MINI E Makes LA Debut

Thursday, May 07, 2009
BMW's just held an event for the lessees of their MINI E at the Science Center, next to the University of Southern California, a really stellar venue when you consider the product they were showing. I arrived at the same time as Stefano Paris, Plug In America's documentarian, and as we walked from the parking lot, we went past an SR71 Blackbird on display to get to the party. This sleek, titanium marvel can travel at mach 3.2, orders of magnitude faster than the 95 mph MINI E. A truly awesome feat of engineering. It got us in the mood to see some equally exciting engineering, this time a combination of AC Propulsion's drive system packed into the tight confines of the German engineered MINI. 

There were lots of folks I knew in attendance, all of them excited that delivery was finally close. There have been delays, something we advocates of plug-ins have grown to expect. But these were happy folks. There was no mistaking it. I got to meet Nathalie Bauters, the communications director for the MINI E program in the U.S., and she assured me the delay was only due to getting final UL approval for the plug they are using for charging. The cars have been waiting in a parking lot in Oxnard for weeks. BMW wants to make sure that all of their customers have an approved and permitted charging station installed in their garage before delivery. 

This is exactly what happened when we got our Toyota RAV EV six years ago. No charger, no car. So, it appears most, if not all of the cars will be delivered in June. These MINIs, combined with the 400-500 Tesla Roadsters that will be on the road by end of June, effectively doubles the number of production highway capable EVs in the U.S.  The Teslas will continue delivering at a rate of 100 per month while the MINI E customers will be the only ones in the country with these cars until the year long test phase is over and BMW cranks up the production of more. 

The difference with how Nissan is approaching the EV is interesting. While BMW is taking a careful look at how its customers will be driving the cars and how they charge them, trying to see if there are any issues to deal with before committing to large numbers of EVs, Nissan is racing to get thousands on the road as fast as possible. They seem very comfortable that their car is going to be bulletproof right out of the gate. I heard today that they expect to have 5,000 Nissan EVs for sale by the end of 2010. It is expected they will expand production quickly to the tens of thousands in 2011. 

We are privileged to have front row seats to observe this quickly evolving transportation technology. When you look back 20 years from now, when virtually every vehicle sold has a plug on it, you'll remember these pioneer companies as being well ahead of the curve. Tesla will be a common brand, with several well received models in all price ranges, and there will be a few proud owners of the original Apteras zipping along the freeways among all manner of new plug-in cars, trucks and even SUVs. The gas burners of today will be mostly gone, replaced with cleaner and quieter cars. The 200 people at tonight's party will soon take their place among the pioneers who helped bring this future about. You could really feel their excitement. My good friend, Jeff U'ren, who came loaded with questions for the BMW folks and came away satisfied with the answers. The one question about whether the lessees can take the $7,500 tax credit is still to be determined. More on that later...
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Wally Rippel drives the MINI E

Saturday, May 02, 2009
AC Propulsion, the San Dimas, CA, company that birthed the modern-day EV with its AC-150 drive train, was tapped by BMW last year to provide drivetrains for an initial run of 500 Minis. Dubbed the "MINI E," these fully-electric cars are just weeks from being deployed on the streets of Southern Californai, New York, and New Jersey. I'd been promised a test drive, so when Wally Rippel (you'll remember Wally from "Who Killed the Electric Car?") called and invited me out, I jumped at the chance. 

Wally was involved in the design of the Impact/EV1 while at Aerovironment, along with Alec Brooks and the incomparable Allan Cocconi (the "AC" of AC Propulsion). Wally worked for a while helping Tesla Motors launch their Roadster, and is now back at AC Propulsion working on the newest iteration of the AC-150. Rumor has it that this next one will be quite a bit more powerful than the first. Wally drove me to a local restaurant for lunch, so I could get familiar with the interior of the car without having to watch for traffic. The MINI E is a well designed car with all the amenities one would expect of a new car these days. 

I was more impressed than most, probably because I'm still driving that old RAV that was never much of a luxury vehicle to begin with, and, 6 years in, it  still hasn't gotten any more comfortable. (my wife Zan, I might add, adores the car and has no complaints.) When it was my turn to drive, the first thing I noticed was the lack of a creep mode. This is what Toyota built in to the RAV to simulate a gas car. When you let off the brake, any gas car with an automatic transmission will slowly roll forward without stepping on the accelerator. You expect this movement, and when it's not there, it feels like something is wrong. Wally said they'd probably add it in the future, since it's an easy software upgrade. After pulling out onto the street, I gave it a punch to see how Tesla-like it was. The BMW engineers limit the voltage going to the motor, so it's not a rocket like the Tesla Roadster, but it does have very strong acceleration. 

The soft whine of the motor is reminiscent of the EV1, and quite pleasing to the ear. It's sort of like what you'd expect an EV to sound like, but don't worry, it's barely audible, so you won't be waking the neighbors. I really wanted to see what it would do, so we jumped on the freeway, and I let her rip. This is where the similarity to the Roadster is most apparent. The car practically jumps forward, and the strong acceleration doesn't let up like internal combustion cars do as they reach their peak torque RPM and begin hungering for another gear. 

The MINI E just keeps pulling like crazy all the way to its top speed of 95 mph. At one point, I was doing about 70 and punched it. Even at that speed, the car felt like it was taking off from a dead stop. Torque at high speeds is fun, and gives you the feeling you can get out of any situation, even in such a small package. One of the coolest aspects of any AC Propulsion car is the regenerative braking. The way it's designed, all you drive with is your right foot. As you let off the accelerator, the regen smoothly takes hold and slows you down. You almost never have to touch the brakes. 

My only complaint is the lack of a coast mode. My RAV has the ability to "freewheel," or coast, with no regen, and I've learned to use this for hypermiling - getting the most efficiency possible when driving in traffic. Supposedly, you can feather the accelerator to a coasting position, but I was not able to feel it, so maybe it takes a little practice. I think a button on the steering wheel that lets you coast when pushed would be a good addition to future models. I'm jealous of those who were able to get in line early for these MINI Es. Even though they'll only have them for a year before BMW takes them back for study, it'll be a terrific year. I heard another rumor that BMW is working on the next batch of these little rockets already. The more the merrier, I say.
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Gearing up for the MINI E

Friday, March 13, 2009
If you've been following the BMW MINI E program unveiled officially on November 19th, 2008 at the Los Angeles Auto Show you'll know the process for being selected as a potential MINI E driver is a multistep one.  The window to apply for a lease of a MINI E was from November 19th to December 24th, 2008, via an hour long online questionnaire. In January 2009, I was excited to learn I was selected to be one of the potential 250 lessees of the MINI E being deployed in Southern California this year.  Achieving selection status was just one of the first steps to MINI E driving sweetness.  In the past couple of months I've been passing other qualifications.  One of these items on the MINI E deployment checklist regards the residence where one is to park and charge the MINI E.  MINI wants to insure their MINI Es will be parked in an enclosed garage and that the residence's electrical system is up to the task of charging the car. 

  Last week I was notified by Clean Fuel Connection (the company contracted by MINI to deploy the MINI E specific Clipper Creek charge stations) that they would be conducting an initial site inspection of my garage and electrical service to insure I could support a MINI E.   On Wednesday, March 11th, 2009, at 1:30pm I met with a very friendly Paul Jette of Sunpower Electrical, the electrical contractor assigned to do the actual charge station install.  He inspected and took some photos of my 200Amp main electrical utility panel, and the garage space where the Clipper Creek MINI E charge station will be installed.  A couple of years ago I had upgraded my electrical distribution system when I self-installed a 4kW Photovoltaic system with the knowledge that plug-in EVs would soon be in my driving future. My electrical cleanup resulted in a very neat and sparsely populated main panel, as I offloaded all individual circuits to a couple of subpanels.  A majority of residences' main electrical utility panel is their only panel, and many times it is completely stuffed with breakers and wiring, with no room for additional expansion.  This is a result many times of the initial builder trying to save a few $$ and installing a less expensive panel.  Generally, the cost of the electrical panel is "in the noise" (negligible), where the the majority of the cost of any electrical work is in the labor.

Paul and I discussed the Clipper Creek charge station during his visit.  It is to be protected by a 60amp feed breaker installed at the main panel.  Paul confirmed the location I had already selected for mounting of the charge station to be ideal.  I learned I was Paul's 3rd MINI E initial site visit that day.  These were his very first visits in the MINI E deployment program. While MINI is picking up the tab for any and all electrical work required to install the Clipper Creek charge station, being an engineer  I have the desire to install a kilowatt-hour meter ahead of the charge station to log EV charging kW/hrs.  This self-imposed requirement means the charge station install by MINI at my house will be one of their simplest, as they just need to connect the charge station a few feet directly to the pre-installed and wired Milbank kilowatt-hour meter box I'll already have in place.  I'm looking forward to a callback from Clean Fuel Connection once they are ready to send out the Clipper Creek charge station for installation. 

On a related MINI E note, if you haven't already seen Jay Leno's entertaining and very enthusiastic review of the MINI E that debuted earlier this week, definitely check out all the MINI E fun by watching his video below.  The MINI E is powered by a beautiful, powerful, and efficient electric drive system manufactured by AC Propulsion of San Dimas, CA.  AC Propulsion is the gold standard of electric drive in the EV industry.  ACP has been in business for two decades and has been the force in leap frogging electric drive system technology into the modern EVs we know and love, like the pioneering GM EV1, AC Propulsion tzero, AC Propulsion eBox, the new 2009 MINI Es, and the gorgeous Tesla Roadster (a great evolution of licensed AC Propulsion electric drive technology).

Jay Leno's Garage - 2009 MINI E[Source:  Stefano Paris, Jay Leno's Garage]

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