BMW says the Mini is "sold out", so "clearly" range is not an important element of EV design. BMW said that "range is a completely overrated topic" ... skip to 7m:25s in
My wife and son who would otherwise support me buying a reasonably priced fun to drive EV, commented that the range of the Mini is not compelling, and that I should just keep my Smart Electric and wait for a better offering to come along. I have spent hours lusting after new fun to drive EV's, and the Mini was top of my list. BMW really have no clue if they think that their meagre production targets and "sold out" status are meaningful in terms of guiding their car architectures and strategy beyond the short term.
As an owner of both, I can tell you driving the Smart is an exercise in stress management and constant staring at the state of charge indicator. Whereas driving the Mini is much more like driving a gas car. You get in, glance at the range indicator, then go about your day without thinking about it again. The Mini runs 150 miles plus for me on a charge. The difference between 70 miles for the Smart and 150+ for the Mini is staggering. That cannot be overstated. That and the driving dynamics are AWESOME! The Mini drives as refined and fun as my Tesla. Would more range be appreciated? Sure. But, at least for us, the range it has is more than enough.
Right, I get that Matt. Big fan of your channel BTW. I am a fan of Mini SE as well, and believe the reports on it being a compelling short range EV. My point : does it not surprise you a bit that BMW are taking their meagre sales volume of Mini SE and extrapolating that to "range is a completely overrated topic" ... this means BMW have no current marketing interest in longer range EV's, so this will leave them at the back of the pack compared to others.
Mini lost a sale to me, my wife will not support "upgrading" to less range than we have in her car, a 2013 Model S, again, made 7.5 years ago.
We did the math before we decided on the Mini SE... we even recorded our mileage for a month just to see how often we exceeded 100 miles driven in a day with our normal vehicles (ignoring the 600 mile round-trips I did with my Kodiak C60 for a food rescue program) - we found that not once did we exceed 100 miles in a day with our normal vehicles... came close once or twice, but never exceeded it... so in doing such research, we were confident in our selection of the Mini SE... and it won't be our only car... but we're confident it would survive if asked to be our primary car.
More range means bigger batteries which means more cost and either bigger vehicles or compromising the interior space. I think MINI is smartly focusing on a niche that fits well with the brand (the SE as an EV seems similarly radical as the original Mini). I also admire how they engineered a BEV to use the existing ICE production line, minimizing the upfront development costs. As for referring to sales volume as meager seems premature this early, especially during the pandemic. How many of us have actually gotten the cars we ordered? Seems interest has been high enough so far to keep the factory overwhelmed. If people want a long-range EV, there are many options. MINI's focus on drivability and affordability actually provides them with a value proposition different from other EV makers.
I agree with @Puppethead. Price was a big factor for us to choose the MINI SE. Having a slightly bigger battery with 60-80 more miles costing an additional $4-5K would push it to Tesla Model 3 SR+ (or SR) territory. Once there, I believe it does not make sense to not get a Tesla Model 3. MINI would also lose its driving characteristics with more weight. I don't think BMW underestimates the need for range. If they did, they would have brought the iX3 here. Also, the upcoming i4 and iNEXT will have a range of over 300 miles riding on BMW's 5th gen electric platform.
