2022 Mini SE - In Focus: Range!

Another well-produced video. I liked seeing the math. However, the BMW i3 uses a Samsung battery that could not be adapted to the SE. The SE uses a Chinese CATL battery.

 

Great video. Nice iPhone Shortcut. Unfortunately (or Fortunately in my case) I am an Android user. I'll need to look into creating the same.

 

I fully appreciate the effort you went to in creating this (and other) videos, as well as the iOS calculator. I have to admit, though, that the mathematical example you chose seemed a bit...convoluted? If you've used 3/4s of the battery to drive 100 miles, then you should be able to go 4/3s x 100 = 133.33... miles before it is completely empty.

Admittedly, the mental math would be harder if not dealing with such nice round numbers. But, I couldn't help myself in jumping ahead to the answer!

 

Thanks for another great video. Best part for me was finding out about the button on the turn signal stalk. I used it today and it's great to see actual battery percentage and also dynamic kWh/100km (or mi/kWh depending on your setting) rather than just the cumulative average that I always have on the main display (which I reset after each charge). I still have a lot to learn about this car. That button is a real find.

 

Very helpful, as always! Those 8 LED fuel lights seem especially silly now. I guess they wanted a one-size-fits-all approach for gas and EV. I can honestly say I have never paid attention to it. Just give us the battery percentage like a smartphone!

Regarding the GOM, it looks like some BMWs have a "fuel correction factor" in the service menu. Ours just has a "correction factor." I haven't tested it, but that is likely for the speedometer. Maybe Bimmercode has something? I have been meaning to connect with the i3 version of Bimmercode.

 

Perhaps a nearly-prescient MINI instrument panel designer anticipated an LED shortage in the future? I hope that designer didn't receive a bonus for eliminating the cost of 2 LEDs. Both electric- and gas-fueled MINI drivers would benefit from having 10 easy-to-evaluate-at-a-glance LEDs.

 

The "ideal" number of segments is always a matter of debate. My old Leaf had 12, my Bolt has 20, and my SE has 8. Honestly of those, I find 8 to be the most awkward. I personally liked 12 because it can show fractions of 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 (among others). Having that 1/3 in there was a nice touch. The Bolt's 20 segments is fine, especially because they have a tic mark every 5 so you can easily see the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 points. But while 20 is fine for 240 miles of range (12 miles per bar), it would be overkill for 110 miles of range (only 5.5 miles per bar). My vote for the SE would be 12.

 

MINI should have just committed to the digital display, instead of the hybrid approach. No reason they couldn't have shown the exact SoC percentage on the display. This seems to be another ICE holdover, since measuring fluid in a tank is not as fine-grained as getting a charge level from a battery.

 

I'm completely onboard for fixing the battery charge gauge by adding more resolution, but I like the mechanical needle on the E-Power gauge. It would take a very high-res panel to avoid needle-jaggies if they wanted to make it electronic. So that hybridization meets with my approval.

 

But they do provide the exact SoC on the display. Just hit the button on the stalk to cycle through your options, and SoC in 1% resolution is readily available.

 

Well, as the Mini used to be a British car, and there used to be 12 pence to a shilling before Decimal Day (1971) - why not 12 indeed! ;-)

 

Which makes the 8-segment gauge even less sensible, in my opinion.

 

BTW, some trims have two small buttons on the end of the stalk. The bottom one cycles through the options. The top one turns auto high beams on and off, dunno if it does anything else. Large fingers are a bit of a disadvantage here .

 

The battery charge gauge shouldn't have to play second-fiddle (info-wise) to the ring around the center display, which must have more than 8 segments.

 

Approximately, and based on the real world experience, how many miles does each battery bar (on the battery charge gauge) equals to?

 

12.5% SoC, which is safely 12.5 miles but could be 15 or more miles depending on how efficiently one drives. One nice thing about an electric vehicle is the mileage per % stays constant to the end since the measurement is more accurate than a tank of fluid and the batteries don't get any lighter as they get depleted. Unlike ICE where the fuel vanishes, changing the weight of the vehicle.