINI-E's lease price, $2,250 down and $499/month which comes out to $593/month over the course of the term. We are currently paying $600/month for the MINI-E, but that included comprehensive & collision insurance and the installation of the home charger. The cost of insurance and home charger have not been mentioned by BMW, so I'm guessing that means it will be the lessees responsibility. I think they would have announced that it would be included in the lease price if that was their intention. To be fair, no other lease program currently includes insurance and the home charger like the MINI-E program did so I won't be surprised if we are told that those things are our responsibility. If you add the cost of the insurance and the home charger, I'm guessing that will add about $2,400 to the total cost, or about $100 per month. We all have the electrical lines running to our current chargers, so all we need are the new chargers hooked up. The AeroVironment chargers that the ActiveE will be using can be purchased for $1,000 retail. I'm sure we'll get a better price since BMW is buying about 800 of them and the installation will take all of 15 minutes. Personally I plan to do the installation myself if BMW wants us to pay for it. My personal electrician will do it for me for $100; permit and all, I already asked him. The insurance should only cost an extra $500 or $600/year since we're already paying the liability insurance for the MINI-E.

In case why anyone was wondering why my picture is on the jumbo screen behind the car in the photo above, it's because they were playing a video advertisement for the ActiveE in which, for a brief second or two, they played a clip from one of the short films about the future of mobility that I was in, so I waited until that moment came up and quickly snapped the photo!

Anyway, the ActiveE looks awesome and although I'm really going to miss #250, I think the amenities offered in the ActiveE will take the edge off missing this car. The active thermal management and ability to precondition the cabin and battery(warm or cool it while still plugged into the grid) should make the car much better for me to drive in the cold snowy winters here in the North East. Plus, having a backseat and trunk will be nice also.

I'll be posting more about the event and the ActiveE in a day or so on my BMW ActiveE blog (You know I had to make a successor to this blog, right?) so check it out if you want to know more about the BMW ActiveE. Maybe you even want to apply to lease one also? Details on how to apply to lease an ActiveE will be posted on my ActiveE blog as soon as they are announced which should be in a month or two.

MINI-E: Showing Off on Earth Day

2011-04-13T17:07:00.000-04:00

During the past 22 months with #250 I've had a lot of opportunities to talk about the MINI-E to friends, strangers, the press and even display the car at "Green" events. I try to bring the car to all the events that ask me to come, as I really think I am obligated to do what I can to help promote electric cars since I was one of the lucky few that was selected to be in the MINI-E program. Unfortunately some are just too far away or on days that I just cannot miss work. I actually like bringing the car to these events and talking to people there. They have all kinds of questions about EV's and I definitely have a audience that is interested in electric vehicles and would be the target market for EV manufacturers.

With Earth Day celebrations approaching, I have been asked to bring the car to places that I just cannot go, like Massachusetts and even Maryland. While it may be physically possible for me to find places to charge along the way, it would just take too much time to make the trip reasonable. So if anyone is organizing an Earth Day event in North or Central New Jersey or even New York City and would like a MINI-E there on display, send me a message and perhaps I can bring #250 along and show her off!

#250 at a Green Transportation Expo in Florham Park, NJ last fall

1,000 Charges and Still Going Strong!

2011-04-06T09:07:00.002-04:00

Recently I passed the 1,000th recharge milestone with my MINI-E. That's considerable when you realize I have only had the car about 660 days so far. I've put 54,000 miles on it so that's over 80 miles per day, every single day I've had it. Obviously I haven't driven it every single day, so the days I have driven it I've probably averaged above 90 miles per day. That's a lot of charging, more than 1.5 times per day actually. Actually, the car is such a pleasure to drive, I find myself using it for everything I can, whether it be personal or for business use.

Those of you that follow this blog know that I occasionally write posts about my experiences for sites like Edmunds, AllCarsElectric and most often, Plugincars.com. I was talking to Brad Berman, editor of plugincars recently and he asked me if I would write a post on my range throughout the year in different temperatures. I was actually working on just that to post here, and planned to post it once I hit my 1,000th recharge. So instead of a full post here about it, I put it up on the plugincars website, that way it will reach an even greater audience than here, and give more people a chance to see how the car has performed. You can jump to the full post HERE.

A lot of people ask me about the range in extreme heat and cold, and whether or not I am beginning to notice battery degradation now that I have over 50,000 miles on it. I really haven't noticed any degradation, but my data seems to show that it is beginning to happen, as the second year data shows slightly less range that the first year throughout almost all temperature ranges.What the real usable life of a EV's battery pack is still debatable. There just aren't enough of them out there that are using the newer lithium ion chemistries that have been driven enough miles and charged enough times to have reliable data on, so I'm sure a lot of people are interested in the data that I've accumulated over the past 22 months.

Remember, the MINI-E is a prototype test car, and does not have a sophisticated thermal management system. The passive thermal management system it employs is really primitive, making this car particularly vulnerable to weather extremes. BMW will be using an active thermal management system on both the ActiveE and the i3, based on lessons learned from the MINI-E trial lease program: Here's what I've observed:

MINI-E Dismantle, Battery Pack Replacement

2011-04-01T00:17:00.006-04:00

It all started about a two months ago when I sent an email to Richard Steinberg, manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy for BMW North America. I asked him if BMW would replace the battery pack in MINI-E #250 because the original pack now has 53,000 miles and is beginning to degrade so my range is suffering. Richard gave me the usual company line about how the lithium ion batteries are expensive and if they did it for me then they'll have to do it for everybody and it will blow their whole bloody budget out the window.


First we disconnected the high voltage battery

Nonetheless, he said he would call Munich and see if it could be arraigned. A few weeks later Richard sent me an email and directed me to give him a call. I did just that and he prefaced the call by saying he wanted me to know he did all he could, but the BMW top brass wouldn't authorize it. He then told me all about a conference call he had with none other than BMW CEO Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Project i boss, Dr Ulrich Kranz as well as Hugo Vangeem and Marian Hawryluk who are electric vehicle project managers for BMW. Noticeably absent from the discussion was BMW North American president, Jim O'Donnell, but from what I'm told, they don't really let him make any decisions around there anymore anyway. In any event after some discussion, the answer was "No new batteries for Tom".


I ordered 7 boxes, each with 5kWh

Those of you that know me, know that I don't particularly like being told no. In fact, I've been known to go to great lengths and at great expense to turn no's into yes. This wouldn't be any different. If BMW wouldn't give me a new pack, I'll just install one myself! So the quest began.

We begin to take out the PEU

I quickly realized that it's not difficult to procure batteries for an EV as there are lot's of home conversion websites you can order anything you need from. It was a cinch to get the same exact cells used by BMW in the MINI-E. So last Saturday it was time to do the dirty work. Luckily, I have become friends with one of the area's leading EV mechanics and he offered his shop and services to do the swap. He really likes the MINI-E, so he looked forward to the opportunity to take one apart. It didn't take us long to realize that much of the cars electronics had to be removed to replace the battery pack so we figured it would be better if we just did a complete dismantle. EV's are really simple and taking one apart and putting it back together is much easier than an internal combustion engine car, where only a experienced mechanic should even think about doing so.

Opening the PEU isn't allowed: oops!

Lot's of wires to reconnect!

EVERYTHING was removed!

Mind you, this isn't exactly allowed by BMW so there might be some splainin' to do once they realize I took part one of their precious prototypes. In the end, we did the swap, put everything back together and MINI-E #250 is running like new. If anyone want's some more photo's of the car when it was all taken apart, just ask!

PEU & motor assembly is all one piece

The suspension was in great shape

UPDATE: After a week of driving #250 with the new batteries, I can report the range is back to like it was when the car was brand new!
Mission accomplished!

UPDATE #2: 4/2/11: Just in case you didn't figure this out yet, it was an April Fools post and never actually happened. The car still has great range, although it may be starting to have slightly less now that it has been charged over 1,000 times and driven 53,000 miles. I plan on doing a range comparison post soon that will compare the cars range in different temperatures in the first year and second year I've had it.

If I had done what I said I did, BMW would probably be at my door today with a bus load of lawyers and repossess the car from me. Before getting the car, the trial lease participants all had to sign documents that we wouldn't alter the car in any way, we aren't even allowed to change a tire or put on window tint. Besides that, the battery pack is located behind the seats in the car so if we did change the pack, we wouldn't even have to open the hood, let alone dismantle the entire car! I did take a photo of us removing a muffler, but figured if I posted that one, nobody would have been tricked! I hope you had fun with this!

Where do You Want Your Personal Transportation Energy To Come From?

2011-03-23T22:22:00.000-04:00

This is a question I ask people frequently when we are discussing the future of electric vehicles.

Do you want to give him your money?

You can continue to buy gasoline, and send about 70 cents of every dollar you spend on it out of the US. That's right, about 70 cents of every dollar you spend on gasoline leaves the US economy. It's true not all of it goes to the radical Middle Eastern countries you hear me crowing about. Actually, Canada is our biggest supplier of oil and they are far from radical and threatening to the US. However, I don't want ANY of my money going to regimes that hate us and funnel some of that money to sponsor terror groups.

EV + PV is a great combo!

After a hundred years of having no choice but to use gasoline, we finally will have a choice. You, as a consumer will have the power to decide for yourself what kind of fuel you want to use for your personal transportation. One of the most satisfying things about driving an electric car and having a solar array is knowing that I produce my own energy for my car. It's something that you would probably never think about unless you had an EV and a solar array, but it's really liberating. We have all become so conditioned to think that when you need fuel for your car you go to a gas station. It can't be that bad, everybody does it right? Well, if you think that sending a billion dollars every day out of the US economy isn't that bad then yeah, I guess it's not that bad.

I'd rather he get my money than OPEC

Even if you don't use solar electric to charge your EV, using domestic electricity is cheaper, cleaner and it keeps every penny of what you spend on electricity here in the US. Your money goes to the coal, natural gas or renewable energy supplier that supplies the fuel to the power plants. It goes to the power plants that employ local workers, and it goes to your local utility that again employs local workers.

Just about every major auto maker is currently working on electric cars that they will be selling in the near future. The first BMW EV to be sold will be the 2013 BMW i3 which is what the MINI-E program was designed to gather information for. There are already cars like the Tesla Roadster, the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt on the market that can completely eliminate your need to purchase gasoline or in the case of the volt, drastically reduce it.

Today's electric cars are basically the first generation production EV's and will have some limitations like range and charge time so they will not work for everyone, just yet. However a good percentage of Americans could live perfectly fine with a 100 mile BEV as one of the household cars and I suspect many will embrace the opportunity to buy a car that can be powered either the sun or a domestic energy source. At least we finally now have a choice.

Electric Cars Will Change the "Regular Service" Paradigm

2011-03-15T12:27:00.001-04:00

Regular service means plugging into a computer and downloading data, no greasy hands, tools and oil stained floors.

Every 5,000 miles the MINI-E Trial Lease participants drive the cars we need to bring them in for data downloads and general service check ups. These are extremely expensive prototypes and BMW wants to make sure they are properly cared for and performing as intended as well as gather the data accumulated.

You won't see this anymore with EV's

But how about the "regular" EV's? The cars that currently are and will be production vehicles for sale like the Nissan LEAF, Tesla, the Ford Focus EV and eventually the BMW i3 when it comes out in 2013 just to name a few. What will the term "regular service" mean? I think we all know what that means for an internal combustion engine car. The dealer tells you "Bring it in every three to five thousand miles for oil changes" and that never changes. Every few months you need to change the oil filter, drain out the 5 or 6 quarts of dirty oil and replace it with new oil, and that's just the beginning. You are then going to need periodically replace air filters, fuel filters, oxygen sensors, vacuum hoses, temperature sensors, spark plugs, various belts & hoses and plenty of other wear and tear items. Plus, the exhaust system only lasts so long before you need to replace mufflers, pipes and God forbid the catalytic converter, because then you are in for the bug bucks.

EV's really don't require "regular maintenance". They don't have much of the wear and tear items that you find in ICE vehicles because so few things are constantly creating friction and heat and wearing themselves out. I could see a car salesman telling the new owner of an electric car as he hands them the keys "Call us if you have a problem". Sure you'll still need tires, & wiper blades, but even the brake pads will last much longer on an EV due to the regenerative braking. Of course things will break and need to be replaced, just like any other car, but the it's the regular maintenance items that I'm focusing on here.

No matter how you look at it, the overall maintenance of an EV will cost you much, much less and be a lot more convenient since you won't be required to make all these maintenance trips to your mechanic for the entire time you own the car. Just plug in and drive.....

Gasoline Cost to Jump $700 for Average Household!

2011-03-09T17:09:00.000-05:00

According to Reuters, the cost of gasoline will jump $700 for the average US household in 2011!

Lucky for me, we're not the average household. I do 80% of our household driving with MINI-E #250 and I "fill er up" with sunshine, not gasoline. That's right, I drive on clean, renewable energy that rains down on my house just about every day. My wife drives a Chevy Equinox that is supposed to get a class leading 32mpg, but we haven't quite been able to achieve what the EPA claims it can get. Still for a compact crossover, it is very fuel efficient. I look forward to the day a plug in hybrid crossover is available, we will certainly buy it. She doesn't drive too much so I doubt the increase in gas costs will add up to more than $100 for the year. The last time I checked with the sun, he said he didn't plan on raising his price for sunshine for at lease a few millennium so I think I'm good there.

There is a better way people, we just need to take it.

BMW i3 Spy Shot Captured

2011-03-08T19:03:00.001-05:00

The first photo's of the BMW i3(previously called the Megacity vehicle), the MINI-E's successor have been captured. Up until now we have only seen vague sketches of it. Evidently these photo's were taken in Sweden where the car in enduring cold weather testing along with the hybrid supercar BMW i8. For more jump over to my BMW i3 blog. So we finally get a glimpse of what the MINI-E program was created for. What do you think?

US Approves Deep Water Drilling Again: BP Gets the First Permit!

2011-03-05T16:12:00.000-05:00

This gets classified in the "WTF" files! Less than a year after the worst oil spill in US history, and before we can even get the slightest grip on the long term effects of the ecological disaster that took place, the US government has decided deep water drilling can continue and of all companies, BP was issues the very first permit!!!!!

If you follow the news at all lately, one of the hot news topics on electric cars is the Presidents desire to assist the electric car industry with subsidies to lower the cost of the cars (rebates) and funding to help install public charging stations. This has been met with resistance from some who claim they want the market to determine which fuel wins for personal transportation.

That sounds like a valid point, but people either forgot or never knew the oil industry is tremendously subsidized. There are drilling subsidies, exploration subsidies, refining subsidies and more. Then these companies that make tens of billions of dollars in profits every year don't pay a penny of federal tax. That's right, not a penny! You and I pay tax on their end product and than pay our own personal income tax, but these huge, highly profitable oil companies they don't pay the US anything!!!

I'll stop clamoring for federal assistance for a technology that will help the environment, the US economy and strengthen our national security when the competing fuel stops getting hundreds of billions of assistance every year. Plus, I didn't even bring up the money spent and US troops killed in the wars we fight to keep the oil flowing freely and inexpensively towards the West.

Richard Steinberg Talks ActiveE at Geneva

2011-03-04T16:03:00.000-05:00

Richard Steinberg, Manager of Electric Vehicle Operations and Strategy, presents the BMW ActiveE at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. I have written quite a bit here on this car, as I will be driving one when I turn in the MINI-E later this year. BMW has just unveiled the production version of the ActiveE this week at the Geneva Auto Show and Richard was there present the car. (You know, you could have brought me along too Richard)

I'm Interviewed by EBRU News About the Federal Tax Rebate For Electric Cars

2011-03-01T10:07:00.000-05:00

Last week I was interviewed by Nia Hamm of EBRU News. We talked about the federal funding for electric car deployment and that funding for diesel and hydrogen fool cell research.Much of our conversation didn't make it to the short video, but you definitely understand my position from what was aired ; )

Follow this link to the story and video.

MINI-E #262 Spotted In The Wild

2011-02-27T15:03:00.000-05:00

It's not often I see another MINI-E on the road while I'm driving around, so when I passed #262 parked in Morristown today I had to stop and take a picture. Apparently this is one of the cars leased to JCP&L, our local electric utility in Morris County, New Jersey. Other than Michael Thwaite, I don't know of any other MINI-E's still in service in the Morris County area. I know of one in South Jersey and one in Bergen County, but the rest of the MINI-E's leased in my area were returned after the one year term was up as many of the drivers just didn't want to pay $600 per month for a car they would have to give back after the year was up. Many of them that I know have either ordered a Chevy Volt or are waiting for a Nissan LEAF to be available in NJ. After driving an EV for a year, most don't want to go back to their old oil burning ways!

Final Film in The "Wherever You Want To Go" Series Released

2011-02-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

The fourth and final film in the BMW series titled "Wherever You Want To Go" is now available online at this link. The three MINI-E drivers asked to be in the film, Peder, Todd and I are all in there to some degree with Peder getting the most talk time. I snatched the above shot from a part in the film where I'm introduced and speak a bit. The cool thing is I get to be the last person talking in the film, and thus the series.

It was a great experience going to LA, meeting Peder & Todd and shooting our conversations (Not to mention getting paid for it!). I hope what the three of us offered helped to improve the films. There were many notable people in the four films offering their opinions on where we are now and where mobility is going and they did a great job offering interesting insights, but Peder Todd and I are living the future right now, driving electric cars every day. The future is electric.

I Make an Appearance in BMW's Film "Reinventing Mobility"

2011-02-17T17:36:00.001-05:00

A few posts ago I wrote about going to LA to be in a film made for BMW about the future of mobility. It turned out to be a four part series called Wherever You Want To Go that is intended to get people thinking and talking about where we are going in terms of personal transportation.

The films are about 7 to 10 minutes in length and have short bonus clips they call "deep dives" that you can click on an watch a few more minutes of footage. These are located along the bottom of the film at various points and can be viewed by clicking on the arrow.

I have had short cameo appearances in the first two films, but in the third film called Reinventing Mobility released this past Tuesday, I speak quite a bit. Especially in two of the "deep dives" located on the bottom (Click on the first one called "Freedom A to B" and the fifth one called "Wasted Energy" to see me offering my thoughts). The two guys standing with me are Todd Crook and Peder Norby. They both also drive MINI-E's in Southern California.

50,000 Emission Free Miles

2011-02-13T23:59:00.003-05:00

On February 12th, exactly 20 months to the day that I picked up MINI-E #250, the odometer turned past 50,000 miles. That's 610 days of driving this wonderfully unique car, and averaging 82 miles per day, every day I have had it.

Every day I drive down the road I look around at all the cars around me and realize I'm driving the only car in sight that's not spewing pollutants out the back of my car for the people behind me to breathe. Soon I'll be joined by Chevy Volts (at lease while they are in charge depleting mode), and Nissan LEAF's, but I've yet to run into one while driving yet. It won't be long before there are then Ford Focus EV's, the Tesla Model S, Toyota RAV4 EV's, and the BMW ActiveE which I'll be driving in about seven months when I have to turn #250 back over to BMW.

No doubt the electric car renaissance is happening, and just about every major auto manufacturer has an electric car in development, and many are near production. That wasn't the case back in June 2009 when I took possession of my MINI-E. The only real electric option at the time was a $100,000 Tesla Roadster, no doubt an awesome car, but a bit out of most people's price range.

So I'll keep driving and charging my car with electricity I produce with my solar PV array on the roof of my home. I'll continue to drive by gas station after gas station, unconcerned about the current price of gasoline. (What does a gallon cost nowadays anyway?) By my account, I would have had to buy about 2,800 gallons of gas for my other car, a 2009 Toyota Tacoma if I did not get selected to be in the MINI-E program. I would have also needed about 10 oil changes, replaced my brake pads at least once and would now be due for a complete 50,000 mile tune up in addition to a litany of regular maintenance items like air filters & fuel filters. I figure I've saved at least $5,000 in fuel and maintenance, and it's probably really closer to $6,000.

Electric cars are extremely low maintenance, which is one of the main reasons the auto manufacturers haven't been really keen on building and selling them. They generally make more money maintaining and fixing your car than they do when they sell it to you. That's won't be the case with EV's. The one big maintenance cost is a replacement battery pack and that won't be necessary for 100,000 to 130,000 miles and 6 to 10 years after the purchase. Even then, they won't profit from it nearly as much as they would have from all the maintenance needed for an internal combustion engine car.

So honk and give me a wave if you see me out there driving around New Jersey. If the "EF-OPEC" plates or the "Starve a Terrorist, Drive Electric" bumper sticker aren't enough for you to tell it's me, just look for the MINI Cooper without the tailpipe sticking out of the back, there aren't that many of us around.

I Create a Bit of a Stir With a Challenge!

2011-02-04T20:46:00.004-05:00

I few day's ago I received an email from plugincars.com editor, Brad Berman. Brad sent me a link to a Washington Post article written by Charles Lane titled "Cold truths about electric cars' cold-weather shortcomings" that pretty much slammed electric cars and basically said that they were useless in the cold and actually even dangerous because you will get stranded and freeze while you are waiting to be rescued. Brad knows I'm driving a MINI-E here in Northern New Jersey and I have mentioned to him in the past how I drive it in the snow and freezing temperatures all the time so he thought I would find Mr Lane's article rather amusing.

After reading the article I sent Brad a response that I asked him to post on his site which he did. I also attached some nice pictures on my MINI-E in the snow for effect. In the article I explained how I have been driving in the snow and freezing temperatures all the time and I have never been stranded, never got frostbite and never ran out of charge. At the end of what I wrote, I even offered a challenge to Mr Lane. I offered for him to come up to New Jersey and drive with me and my car for a few days in February, the coldest month of the year, so he can see for himself that an EV is perfectly fine for personal transportation in the cold, snowy north.

The article I wrote was very well received, and lots of people commented that they appreciated that I wrote it and how great it was to hear from someone that is actually living with an electric car instead of journalists guessing how it may be. Then a bunch of other websites picked up the story, like Engadget and Autoblog an I started receiving dozens of emails thanking me for sticking up for electric cars.

Then to my surprise, I received an email form the Washington Post journalist that wrote the story, Charles Lane, asking me to give him a call. I did and he said he would like to take me up on the challenge. He felt that it would be make for a good story, and I agree. The only issue is that he now needs to convince the Washington Post to give him an allowance for the trip. I am now waiting to hear back from him. When we talked he was very clear that I'm not going to change his opinion on electric cars. That they are basically a waste of time and we would be better off just continuing to improve the internal combustion engine to make it more fuel efficient. He said he could provide me many, many studies that would support his stance but he was willing to come and do the story anyway.

So now I'm waiting to hear back from him. I do hope he can get it approved. I welcome the chance to help change his mind. If not completely, maybe I can at least make him see why I love driving electric and how others will also. Please leave comments on what you would like me to ask or tell Mr Lane, should this actually come to fruition.

Here's the link to the article I wrote for plugincars.com: http://www.plugincars.com/electric-car-owner-challenges-washington-post-ev-critic-106755.html

UPDATE: The trip to NJ and the story have been approved by the Washington Post so it's going to happen!
I have a request though, it seems that many people have been emailing Charles and prodding him to accept the challenge I laid out. So much so that he asked me to ask people to stop emailing him and blowing up his inbox!!! He has agreed to do this, so I see no reason to bother him with emails so if you were going to , please don't. There will be plenty of time to get involved in the story as it unfolds here. Thanks

Thermal Conditioning for the Battery AND the Passengers!

2011-01-31T19:29:00.008-05:00

The Cog & Temp icon you see it telling me the battery is too cold and the car will not have regenerative braking. I see this when the battery temperature gets in the low 40's. If the battery temperature gets any lower and the car will not accept a charge.

There's a lot of talk about thermal conditioning in electric cars, and for good reason. Maintaining proper battery temperature will not only help the vehicle to offer a more stable, predictable driving range, but will most likely be a big factor in determining how long the battery will acceptably perform before a replacement is needed.

The MINI-E is a wonderful vehicle. Those that have followed this blog know how I feel about it. I think the electric propulsion system pairs so well with the small, fun to drive MINI Cooper, that it's an outright shame BMW isn't going to offer it for sale in the near future, yes it's THAT good. All that said, the MINI-E is a prototype test vehicle and it does have it's faults. The most glaring shortcoming, is a lack of a proper thermal management system. The passive, cabin-air based system is insufficient to warm the pack in the winter or cool it off in the summer months. If the ambient temperature is below 95 degrees or above 50 degrees, everything is just fine and you can almost always squeeze out 100 miles of range if you drive conservatively, even 120-130 if you stay off the highways. However once the temperature extremes occur, the car lets you know it's not a happy camper. I'm going to focus here on the cold weather effects, since I did a post last summer about my hot weather experiences and difficulties.

The most obvious problem is the reduced range. I'm not really 100% sure if the battery simply cannot store the same amount of energy, or if it cannot efficiently use it when it gets cold, but the reduced range that the MINI-E has in the cold Northeast is something that you have to accept and manage. I know that it's not only the batteries storage/usage of the energy, but also the fact that the cabin heater uses a good amount of juice so it's really a double hit that conspires to cut into how far the car will go. This winter has been very cold and there are days when the temperature doesn't even approach 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-7C). On these days I'm lucky to push the car to 75 miles per charge. That's about a 30% reduction from optimal conditions, and in my opinion, it's just too much for the average retail consumer to accept.

That's -2 degrees!

Luckily, there is a better way to manage the battery temperature and thus the range, and that's by implementing an active thermal management system to heat and cool the battery as needed. These systems will obviously add to the cost to the vehicle, but in my opinion, it's money well spent. BMW seems to agree with me because their next EV offering, the 2011 BMW ActiveE will have active thermal management. I expect to be one of the few people driving an ActiveE this summer when the MINI-E program ends so I'll be able to report on how well the system does or doesn't work. This to me is the most important improvement that BMW can make from lessons learned in the MINI-E program.

MINI-E winter driving apparel !

There is one more thermal conditioning issue I need to bring to light. That's the MINI-E's inability to thermally condition it's passengers! There's no problem in the summer as the A/C works fine. However when it's cold outside, the MINI-E drivers here on the East Coast are cold also! The heater in the car is woefully insufficient to really warm the cabin or it's passengers. Those of us that have a MINI-E in NY & NJ have learned to deal with it, but it's not fun. Most all of us have learned to keep gloves, a hat and a blanket in the car at all times. Others have even used a hot water bottle(Now I know why BMW calls us pioneers!) I haven't done the hot water bottle thing, but I do keep a hooded sweatshirt, gloves and yes, a small blanket in the car especially when I drive home from work late at night when it's bitter cold outside and the car has been sitting outside for 12 hours.

My Garage Heater

Last year I did a post about installing a heater in my garage to keep the car warm overnight. It's works really well and even keeps my family room warmer because that room is adjacent to the garage. I set it at about 45-50 degrees so no matter how cold it gets outside the garage is around 45 degrees. Recently I have also been pre-heating the cabin in the mornings. I have a small ceramic heater that I put in the cabin about 30 minutes before I leave for work. When I leave the cabin is very warm and I don't need to turn the heater on for a while and that helps to extend the range a bit. This is similar, but not as good as preconditioning, something all production EV's have the ability to do.

It's going to be really interesting to see how much better the BMW ActiveE manages the weather extremes. I trust the engineers over in Munich know what they are doing. I'm sure I'll be writing a lot on this issue once I've had the time to drive the ActiveE in the extreme weather and analyze my range data. It will be nice to use the MINI-E as a comparison vehicle as I write about the ActiveE. Hopefully I'll be using the word "improvement" a lot, but you never know...

California Trip to Appear in BMW Film about Electric Mobility

2011-01-24T21:01:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would like to be in a documentary that BMW is making about the future of mobility. I accepted and a few days ago I was off to LA for the day. They asked two other MINI-E drivers Peder Norby and Todd Crook from California if they would also like to be in the film and they also accepted.

The idea for our part in the film was to get the three of us together and talking about our experiences driving an electric car and what our thoughts were on the future. Would electric cars become mainstream? What do we like most about them? Plus other questions about the future of cars. It was a great experience and really nice to finally meet Todd & Peder after over a year of communicating with them online. They both have MINI-E blogs also, and I have links to them here under "Other MINI-E blogs" on the right side border. Todd is #140 and Peder is #183. Others in the film include Astronaut Buzz Aldren, visual futurist Syd Mead, CEO of Virgin Galactic George Whitsides and a bunch of other notable individuals. (None more important than me, but really who is?)

There will be four short films that you can view online, each coming out a week apart in February. For now you can see the trailer at this link .

BMW put me up in the Universal City Hilton and covered all my expenses. The filming was only about 4 hours and we were paid a basic SAG rate for the day. Todd, Peder and I all had a great time and the producers told us we did great and gave them exactly what they had hoped we would. After the shoot, Peder had to charge his car for his 100+ mile home to Carlsbad and Todd and I went out for dinner.

However, as strange as it may sound, the most surprising part of the trip was in the car ride to the airport. I was picked up at about 4:00am by a car service that was hired by the production company. We were only about 5 minutes into the hour and a half drive to JFK Airport in New York when the driver asked me if I knew of a 24 hour gas station in the area because he had only about 35 miles of range left so he needed to fill up. I told him there was one on the way and to my absolute surprise he responded "Thanks, I hate going to gas stations, what we need are electric cars!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing and for a minute I thought he knew why I was going to LA and was part of the whole film plan. When I told him that I was flying to LA to be in a film about electric cars, he had all kinds of questions and we talked about electric cars for the whole drive to JFK. He told me his name and I think it was Milon but I'm not 100% sure now. I did take a picture of him and gave him this blog address so he can stop by and read about my experience with an electric car.

So check out the trailer and watch the four films as they become available. Feel free to critique my "acting"!

My film partners Todd Crook (left) and Peder Norby stand in front of their MINI-E's

Winter Has Officially Arrived

2011-01-08T14:57:00.000-05:00

#250 charging in the first snowfall of the season. By the next day we had 26" of snow, that's almost as high as the charge port!

The East Coast got clobbered with one of the biggest snowfalls in a long time. We had 26" on snow in Montclair where my restaurant is (the car is charging near the back door). I drove home that night when there were only about 6 inches on the ground. The MINI-E with it's new snow tires did a fine job getting me home, even though I passed about ten cars stuck on the side of the highway on the way. The roads weren't that bad yet, I just think many people drive like idiots sometime and refuse to drive a little slower and more cautiously when there is snow on the ground.

So the next three days I drove my four wheel drive pickup truck to work. The restaurant was closed (along with the entire State of New Jersey) the first day after the storm, but I still had to go there to plow the parking lot and get it ready to open the next day. I put a plow on my truck in the winter so I can keep my parking lot clear without having to wait for a plow contractor to get to me. I also use it for my driveway at my home which happens to be 350 feet long and all uphill. My wife drove the MINI-E to work for a couple days while I used the truck to clean things up. It was so much snow I had to plow the lot about ten times and then use a snow blower to create giant mounds of snow about twelve feet high! One day I followed my wife for a awhile as our paths to work are the same for the first ten miles. I think it was the first time I followed anybody driving #250 so I had to take a picture of the car from the cabin of my truck following it.

EF-OPEC piloted by my lovely wife, and driving through "The Green" in Morristown, NJ.

So winter is back and along with it comes reduced range and a cold cabin, not exactly my favorite time with the MINI-E. However it still beats burning gasoline, spewing all kinds of pollutants as I drive and sending my money to OPEC. More on the cabin temperature in my next post!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

As the odometer of MINI-E #250 turned 48,000 miles today, New Years Day 2011, I can only think of how much has happened in the eighteen and a half months that I have been driving the car.

Back in 2008 when I first applied to be in the trial lease program electric cars weren't really talked about too much and if you wanted one you had to either buy a $110,000 Tesla or build your own, and for most folks neither were really viable options. Now, only two years later you hear about the Chevy Volt or the Nissan LEAF in all media outlets since retail customers have begun to take delivery of them.

The electric car has gone from virtual obscurity to a topic that is debated by pundits on a daily basis. Customers are finally getting a choice. We can finally decide for ourselves what type of fuel we use to power our cars: oil that is pumped halfway across the planet and who's profit goes to radical fundamentalist regimes, or electricity that is generated entirely in the United States by US workers, working for US companies and where 100% of the money you spend on that electricity stays in our local economies.

Sure there are sacrifices to be made when driving a pure battery electric car. The limited range and long recharge time makes EV's less versatile than a typical internal combustion engine car, but this is only the beginning. These cars will continue to improve, battery technology will advance, charging compatibilities will get faster and the gap in functionality in the two propulsion systems will shrink.

Energy independence will not happen overnight and we are a long, long way from being able to tell the OPEC puppet masters that they do not own us anymore, but at least there is now hope. Hope that we can break the chains that have kept us dependent and even subservient to the regimes that control the supply of oil we so desperately need. Happy New Year everyone!

I also wanted to say "thank you" to everyone that has visited this blog, sent me emails and posted messages to the entries. Your enthusiasm and support help to inspire me to keep the blog current.

In 2010 this blog had 31,000 visitors from 93 countries! There were 10,000 visits from the United States followed by 3,300 from Germany, 800 from Canada, 400 from Spain, and 350 from the UK. The rest of the countries all had less than 300 visits per country. Thanks again for the support!

MINI-E Driver Stefan Reitmeier Checks in From Germany

2010-12-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

BMW has expanded the MINI-E program to include trial lease programs in Germany, the UK, France, China and soon they will launch in Japan. Many of the cars that are in these countries were originally leased to US customers and were redeployed abroad when the customers didn't renew for a second year as I did.

This post was written by Stefan Reitmeier who is driving MINI-E #014 in Munich Germany.

My name is Stefan, I’m working in the automotive industry as an engineer for body-in-white joining technology and I’m driving the electric MINI #014 for the period of nine month in the German city of Munich. At my job I have nothing to do with electrical car engineering, but as I got the information that MINI E test drivers are searched in Munich for a public test program, I filled out the online application form on the MINI website. And I was lucky to get one!

In Germany BMW operates two test fleets of MINI E’s. Since June 2009 there are 50 MINI's in Berlin on the road. In 2011 their number will raise to 70. In Munich since June 2009 15 MINI’s were tested. This number was increased to 40 in September 2010. From these 40 cars, ten are operated by the Red Cross to gather information of electric cars used in the carpool of a fleet-operator. Four MINI’s are held by the companies involved to the test program and 26
were distributed to private users. For these cars they had about 670 applications via the internet.

At its first mission #014 got about 7000 mi (11300 km) on its odometer driven around Los Angeles by Kathy Bakken:

Now it's back in Munich:

The MINI’s returning from the US after their leasing contract ended are not scrapped, but overhauled and sent to new missions in Germany, France, China,...

Because the car is only ONE part of electro-mobility, local power suppliers and manufacturers of charging stations are also involved in the test program. In addition to the wall boxes for the private garages also several public charging stations in the city area are installed. In Munich about 30 public charging locations are operational or under construction.

In Berlin the power supplier made first steps to integrate smart grid features to the wall box. The user plugs in the car and selects the time when the SOC has to be 100%. The power supplier manages the charging and has the possibility to use excessive wind or solar energy in times of low power consumption to fill up the battery. Unfortunately in Munich this feature is not installed...

I like the electric driving with the MINI E very much. The smooth and fast acceleration, the low level of noise and vibration, no exhaust...concerning to this every conventional car seems a bit old-fashioned and obsolete. Being part of the daily traffic jam sometimes I feel like a non-smoker surrounded by smokers.

I use the car almost every day. My daily commute to work and back is a total of 12,5 mi (20 km), so range is no issue. Nevertheless I do not charge the car every day and the maximum traveled distance with one charge spread over several days was 74 mi (119 km) with about 12 mi (20 km) left. But I do not want to go to or beyond the limits when having the chance to recharge.

On the German autobahn I usually have traveling speeds of 80-85 mph, which of course cut the range. But my parent’s home at a distance of 46 mi (74 km) is safe to reach. Recharging there is absolutely required before driving back. You have to consider MINI Es limited speed of 94 mph (152 km/h) when using the left lane of the autobahn to overtake a slower car. You quickly become yourself a slow obstacle for faster drivers with traveling speeds of 110 mph and more ...
Anyhow, the limited speed is necessary for a rational dimensioning of the electrical components in an electric car and the 94 mph are appropriate even for the German autobahn.

Not appropriate for German weather conditions is the lack of an active temperature management system for the battery. Temperature at present is 19°F (-7°C) and the battery temperature in the unheated garage drops to 34°F (1°C). At this temperature the MINI refuses to charge. But the car still drives. Due to my short commute the gain in battery temperature for the single distance is only about 5-7°F (2-3°C). With the car parked the whole day in the parking structure, the temperature may fall to a critical point where the car even won't start. The MINI-Team sent an E-Mail and warned that the car may fail at battery temperatures below 41°F (5°C)!

Thermal management of the battery is a crucial point for an electric car and the insufficient solution in the MINI E is maybe the biggest deficiency the car has.

In my opinion one of the cars main missions is: Bringing the electric drive into people’s minds in a manner that it is not just possible, but even better than a conventional one. This applies to both the people who buy cars and the people who develop and produce cars.

Keeping some restrictions in mind, the electric car offers:

- less noise/vibration and no exhaust (important for people both inside and outside the car)
- more driving joy (important for BMW and their customers)
- the chance to use renewable energy sources (important for all of us)

All deficiencies of the MINI E like limited space, reliability of the driving range due to unstable battery condition, inadequate performance of the cabin heater and so on are well known now and attributed to the prototype status of the car and its short-term realization.

At the next level the ActiveE will eliminate those deficiencies, providing four seats with a respectable trunk, an active thermal management of the battery, an improved visualization of the cars energy status and the ability to precondition the car while plugged in. This will increase reliability and provide the best use of the limited battery capacity.

The ActiveE will do the fine tuning before getting to the final level, the project i / MCV. As you can imagine, I'm quite excited about this...

You are invited to take a look at http://oh-e-mini.blogspot.com/ . It's my blog in German language.

Some posts I translated into English. In this case you can follow the English Version -link below the post headline.

With best regards from Germany
Stefan

"EF-OPEC" has a Canadian Brother!

2010-12-19T16:04:00.001-05:00

I get a lot of attention from other motorists while I'm driving around in MINI-E #250. However when I first got the car that wasn't always the case. BMW really didn't do much to announce that the car was a 100% pure electric car. There are decals of plugs on the car, but nothing actually said "electric". Many of the MINI-E drivers like myself complained about that and some of us added "electric" chrome emblems like I did to the side and back of the car. Some took it a step further and had vanity license plates made that further proclaimed our freedom from oil. My choice (and fact that I actually got it approved) of "EF-OPEC" has really drawn a lot of attention to me. Newspapers like the NY Times, the Star Ledger, the Daily Record and even the Wall Street Journal have noted my license plate.

So when Joerg of Vancouver, BC, one of the people that follow this blog saw the above picture in the Vancouver Sun, he knew he had to forward it to me. Joerg has been following this blog for a while now and occasionally emails me EV related articles. Joerg lives in Vancouver but is originally from Germany and has helped me translate English to German in the past.

I have never seen an EF-OPEC plate on any car other than mine before and I wonder if this person had it before I did. Perhaps they read about me and MINI-E #250 and got the idea there. I guess we'll never know. Anyway, it's great to see others have the same feelings I do even if it's on a car that does burn gasoline and need frequent oil changes. Maybe they just wanted to reserve the plate so when an electric car is available they can transfer it. Judging from the license plate, I bet this person will be one of the first in line to buy an electric car when one is available in BC. Don't worry buddy, you won't have to wait much longer...

Munich, We Have a Problem!

2010-12-14T12:19:00.002-05:00

That icon you see of a plug with an exclamation mark is what the car is supposed to show if you have the car plugged in and charging and you try to start it up. The car will not start while it's plugged in so you cannot make the mistake of driving off while it's still tethered to the EVSE wall charger attached to your home. That would be like driving away from a gas station while the gas nozzle is still pumping gas into your tank, something that does happen every once in a while and is extraordinarily dangerous and at best only results in a destroyed gas pump and a huge insurance claim. At worst a spark ignites the spilled gasoline and the whole place blows up, along with you and the people working there!

The problem I have is that this icon is coming on and the car isn't plugged in. This means for some reason the electronics thinks the car is plugged in and won't allow me to start it. Plus, if I try to charge it the red protection light on the EVSE lights up which means it has gone into protection mode because there has been a problem detected. So basically I can neither start nor charge it, which leaves me with little choice than to have her towed in to Morristown MINI for the "flying doctors" to take a look at it.

This is the first time I have had a problem and the car needed to be towed in about a year as the car has proven to be very reliable considering it is a prototype test car and even this time I believe I had a hand in on it's demise. On Sunday night I was charging outside at my restaurant in the rain. We had quite a storm and it was really pouring. When I unplugged the car, I quickly put the cap on the receptacle on the car as to not allow rain to get it wet. What I failed to realize was the the plastic cap had filled with rain water and when I slid it on the charge receptacle it flooded the area with water.

I drove home without a problem, but when I arrived and went to charge the car, I noticed how wet the plug area was and that there was actually a lot of water inside the plug receptacle. I dried it off as best I could and left the cap off overnight to let it air out. I didn't need to charge the car to get to work the next day so that wasn't going to be a problem. In the morning when I tried to start the car all I would get was the icon pictured above, meaning the car believed that it was plugged in which it wasn't. By now the area looked dry, but I guess inside was still wet so I let the car sit all day and took my Toyota to work.

This morning I got up and tried to turn it on again but I still get the plug icon. I figure that if it hasn't dried out in roughly 36 hours then the water probably did some damage that needs to be fixed so I called for a tow and it's now off to Morristown MINI. I figure this was 50% my fault and 50% the cars fault. I definitely shouldn't have poured water on the receptacle, but the car should be able to handle screw ups like this, there are plenty of idiots like me out there that make mistakes. I'm sure they could design the plug area better to prevent problems like this from happening and that is exactly what the MINI-E program is about; finding design flaws like this and correcting them so future EV's that actually make it to the showroom don't have them. The more I think about it, the MINI-E program was a brilliant idea. BMW is getting more real world data and information with this program than they could ever get with internal testing, and they are getting us to pay a lease payment to participate! Genius! So I sent Rob Healey, technical coordinator for the MINI-E and Vincent Immerso, MINI-E service adviser for the MINI-E at Morristown MINI an email that detailed the issue and a heads up that they should expect the car shortly.

Within an hour I got a call from Vincent and then an email from Rob to let me know they will get right on it today and get me that car back as soon as possible. Vincent asked me if I needed a loaner car, which I declined for the time being, and Rob informed me that Shaun Gillilan, one of the flying doctors was already en-route to check out #250. That is some great service!

So it looks like there is no need to call and complain to Richard Steinberg, manager of BMW's North American electric vehicle operations or Dr. Norbert Reithofer, BMW CEO to make them aware of this problem. The rank and file have this under control.

UPDATE: The car was fixed the same day and I already picked it up. As I thought, the problem was caused by excessive water infiltrating the plug recepticle. My bad!

Pushing the Limit

2010-12-12T21:50:00.002-05:00

The MINI-E speedometer and power gauge

During my eighteen months with MINI-E #250 I have tried to test the car in every way. I have pushed the range until I thought I would need to be towed, I have overloaded the cabin with hundreds of pounds of cargo, I have seen battery temperature extremes from 118 degrees to a low of 39 degrees and I've generally driven it like someone that is trying to find the weak links so BMW could identify them and improve upon the findings in future models.

I have also not forgotten to test the 95mph electronically governed top speed either. In fact, on a few occasions I have tried to push it a little higher and beat the limiter. I did succeed to squeeze out 96mph, but not any more than that. I was really hoping to get a bit closer to 100, but after a few attempts I have all but given up. When you hit the 95 mph limit, the car cuts the power until it drops down to about 90 and then supplies power again, so you constantly bounce between 90 and 95 if you just keep the accelerator floored. I even tried to do it going downhill with the hopes that I could squeeze out a few more mph but it didn't happen.

It's not that the car doesn't have the power, because it does. In fact, at high speed it has plenty of power and gets up to the 95mph limit with ease, but the electronic limit then takes over. I'm not sure if BMW just doesn't want us to have an accident at such high speeds or if perhaps the car just isn't geared to go faster and could have problems if we were to drive it to the limit. There is also the issue of battery use at these high speeds. The car uses a lot of power pushing the air out of the way at these high speeds. From my experiences I surmise that driving the car at 90+ mph continuously would cut the range in half of what the car would normally get so you wouldn't want to drive that fast often unless you were not far from your charger.

I think it's that reason that the other automakers that are coming out with pure electric cars in the near future have all set electric governed top speed limiters like the MINI-E has. For example the Nissan LEAF is limited to 90mph, the Smart Electric Drive can only go 60mph, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is 81mph, the Honda Fit EV is 90mph and the Ford Focus EV is limited to 85. I'm pretty sure these cars, without the limiters could go much faster, but they would then use up the energy stored in their packs extremely fast and possibly leave their driver stranded and unable to make it to their nearest charge point.

Personally I don't think there is much a need to go faster than 80mph in an EV (unless of course it's a Tesla Roadster!) so I don't mind the limiters as long as they are at least 80mph. In just about any driving situation, you wouldn't need to go faster than that to keep up with the flow of traffic on any highway. As long as the car has the instant torque and plenty of low speed power you would expect with an EV. The trade off you sacrifice in range just to drive a little faster just isn't worth it. I know I'm driving a little slower than I used to now that I'm driving an EV(except when I'm testing the top speed limit of course!) and when I think about it, I guess that a good thing.

#250 Gets a New Pair of Shoes

2010-12-10T13:04:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about the MINI-E program is that everything is included in the $600/month payment. Everything includes all service and repairs (even if you caused damage or excessive wear) new tires when needed, even wiper blades and windshield wiper fluid! No matter what breaks or is worn, it is fixed for free.

The East Coast pioneers (drivers in NY & NJ) also get free snow tires installed in the fall and then new all season tires installed in the spring. To make it easier for the dealers, the tires come mounted on new wheels so every 6 months I get a new set of tires and brand-spankin' new wheels. While the California drivers do get tire replacement as needed, they don't automatically get new ones every six months like we do on the east, and they certainly don't get new wheels every six months either. I'm on my fourth set of tires and wheels now in eighteen months with the car

Then again they don't have to deal with the problems the cold weather creates as we do so I guess BMW is throwing us on the East a bone for putting up with the reduced range and freezing interior(because the heater really doesn't work at all in cold weather) but that's a story for another post... stay tuned.

Little Car, Big Impact

2010-12-06T19:44:00.003-05:00

The MINI-E is a physically small car. You don't need to park it next to big trucks to realize that.

However, the cliche "Big things can come in small packages" may never have been more appropriate to say about any other automobile than the MINI-E. Flash back to 2008 when BMW first decided to make the MINI-E. Other than the Tesla Roadster, there were no options for a highway capable electric car, and the Tesla really wasn't an option for 99.9% of the population. The only choice a person really had to drive an electric car was to build one themselves, which again, isn't much of an option for most people. When I came across the online application to test drive an electric car for a year, it was such a unique opportunity I went for it.

Honestly, I don't think BMW had any idea the car would be as successful as it has turned out to be. They originally offered only a one year, closed-end lease because they didn't know how good the car would be, if people would like driving them or if they really wanted to make a serious commitment to electric vehicles. The MINI-E was truly a litmus test to see how the public would react to e-mobility. Now, about two and a half years after BMW decided to conduct the Trial Lease program, they have offered second year renewals, expanded the program to six countries, announced the MINI-E successor(BMW ActiveE) and have announced plans to sell a purpose-built electric car in 2013, the BMW megacity.

The MINI-E has also made believers out of many of the lessees who, like myself weren't really sure that they could live with an electric car. Well, this little car proved without a doubt that we can and in fact prefer to. The smooth acceleration, instant torque, and quiet drive of the MINI-E give it an exceptional driving experience. The fact that I can use domestically generated electricity (or electricity that I make myself with my solar array) make it even more enjoyable. Energy independence is an important issue for many people. More and more people are realizing the effects our addiction to foreign oil has on America. The cumulative effects of spending (borrowing really) over a billion dollars a day on foreign oil is crippling our economy and the powerful oil lobby spends hundreds of millions of dollars to influence policy in our government. People are beginning understand how dangerous it is to rely on foreign regimes for our energy needs and want options. They want to be able to choose the fuel that they use to power their automobiles and the MINI-E came along and showed us what EV advocates have been saying for years now; that electric cars are a viable option and that there is a demand for them.

Recently autobloggreen.com posted an article titled: "How BMW created electric vehicle advocates through Mini E program" which basically said that the people that have leased the MINI-E love it so much they want to tell others how great it is. They are definitely right in saying this. Many of the MINI-E drivers like myself have become active in advocating electric cars, bringing our MINI-E's to green car events and even speaking at conferences and expo's about their experiences with the car.

About a month ago BMW announced they would be investing 560 million dollars to upgrade their Leipzig assembly plant to build electric cars and another 180 million dollars to build electric car components. That's nearly three quarters of a billion dollars! One thing is for sure, they wouldn't have made such a grand commitment to e-mobility had the MINI-E program been a failure. I'm pretty sure BMW had no idea how much this little car would effect the future of their company when they first proposed building it.

A MINI-E Police Car?

2010-12-01T12:50:00.001-05:00

I stumbled upon this article on autoevolution that shows a converted MINI-E police car. The conversion was done by AC Schnitzer. There is obviously no plans to make these cars but I thought it was a neat story and enjoyed seeing the MINI-E in colors other than the gray, black and yellow trim that all the stock cars com in. The yellow interior trim was also painted blue and additional gauges were added as well as a police radio. I do like the wheels, but I bet they would cut into the cars range a bit. Maybe BMW will do this conversion for me the next time I'm in for service, I certainly wouldn't complain....

Regenerative Braking: How Much is Enough?

2010-11-26T22:21:00.001-05:00

For the most part, electric cars like the MINI-E drive the same as their pollution spewing ICE counterparts. Sure they are much quieter and the instant torque of their electric motors cannot be matched by traditional gasoline powered motors. However overall they are still cars, much the same as others just with a different energy source. The biggest difference in driving an EV as compared to a traditional car is the brakes.

While traditional cars use regular mechanical brakes, who's function is solely to slow the vehicle down, electric cars employ regenerative brakes which have two functions; slow the car down, and capture energy.
When you use your traditional brakes, you are creating energy, you just have no way to capture and use it so it is simply converted into heat by way of friction and wasted. Regenerative brakes are a mechanism which slows a vehicle by converting its kinetic energy into electricity which is then put into the cars battery to increase it's range.

The MINI-E has become notorious for it's extremely aggressive regenerative brakes. When people drive the car for the first time it can be startling how strong the regen is. Journalists have written that the MINI-E's regenerative brakes are like deploying a parachute at highway speeds. I think that's a bit over the top, but I have to admit, they are very strong and you need to drive the car for a day or two before you get fully comfortable with them.

However once you do get used to them, everybody that I have spoken with absolutely loves it and missed it terribly when they drive other cars that do not have regenerative brakes. A friend of mine, Michael Thwaite drives a MINI-E in New Jersey as I do. Michael also owns a Tesla Roadster(lucky bastard!) and he and I were talking about the two cars recently and he told me that he likes the regenerative braking of the MINI-E better than that of the Tesla because it's stronger in the MINI-E. He even told me that after getting his MINI-E he wrote Tesla and asked them why they didn't make the regenerative braking stronger on the Tesla like it is on the MINI-E!

I have come to realize that although it may be disconcerting when you first drive a car with regenerative braking, once you have a little time with it you love it. This is true for all the MINI-E drivers that I know. You learn to drive with only your right foot and use the traditional brakes only in emergency situations. I'm certain I could drive the MINI-E more than 100,000 miles before I needed brake pad replacements for how little I use them.

However recently when I took #250 in for the regular 5000 mile service, I was told that they were making a "software tweak" and to see if I notice any differences. I do and I'm not really happy with it. The regenerative braking is definitely dialed back a bit, requiring me to ease up on the accelerator earlier than previously needed to slow down in time for a turn or a complete stop. During the eighteen months I have had the car, BMW has done these software tweaks a few times and almost always it seems the regen is dialed back a bit. I guess they are trying to get the most efficient balance between performance, range and regen. I just want BMW and the other auto manufacturers working on EV's to know this one thing: The stronger the regen the better! If you are afraid that some people won't like it so strong (believe me, don't worry about that) then allow the regen to be set by the driver and make it adjustable. Just don't take away my aggressive regenerative braking, the stronger the better!

Plugging In Beats Filling Up Any Day Of The Week

2010-11-16T22:22:00.001-05:00

November 12th was my 17th month anniversary with MINI-E #250. I have driven it almost 45,000 miles and I am approaching my 800th recharge. I keep detailed records of every time I drive the car as well as every time I charge up so I know exactly how many times I have plugged in, and that would be 791 times so far.

My MINI-E & a Tesla charging together

Sounds like a lot of work, right? I often hear people say how they wouldn't want an electric car and one of the reasons is because it's so easy to drive to a gas station and fill up. When you do so, you're generally good for 300 to 400 miles of driving as opposed to only a hundred miles or so for an EV.

The thing is, it's really no work at all to plug in, and only people that have lived with an EV can honestly attest to that. When I arrive home at night, it takes less than ten seconds to walk over to my EVSE, grab the cable and plug in. The car charges while I'm sleeping, it's that easy. When you need gas, you have to drive to a station and wait for them to fill your car up before you can continue on your way. My other car, a Toyota Tacoma can go about 325 miles between fill ups so I would have had to fill up at least 140 times, and most likely would have done so about 150 times.

So what would I prefer to do? Make 150 trips to the gas station or just pull into my garage like I always do every night anyway and take a few seconds to plug in my electric car? Continue to suck on the oil nipple that we have all been conditioned to believe that we need, or tell OPEC to shove their black gold up their a** and charge my electric car with clean renewable electricity that I make myself with my solar PV array.
Hmmm, let me think about that one for a while.........

Four Chevy Volts and a Tesla Roadster Come to Visit My MINI-E!

2010-11-13T22:33:00.002-05:00

The parking lot of my restaurant today was an EV supporters dream!
In addition to my MINI-E and my friends Tesla Roadster, we had four Chevy Volts stop by and hang out for the afternoon. That's right, there were four Chevy Volts in one place today and it wasn't a GM assembly line! There are only 15 Volts in the entire country on the road being driven by private citizens (The Volt Consumer Advisory Board Members) and four of them were in my parking lot for about three hours this afternoon. Lyle Dennis from GM-Volt.com and I organized the event. We had a bunch of people stop by and ask questions about the cars, the CAB members even gave some people test drives in their volts and Lyle even let me drive his volt for a while which was a great experience.

The car is everything it has been billed to be. It was powerful, had smooth acceleration, was nimble and felt like I was driving a luxury car, not at all like an economy car. You can't compare the driving experience to that of a Prius, which many people are trying to compare the volt to. I've driven a 2010 Prius, and it isn't in the volts league at all, not even close.

I would like to thank Lyle and the other three volt CAB members Mike Maria, Eric Rotbard and Robert Becker, as well as Michael Thwaite for bringing his Tesla roadster by. It was great to meet everybody and talk electric cars for a while. Reducing our oil dependency can be a lot of fun sometimes!

You can also check out Lyle's GM-Volt.com blog for more details on the day, he's going to do a post on the event tomorrow (Sunday 11/14)

I have to repeat how impressed I was with the volt. In my opinion GM has really nailed it with this car. The fit and finish was very good, it was very nimble and responsive and had that great quiet driving experience of an electric vehicle that I have come to really appreciate. I'm betting these cars will sell very well for a long time. It is definitely the best EREV/hybrid option available on the market today.

I'm Hosting a Chevy Volt Party!

2010-11-10T07:07:00.003-05:00

Lyle Dennis of GM-Volt and I have put together a Chevy Volt meet for this Saturday, November 13th from 11am to 2pm at my restaurant, Nauna's Bella Casa in Montclair NJ. Lyle is a member of GM's Consumer Advisory Board for the Volt and along with the other members, got his Volt yesterday. Lyle spoke to two other CAB members here on the East Coast and they too plan on bringing their Volts also.

This should be a really great way to get a look at one of the most anticipated cars in modern history before they are available to the public. We will have the cars on display in the restaurants parking lot.

Nauna's Bella Casa
148 Valley Road
Montclair, NJ 07042
www.naunas.com

Very few people have had an opportunity to see this car so far, much less three of them at one location. I'll have the MINI-E there also, but this is really going to be a Volt day! More details on the event later. You can also check out Lyle's GM-Volt blog for information.

Update: There will also be a Tesla Roadster there on display as well as my MINI-E so it will be a really great showing for the future of electric transportation.

MINI-E #250 and I are Included in the Marketing for Chris Paine's New Movie "Revenge of The Electric Car"

2010-11-08T12:49:00.001-05:00

Back in 2006 Chris Paine wrote and directed a documentary called "Who Killed The Electric Car". This is a must see movie for any electric car enthusiast. (Actually I think everybody should see it) The film purpose was to try to investigate why the automakers (mostly GM) made electric cars, took them back from the customers and then crushed just about all of them so there would be no chance of them resurfacing and proving how good they really were. Back in 2006 when Chris made this documentary it seemed a hopeless quest to try to encourage major automakers to commit to building EV's, they just didn't want to and would always say there just isn't enough consumer demand to justify making them.

Now jump only four years to 2010. Just about every major auto maker has an electric car in development and two of them, the Chevy Volt and the Nissan LEAF, will be available for sale within two months. BMW has had over 600 electric cars in real world testing for a year and a half now and is poised to start their second all electric test car, the ActiveE next summer and will sell their first all electric car called the megacity in 2013. Ford announced they will sell a Focus EV in 2012, Fiat will offer a 500 EV, Toyota has partnered with Tesla to make another RAV4 EV, Honda recently announced they will have an EV in showrooms soon, Smart will have an electric version of their car and Mitsubishi will offer the iMiev shortly. WOW! What happened in the scant few years since 2006 and nobody seemed interested in making electric cars?

So Chris is making a sequel called "Revenge of The Electric Car". The film should be out sometime this Spring and I'll announce more about it as the date approaches. I was contacted by Michelle Kaffko, producer of marketing and distribution for the film and asked if I was interested in having my EV story used to help promote the movie. There is a link to the movies website on the top right column of this blog or you can jump to it from HERE. Or just go to the website and click on the tab at the top that say's "Take Revenge" and scroll down a little to see how I've "Taken Revenge".

MINI-E software "Upgrade": I'm Not Sure That's What I'd Call It

2010-11-01T18:28:00.000-04:00

During the sixteen months that I've had the MINI-E now, there has been a few software "upgrades" that have been performed when I have taken the car in for the scheduled service every 5,000 miles. The reason for these are to correct any known "bugs" the software might have, like early on when some of the cars would jump from drive into neutral when you were stopped at a traffic light, and also to tweek the cars power output and regenerative braking to refine the driving experience and make it as smooth and pleasurable as possible.

When I brought the car in for service last week, Rob Healey, technical coordinator for the MINI-E, told me that they were doing a software upgrade and to let him know how I felt about the changes they made. Well it's only been about a week now so I'm going to give it a little more time before I email him to let him know how I feel about it, but so far I'm not really lovin' it. They did seem to make the transition from acceleration to regenerative braking and vise-versa more subtle and smoother, but the regenerative braking has definitely been dialed back a bit and I need to adjust to it. I have found myself using the actual brakes much more than I have needed before and I don't really like that. Perhaps once I get used to it I will adjust my driving to once again use the regen for most all of my slowing down and stopping, but for now I find myself having to use the brakes to prevent myself from running into the rear of the car in front of me or overshooting a stop sign or intersection. It may just be me needing to get used to the new program. After driving the car for so long I got used to exactly when I needed to let off the accelerator to slow down for a turn or stop at a light and I need to re-learn that again.

You might ask why BMW does this and that is a legitimate question. I'm not 100% sure but I assume they want to test different levels of regenerative braking for efficiency as well as customer comfort. I recently spoke to a Tesla owner who also drives a MINI-E here in New Jersey and he said the MINI-E's regenerative braking is much stronger than Tesla's. He needs to adjust every time he drives one car and then the other. Some people like very aggressive regen and others don't want it to feel like they released a parachute to slow the car down every time they let off the accelerator. After driving the MINI-E I have learned to love the aggressive regenerative braking and for me, the stronger the better. Personally I think all EV makers just allow the driver to adjust the regen to the level they feel most comfortable with. I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to have that as an option that the driver can set to the position they like.

Back in the Drivers Seat

2010-10-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

Good news. After only about 5 hours after dropping off #250 for my 42,000 mile service and to check out the fan issue I got a call from my service manager Vinnie to tell me the car was all set and ready to be picked up.

Since I was at work and had a busy night in front of me (a party of 50 was booked) I couldn't leave and get the car so I picked it up this morning on my way to work. Vinnie greeted me as he always does, with my keys, an explanation of what services were performed and a smile. Service writers can help to make a usually unpleasant trip to the dealer more bearable by explaining everything they needed to do and simply being personable and Vinny does a good job at both. I am happy I got my MINI-E from Morristown MINI because I am very pleased with the overall job the service department does there. The car is always cleaned and charged when I pick it up. The only criticism I can really offer is that Morristown MINI doesn't have many actual MINI's to give out as service loaner cars and they use Enterprise Rent a Car for this. I know most dealers use this practice (When I had a Mercedes they also used a rental company for their service loaners unless you were a "Gold Circle" customer and probably needed to buy ten cars from the dealer to qualify) In all my service trips for the MINI-E (about ten) I only got to use an actual MINI once and it was a clubman. I really liked driving the car and it even made me think about buying one. I think this is a great way to showcase their products and possibly get their service customers to want to upgrade to a newer MINI or clubman. Oh well, what do I know?

Anyway, #250 is back on the road and I only had to shell out $8.00 for gas yesterday. Not bad, but consider this: The same miles driven in my MINI-E would have cost me about $2.65 in electricity, and that was for just ONE DAY of driving!

I'm Burning Gasoline For a While

2010-10-27T14:49:00.001-04:00

One of the unfortunate aspects of the MINI-E program is that I have to bring the car in for service every 5,000 miles. The BMW technicians trained to work on these cars (called the flying doctors) inspect every detail, check all the battery modules and download the data the car has captured since the last service visit.

I recently turned 42,000 and that meant I had gone 5k since my last service so I knew I had to make an appointment soon. Then yesterday I noticed the battery temperature was unusually high, as it was over 100 degrees and this time of year when it's typically 60 to 70 degrees outside I usually see battery temperatures in the 80's so something was off. I then looked (and listened) closely to the battery compartment and didn't hear the usual sound of the fans that pull air from the cabin of the car and blow it across the battery pack. I'm guessing they stopped functioning and the increase in battery temperature is the result. If it were in the middle of the summer, it would be a big problem and probably prevent me from being able to drive the car because the modules would get too hot and the car would shut down. However since it is now cooler outside, I could have probably driven it fora while with no real effects or problem.

I emailed Rob Healey at BMW and asked him if he wanted me to bring the car right in for service or wait until next week when I had originally planned to bring it in for the 5,000 mile service. As I expected, he said being it in as soon as possible, not wanting to take a chance. So this morning I brought it in to Morristown MINI and picked up my 2010 Dodge Charger loaner car.

I got a nice surprise while I was waiting for the loaner car at the dealership as Rob Healey and Hugo VanGeem from BMW just happened to be there. Rob is the Technical coordinator for the MINI-E and Hugo is the head of BMW's electric car sales. It was nice to see them in person and say hello as I usually only correspond with them via email.

It is worth noting that this is the first malfunction I have had since last December, nearly a full year now. I did have a problem in February, but that was caused by me hitting a big pothole and messing up some stuff in the front end, hardly the cars fault. So now I'll be joining everybody else for the next few days. I'll be burning gas, supporting terrorism, sending my US dollars to foreign regimes and polluting the air as I drive. Luckily, it won't be for long.

EV Range Isn't set in Stone

2010-10-25T21:21:00.001-04:00

Electric cars like the MINI-E are often gauged by how far they can go on a single charge. It seems that most of the auto manufacturers are focusing on 100 miles per charge as the minimum acceptable single charge range. The MINI-E has been tested to get 156 miles on a single charge using the EPA LA-4 cycle, but this doesn't mean much to those of us driving these cars because we have come to realize the real-world driving range is around 100 miles. Some get more, some less, it all depends on your driving habits.

The slower you drive, the further you can go. That is the simplest way to explain the how your range can vary. This isn't much different from a gasoline powered car. The slower you drive, the better your mpg. My range varies from day to day, depending on how aggressive I drive. The MINI-E is a lot of fun to drive. The instant torque of the electric drive and great handling that all MINI Coopers have make it easy to want to drive the car spiritedly. Since I record all the data from my daily driving I can clearly see the difference when I drive normally, aggressively and economically. The other day I forgot that I was going to need to drive about 115 miles before I could plug in and was driving pretty fast on the highway, around 75 mph for a while. When I was halfway through my day I realized that I was already down to about 40% SOC and now needed to be very efficient for the rest of my journey.

When I was about 85 miles into the day, my estimated range was at only 10 miles and I still was 32 miles from plugging in. I now needed to be very efficient. I had two choices, get off the highway and drive a route that I knew. This was all secondary roads and I could drive 35mph or so and I would be able to squeeze out the 32 miles for sure. The other choice was much more risky: Stay on the route 80, find a tractor trailer and hypermile by drafting behind the 18 wheeler. Being the risk taker that I am, I decided to go the dangerous route. It didn't take me long to hook up with a tractor trailer, pull up right behind him and begin draft.

This is very dangerous and I don't advocate doing this. You need to be very alert and ready to brake immediately if the truck does. This hyper-miling technique is commonly used by people in gasoline powered cars and hybrids that try to get the highest mpg that they can. They even have competitions on who can go the furthest using the lease amount of gas, so this isn't an "electric car thing". It works because by drafting behind the large truck, your car doesn't have to use much energy to push the air away from its path. This air resistance is the main reason why going faster reduces efficiency because the faster you go, the wind resistance increases exponentially. As I started moving along behind the truck I could see the range indicator actually go up for a while. A few miles and I now had 15 miles of range remaining, up from 10. I followed the truck the entire time I was on route 80 which was about 28 miles. When I got off the highway I still had 6 miles of estimated range. Therefore, I drove 28 miles and only lost 4 miles of range!

When I arrived at work I had driven 117 total miles and had 0 miles of estimated range left. Had I driven the whole day more efficiently, I'm sure I could have done the 117 miles and had 5 -10 miles of range remaining without having the need to dangerously draft behind a truck. I want you to know I do not regularly do this, I don't find it necessary and I really wouldn't want to take the risk of an accident. This was as much a test for the car as it was a product of me having the inexplicable need to live dangerously every now and then. I don't want anyone getting the impression that this would be necessary if you had an electric car because it in no way is. In fact most of the people that do this drive gasoline powered cars. If you look around while your driving on a major highway it won't take you too long to see a car following a big rig a little closer than you would normally do, they are probably doing it consciously to increase their fuel efficiency.

I've talked to a lot of electric car drivers and many of them have their own way to extend the range. Some hyper-mile, some put the car in neutral and coast downhill, others have ways to use the regenerative braking more than others, and some practice all kinds of hyper-miling techniques. However we all agree the simplest way to go as far as possible whatever EV you own is to just drive a little slower.

The Wall Street Journal Features Me in a Series about Electric Cars

2010-10-20T18:28:00.000-04:00

The chart above is a representation of an entire day in my life driving the MINI-E. Mike Ramsey from the Wall Street Journal contacted me a while ago and told me he was doing a series on electric cars. He said it was his intention to show all sides to EV's; the positives and the negatives and he wanted to talk to people that had both points of view. He asked me if I felt OK with being chosen to represent the pro-EV side.

That both a great feeling and a little scary. I have been in the news quite a bit lately but this was still a great honor since the Wall Street Journal is such well respected paper with world wide distribution and out of all the electric car advocates there are, Mike sought me out to be the example of how and why people do like electric cars.

Since Mike writes out of Detroit, we did the interviews over the phone and even a little through email. He had the Journal send a photographer to my house one day at about 9:00am and spent the entire day with me. He left his car in my driveway and came with me to work and drove around with me anytime I used the car, finally returning home with me at 10:00 at night. The purpose of this was to take pictures and record my use of the car for one entire day. They wanted to show the state of charge the car had, the miles, my average speed and outside temperature to make the graphic posted above. If you click the link below to the complete article you can enlarge the graph and see additional information.

The series of articles in the Journal did have more of an anti-EV slant, with Mike concentrating more on the roadblocks and issues that EV's may have than the positives. I'm a little disappointed that he didn't print more of what we talked about because I think a defended electric cars admirably and offered reasons why people are going to embrace them instead of focusing on their shortcomings. We talked about how the early cell phones were so expensive, had terrible range and were huge and cumbersome but somehow, despite the problems of the early models they prevailed and are now a part of just about everyone's life.

I got a lot of emails after the article ran and a couple "well done" messages from a few electric car advocates. You never know how an article will be written when you give an interview. Although I would have like to see a little more about the reasons I gave for why I think EV's will be a success, overall I think Mike was fair and didn't misrepresent anything we discussed. You can read the whole article by clicking on this link.

New Article on me in the Daily Record of New Jersey

2010-10-18T11:54:00.001-04:00


Photo by John Bell

I was featured in a story that ran on the front page of the Daily Record this Saturday. It was written by Laura Bruno and was about the MINI-E, my solar electric system and my desire to see the country reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Click HERE to jump to the full article.

MINI-E Survives the "Left Running All Night" Test!

2010-10-16T13:45:00.000-04:00

I got up this morning and was ready to leave with my wife to go for a Saturday morning drive like we often do. I grabbed my wallet and cell phone but conspicuously absent from the counter were my keys. I always put my wallet and keys next to my cellphone charger so I never forget to take any of them when I leave in the morning so it was unusual that the keys weren't there. I'm not the kind of person that leaves them anywhere and often has to look for them. I'm structured and very organized, sometimes too much so. If the keys weren't on the counter than there really was only one other place they would be: in the ignition of the car!

I walked out into the garage and there they were, in the ignition and the car was "running". I use the word running but I really should say "turned on" because there is no engine to be running. In fact, if there had been an engine "running" I most certainly wouldn't have left it "turned on" all night like I did.

Last night was a busy night at the restaurant and I got home a little after midnight. When I was just about home I got a text from one of my employees that flew into Chicago last night and he was telling me he just landed after a 5 hour delay at Newark Liberty Airport. I was only a mile or so from home when he texted me so I figured I'd wait until I got home to reply. So as soon as I pulled into the garage, I turned off the radio and headlights and then replied to his text. We exchanged a few messages about how he now missed his connecting flight and needed to rent a car to get to his final destination because there were no more flights that night. I then grabbed the stuff I had in the car, and went inside my house leaving the car on all night.

I've never done this before and I haven't even heard of any of the other MINI-E drivers doing it either. There were however a couple of things that conspired to my making this mistake.

1) The car is completely quiet when it's turned on but not moving. If it had been an internal combustion car, I would have most certainly shut it off. I guess it's possible to leave the keys in the ignition with an ICE car, but not leave to the car running in a quiet garage.

2) I didn't need to charge the car last night. I had charged the car at work yesterday, so when I arrived home I was still at about 70% SOC and there was no need to charge up. I would have plenty of juice to take a drive with my wife in the morning and then drive to work and plug in there. As I have stated here before, I charge at work as much as possible because my electric rate at work is $.11/kWh verses $.18kWh at home. If I had needed to charge it when I got home, the car would have let me know it was still turned on when I plugged in by not accepting the charge so I would have realized what I did.

3) I have a digital keypad to unlock my door from the garage to the house to I didn't need my keys to get inside my house.

I did learn one thing from this. The car had about 5% less charge in the morning than it did when I left it at night so there must be a draw going on when the car is sitting and turned on. I know the battery fans go on every now and then to bring fresh air across the modules so I guess that could be it.

I can imagine how much carbon monoxide would have been in the garage this morning is I did manage to leave an internal combustion engine car running in there all night. I recently installed new garage doors that are insulated and seal the opening really well to prevent drafts so there wouldn't be a way for the gas to escape.

One good thing to think about is I guess suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning will be a thing of the past once battery electric cars are in everyone's garage!

Back From The Bay Area Green Drive Expo

2010-10-12T18:50:00.005-04:00


Picture of me and #250 on the Jumbotron at The Green Drive Expo

About two months ago I was asked by Brad Berman of PluginCars.com if I would like to sit on a panel of experienced electric car drivers to talk about living with an electric car and answer questions about the MINI-E and BMW's electric future. Brad was putting together the Bay Area Green Drive Expo and wanted one of the event programs to be three experienced EV owners for a Q & A session. I agreed to participate and the event was last Saturday, October 8th at the Craneway pavilion in Richmond, CA.

The event went really well. There were about 3,000 visitors and I got a chance to talk to some long time EV advocates like Chelsea Sexton (Who Killed The Electric Car) and Marc Geller, one of the founders of Plug In America. The two other panelists with me were Darell Dicky and Earl Cox. Darell has a RAV 4 EV and Earl has a Tesla Roadster. Both of them leased an EV-1 when they were available(Before GM took them all back and crushed them) and are fountains of information about electric cars. Darell, Earl and I are all frequent posters on Plugincars.com so I have communicated with them online, but had never met them before the event. It was nice to finally meet some of the people that I have been messaging online for a while now. Being on the East Coast I don't always get to meet many of the hard core EV advocates since many of them live in California where electric cars like the EV-1, the RAV 4 were available for a while.

I really had a good time. I talked with so many people about the MINI-E, the BMW ActiveE and also the 2013 BMW Megacity vehicle. BMW was not present so I felt like the defacto representative. There were people there that were really interested in BMW's plans for electric mobility. I handed out printed cards that had ActiveE information on them and directed them to BMW's website and Project i Facebook page for information. There was a Nissan LEAF there, as well as two Tesla Roadsters, a Ford Focus EV, a Think City, a plug in Prius, a Mitsubishi iMiev, a Smart car, about a dozen professional conversions, electric motorcycles and electric assist bicycles. Chelsea Sexton was the keynote speaker, Toyota national manager of advanced technology Ed LaRocque gave a speech as did Gil Portalatin of Ford hybrid systems. There were test drives in the parking lot and all of the sponsors and speakers got together for a nice dinner after the event.

It was really a great expo. Marc Geller even drove me back to my hotel from dinner in his RAV 4 EV. I had never driven in one before so that was a pretty cool experience. For me the best part was getting to personally meet all the people that I have only communicated with by email for the past few years. Thank you Brad for extending the offer to me to be a part of it all.

UPDATE: Someone posted a video of Marc, Darell, Earl and me on Youtube. This was recorded right after we were on stage for our Q & A session. Below is the link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8QsoUMxQbU&feature=player_embedded

My CBS Radio Interview Aired Today

2010-10-04T21:46:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Sean Adams from CBS radio. Sean met me at Nauna's and I took him for a 15 minute drive and he interviewed me as we drove around Montclair. The interview was for a segment on CBS radio called "Stories From Main Street" and is about regular people doing unusual or extraordinary things. The interview aired on CBS radio today. You can hear the audio from the CBS radio website. You can jump to the site from the link below:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/10/04/stories-from-main-street-montclair-nj/

BMW Chief Designer Adrian Van Hooydonk Talks About The New MINI-E Scooter Concept

2010-10-01T12:09:00.003-04:00

Adrian Van Hooydonk is BMW's chief designer and is generally regarded as on of the best in the automotive industry. Adrian talked a few minuted to describe the new MINI-E scooter concept in the video posted below.

It is a line of electric scooters that were recently introduced at the Paris Auto Show. Adrian and his design team came up with three different designs, one of them shares the MINI-E color combination and subtly design characteristics. Personally, I think they all look great and if they can deliver the 65 miles per charge that I have read and not be too expensive, then I think they would sell well, especially in urban areas. This further confirms BMW's commitment to electric mobility and that they are proactively thinking out of the box for ways to meet then needs of efficient, low emission personal transportation.

MINI-E #250 Shows off at Green Transportation Expo

2010-09-29T16:52:00.000-04:00

I was asked to bring the car to a Green Transportation Expo in Florham Park last week. Fortunately, I pass through Florham Park on my way to work so it wasn't much of an inconvenience at all and I agreed. It was held in the parking lot of Pershing, LLC and there were about 15 other cars there. My MINI-E was the only pure electric so it got lots of attention and I was answering questions about it the whole time I was there. Most everyone really liked it and a few even knew about it.

I even spoke to one of the organizers and he had told me that they were looking into installing charging stations in their parking lot for their employees. As you can imagine I encouraged him to do so and even offered some ideas and told him I can help him get in contact with the companies that make the EVSE's if he needed help. It's really great to hear employers getting on board with the EV movement. Workplace charging will play a big role in the mass deployment of electric vehicles. My personal experience of living with an EV was definitely improved when I installed a charger at my workplace.

I talked about BMW's future EV plans including the ActiveE and Megacity vehicle and there was a lot of interest in those cars also. The day went well, there were a few hundred attendees and I'm sure more than a few of them went home with a different outlook on electric cars after I talked to them for a while.

Another Day, Another Interested Motorist

2010-09-24T21:44:00.000-04:00

I've frequently written about how often people stop me and ask questions about the MINI-E. Is it a hybrid? Is it really all electric? How do you charge it? The final question is often: Can I buy one?

I had another "electric car moment" this morning on my way to work. As I pulled up to a traffic light in Morristown I noticed the person behind me holding up their cell phone to take a picture of the back of my car. This happens all the time since I got my EF-OPEC vanity plates. Usually once they get a picture, it ends there but today was a bit different. Once the traffic light turned green and I started moving I noticed that he moved into the lane next to me and sped up to get even with me. He then lowered his window and motioned to me to lower my window. We were pulling up to another traffic light so I really didn't mind.

Once I lowered my window he quickly asked "I hate to inconvenience you, but do you have a minute, I would really love to talk to you about your car" I really wasn't in a rush to get to work anyway so I agreed and told him to pull into the Dunkin Donuts parking lot that was right up the street. It turned out that he read the article on me in the Star Ledger a few weeks ago and knew all about the MINI-E from reading about it but he had never saw one in person. He had lots of questions about range, charging, temperature management and even wanted to know if I had noticed any battery degradation yet so he knew the right questions to ask. He said he has a deposit on a Nissan LEAF and is waiting for it to be available in New Jersey.

After about a ten minute conversation he thanked me, I gave him this blog address and we parted ways. Encounters like this have been one of the most interesting part of being in the MINI-E program. I have met so many people that are interested in electric cars, much more than I ever expected. With cars like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan LEAF coming to showrooms in a couple months we will finally have a choice.

Guest Post on Edmunds Inside Line

2010-09-20T14:47:00.000-04:00

Edmunds Automotive is one of the most respected automotive authorities. For many years they have offered guidance for purchasing new and used cars in print and online. They also have a site that tests cars for long term durability. They buy the cars and drive them for a year or two and report on their time with the car. They call this site Edmunds Long Term Road Test. Occasionally at their request, I write guest blog posts for them about the MINI-E. Donna DeRosa, managing editor for Edmunds contacted me recently and asked me if I could write another post, this time about the effects the extreme heat we have had this summer has had on the MINI-E. Hit the link below to jump to the post I did.

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/guest-mini-e-blogger-the-heat-is-on.html

How Much Electricity Does the MINI-E Use?

2010-09-14T20:48:00.001-04:00

Phil Blackwood and #411 stop by Nauna's for a Charge

2010-09-11T22:28:00.000-04:00

Ever since I got a 50amp EVSE installed at my restaurant, Nauna's Bella Casa in Montclair, I have posted on the MINI-E facebook page and here on this blog that any other MINI-E driver that needs a charge can come over and "fill up" as needed. Many have taken me up on the offer. Actually much more than I expected, which is fine with me as I get to meet some of the others in the program, chat MINI-E, and then sell them a dinner or lunch while their car is charging.

This past Saturday Phil Blackwood stopped by with #411 for some quick electrons. Phil had driven from his home in Central Jersey to New York City to attend the Solar Road Trip rally, a movement to get the White House to re-install solar panels on the roof. Phil needed a little extra juice to make it back to his house and Nauna's was in a perfect location to stop off at on his way home.

Phil and I had a nice conversation, he had a late dinner and after about an hour charge he had more than enough juice to get home.
Thanks for stopping by Phil, it was nice to meet another MINI-E pioneer!

In the past year that I've had the EVSE at Nauna's I've probably had two dozen or so MINI-E's stop by to charge up. I'm thinking I need to talk to BMW about the installing a real public charging station in my parking lot when the ActiveE program begins and they can tell the ActiveE participants in the NY/NJ area that the station is available for them to use at no charge. We can get the press involved and advertise how BMW is committed to a sustainable future with alternative fuel vehicles... Hmmm