2023 Mini SE Charging Guidance

How much is the EVSE derated and/or are you charging your MINI at reduced instead of maximum?

Personally I derate my EVSE to 20A, but that's mainly due to solar PV.

 

At home I charge at a rate of about 10 minutes per battery kWh. So a little less than 5 hours to go 0 to 100. Longest was actually 4 hours and 10 minutes to fill from 13%. The lvl 2 chargers at work charge at a rate of 13 minutes per battery kWh so that would take 6 hours to go 0 to 100.

 

Isn’t that the normal rate? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

That matches MINI's graphic saying max level 2 is 20% SoC per hour, where 13% to 100% is 87%,– divided by 20% per hour gives you 4 hours plus change. That's the charge rate I experience as well, with my SE set to max level 2 and my EVSE set to 40 A.

 

Here’s charging recommendations from my 2023 Owners Manual. Notice it says to keep charge level between 10-80% if possible. My mom’s 2022 Owners Manual says to “charge the vehicle regularly and fully”. I wonder why the change.

 

New lawyers?

 

Acc to our manual, and nowhere does it say that we have to charge between 10 - 80%; so we always charge to 100% when we can, except when we use DC chargers where they limit us to 95%.

Does this mean that SEs that have these manuals have better batteries because our manuals does not recommend any charging level limit?

Or is it we only have old manuals? Which brings the question, should our manuals be updated?

 

The most up-to-date version for your model year is the one in the app

 

2023 from the app


What would be interesting is if 110-120v charging has less effect than 240v 32amp. Anyways our cars are too new to see any meaningful degradation

 

Interesting to see them suggest to stay below 80% when they give no such option to limit it…

Also interesting to see them say that successive DC fast charges will cause the charge rate to slow as I experienced exactly that on a road trip that needed 4 back to back DC charging sessions. The max charge rate dropped to around 32KW which was super annoying as the amount of time spent charging in such a small battery vehicle was already inconvenient but the charge rate limiting compounds it…

 

so all EVs limit DC fast charge to prevent damage and overheating. I agree the no option to limit to 80% is annoying. I just charge back to 100% when needed and sleep the same at night. In my lease agreement nowhere does it say I have to return it above X capacity or degradation.

 

I have a 2021 and a 2023, as it turns out the most convenient thing is to charge both according to their respective manuals.
2021 is charged to 100% daily, always plugged in. 2023 is kept around 70-80%, 100% every week or so before a longer drive.

Recurrent has >200 data points for each and says battery health for both are among the worst readings compared to other SEs. Extrapolating health based on range driven and efficiency my opinion is there is an error in their calculation of this car.

 

Having been dealing with BMWs for the last 20 years they only make a change like that if it’s beneficial to their bottom line. Like switching to 0w20 oil on engines that were designed around 5w30…

 

I haven't heard of a battery change between models. Is there something other than a cut & paste change to the manual? Did the charger component inside the car change, and the 2022+ models have less intelligent modules?

 

Probably it's just reducing the projected number of warranty claims because battery replacements under warranty are expensive!

 

Yep considering the battery is warrantied for 8 years. They have a few years of data on SEs now and might have noticed something that could effect claims in a few years (maybe more to do with fast charging) . Could also fall back
On “You charged too many times to 100%”. I’ll ask this question in a few weeks at my BMW EV/ Hybrid class.

 

By way of spit-balling and seeing what sticks…

 

Battery claim will have to be approved at the corporate level and they’ll want to 100% check the data or send a rep in person. Right now there wouldn’t be a fight but year 6-8 I’d expect some push back… that being said on a personal level BMW is ok with the longer warranty stuff. I’ve had corrosion warranty stuff passed at the 12 year mark sans issue. Had my sisters 2011 328i repaired for broken cam gears and a whole list of stuff. Having a good SA and maybe spending 30k a month in parts helps. It always comes down to relationship with dealer and how much they push corporate.

A good friend of mine does the warranty stuff for Hyundai Canada. He has some great tales. Tesla is pretty good too, a client of mine bought a discount Model 3 because of a battery issue from a large big box dealer, got a stupid price on it and took the risk. Tesla warrantied the battery and most of the rear penthouse electronics

 

Yeah MB was pretty good to me for the smart, I got quite a bit of goodwill warranty work after the four years were up. I also got a new exhaust system at 140,000 km (at ~9 years) when the pinch weld opened up on the catalytic side of the can.

 

Could you also ask them if the claimed range is now only 80% as well