Daily commute range

66 would be fine!

I do 82mi round trip pretty much daily, haven’t had too much issue. Just be wary in the winter range does drop. Just put on winters, and in dry weather, 20F, going 75mph, I only had a 90mi range.


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My daily commute is also 80-85 miles per day, and I have no issues. In the summer I usually have close to 40%-50% charge left with mostly freeway driving in mid mode. In the winter I go green and take green routes to minimize freeway, and usually get through the day with about 20%.

 

I'm looking forward to updating my range database with some colder weather driving...if the colder weather would actually arrive in SC! The past week or two we have been 60 to 73F. Today it is starting to cool down. I think we will get down into the 20s this week. I want to get a better feel for how much range I will lose in the mild winter temps here. I don't expect to lose much at all.

To @QuietMini - I agree with the others that 66 miles round trip is well within the SE's comfortable range.

 

I begin a daily 66 mile round trip commute through the mountains... tomorrow!

IMG_4969 by Caconym posted Jan 3, 2022 at 6:56 PM

 

Waah! I don't have permission to see your gallery! (PS. I saw a rare Citrus Yellow [green] 2000 Insight today on the road!)

 

Hah! Well, I seem to have posted the image incorrectly. Hmm... try this? Here seen in its natural snowy environment. (Wheels and tires are one of Mini's winter packages: very narrow (175) Dunlops. I'm curious to see how they work compared to Blizzaks.) I haven't seen a citrus Insight in Vermont, but before mine passed on there were 3 (two silver and one red) in my rural town of 2000 inhabitants. Very Vermont!

 

Firstly, our weather over here is decidedly warmer than yours, so my range may well be more. I went up the coast the other day - a 220km (136 mile) round trip. There wasn't much left in the battery, but I was never worried. About 60% of the trip was at 110kph (70mph), 20% was at 100kph (62mph), and the rest was city driving. I would have absolutely no worries about a 100mile (160km) round trip. A 66mile trip would be easy, even in the cold. When I am on the highway, I switch to Green mode and stick the CC on the speed limit (so about 5% lower than the actual limit). The little MINI is highly efficient in this setup.

 

I am a new owner so not too much experience, but have been driving around up here in Vancouver with minus -10C (14F) (So not as cold as where you are) and easily do 66Miles round trip each day. However, depending on your driving style and mode you could use 2/3 of the battery. So to do that every day you will need a level 2 charger at home or use public fast chargers.

 

I currently have a 2018 BMW i3 REX as my commuter car (other car is a '21 Mach-E First Edition), but I'm eyeing the Mini SE pretty hard.

I commute about 90 miles round-trip each day, mostly highway (85-ish percent) going 65-70. I'm working on getting charging at work, but it may be a few more months, and the purchase of a Mini SE would require it for peace of mind.

Just curious if anyone else has any experience with real-world commutes like this? I'm in VA where our Summers can be toasty, and winters chilly (it was 19F on the way in to work this AM). Winter temps hit the i3 pretty well, but it lacks a heat pump (and heated steering wheel) so I'm more inclined to keep HVAC on in the winter.

 

My daily commute (mostly freeway) is 80-85 miles round trip. I don't have charging at work. Summer commuting is easy, I usually end up home with 40%-50% charge left. My winter commute can be more challenging, like today when it's 10 ºF with winds of 35 mph. I might get 100 miles on a day like today, so I switch to the green route home to cut my freeway drive in half and since there's so much wind I actually went to a public charger today and charged for 40 minutes, having added about 10% SoC. I'm confident I'll get home fine on 110% charge.

Your cold weather is actually warm enough where you should see benefit of the heat pump. You can always go green+ to shut down the environmentals, that usually adds about 10 miles or so of range. I'd advise using something like plugshare.com to know where some chargers are on your route—it's never a bad idea to have a backup plan.

 

Thanks for the insight! I figure my i3 would be similar, but I'd expect a bit more real-world range out of the Mini SE, the Mach-E of course has no range issues.

They actually just installed two EVGO chargers in my workplaces city, the first CCS DC chargers here. I tested them out on the BMW last month, first time DC fast charging it, and it was meh (I can see why you sat for 40min). I've only ever DC charged my Mach-E on roadtrips, and it's obviously much faster.

There's no Mini dealers around me, but I'm making a trip up to NoVA in two weeks and plan to stop by the Mini dealer up there to hopefully check one out/test drive one.

 

I second this. I have a couple “backup routes” for especially cold days or when the battery finally starts to degrade to the point of lower efficiency where I can use city streets or lower speed highways, and a couple charging points I can stop in to if needed.

I don’t have charging at work either on my 84mi commute (mostly 75mph interstate), but about halfway through, there is a DCFC just off the interstate that I have dogeared for emergency charging if it’s looking like I won’t make it.

I will say, in green mode I only had 89mi of range on the commute on my VikingContacts at 20F. If yours is longer, I would recommend either 1) getting the Nokian H———- R3 tires for winter, or 2) planning bailout points (or both..)


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Luckily I always have the Mach-E for real nasty days. I don't currently run snow tires on my i3 because I'll just drive the Mach-E if snowy conditions are imminent (or even super windy days... the i3 feels like a toy car in nasty winds!).

Thank you all for the input though! I'll keep it in mind if I end up deciding to make the switch.

 

I was at a Level 2 charger of only 6.2 kW. If you go to a 50 kW DC Fast charger the SE will go from 0%-80% in about 20 minutes. Even though 50 kW is the fastest rate on the SE, because of the smaller battery pack you get a "full" charge pretty quickly.

 

I too have a Mach-E and the Mini Cooper SE a great combination. The Mini is an awesome short trip car.

 

That was my idea when I purchased the i3 just before taking delivery of my Mach-E (Jan of 2021). I love most of the i3, but it's driving dynamics and physical (seats/etc) comfort leave quite a bit to be desired. I also liked the peace of mind the REX would offer, but since I almost never use it, the Mini has really peaked my interest (since I love "pocket rockets", had a Veloster Turbo before them).

Really hoping I'll get to test drive one in a few weeks!

Also love your Rapid Red Mach-E next to the British Racing Green - Will definitely want British Racing Green if I do end up with a Mini!

 

You will love it!!

 

This is slightly off topic, just curious about your need for three EVs. I would assume your Mach-E would be your go-to vehicle now for any driving situation, unless you're buying for others in your family. I have seen one individual on the Facebook SE site that bought three SEs so all the drivers in his family have an EV. I have no idea how he was able to get his hands on three SEs given the extremely short supply