Does Mini discourage frequent charging?

We still don't know if BMW's willing to bite the bullet and sell the Zhangjiagang SE in the US at a loss to compensate for the 27% US import tariff--or an even bigger loss if they compensate for the lost $7,500 tax credit.

If MINI sells the Zhangjiagang SE in the US for more than $50K while US-built BEVs qualify for a $7,500 tax credit, the value of a used Oxford SE should hold up well.

If the US has to wait for a 2027 version of the Zhangjigang SE built in Oxford, the value of a used Oxford SE may appreciate significantly.

 

I've had my SE for 2.5 years and over 53,000 miles, so I'm halfway through the battery life warranty period. So far so good, and I've enjoyed every mile of driving my SE by charging as I need to without fretting over the battery. So far no sign of range loss.

 

Fortunately, you don't have one of those inconvenient, guilt-inducing Owners Manuals. ABC, baby!

 

Yeah, that's never going to happen.

 

Which is never going to happen? Will there be no Zhangjiagang MINIs built in Oxford in 2027? Or will the value of used Oxford SEs not appreciate if there are no new MINI Electrics for sale in the US between 2024 and 2027?

 

If you think that used Oxford built SEs are going to appreciate significantly, I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you. Cars in general are a depreciating asset; a niche product like the SE is extremely unlikely to buck this trend.

 

Scarcity can drive value if there are interested buyers. It's been a while, but I seem to recall used MINI Roadsters fetching a decent price in the months after that model was axed. Not enough to make it an investment strategy, but nice if you had one to sell.

 

I made my prediction exactly because the SE is a niche product, without any competition in it's niche. If someone wants a small, sporty EV, there is no alternative now or on the horizon.

 

Yep same here. Plugged my car in immediately after bringing it down to 0% on Friday and left it plugged in over the weekend. Drove my mother-in-law to her sister’s house in Ontario today, clear skies but a cross-breeze and -11°C/12°F, and managed to use 91% battery at freeway speeds to go just 137 km/85 miles… around 3.2 mi/kWh. Plugged right in and brought it to 100 and good to go.

 

If.

The current SE is far more tech-laden than any previous vehicle I have owned, but it is already widely considered outdated. For better or worse, more and more people want to drive a smartphone, not something with anachronistic toggle switches. Combine that with the continually push for greater and greater EV range, and the appeal of a used SE in, say, 5 years will be quite limited. Certainly not enough to counter normal depreciation, such that the value would actually increase. This is all true even though as a tool, it will serve its purpose in 2028 just as well as it does now.

I'm just glad that I was able to buy a few months' old Iconic with under 6k miles for $10-11k less than new, so that I am somewhat protected from the depreciation.

 

This drives me absolutely mad. For every control I might invoke by voice using Siri or My MINI, I execute at least a dozen functions using muscle memory without ever diverting my focus from the road and my surroundings. Adjusting the defrost or turning on lights changing modes or warming my bum by swiping on a smooth, shiny screen is just dumb. No wonder there are so many wrecked Teslas in the back lot at the fancy body shop.

 

Sorry for the (likely) dumb question, but what is the app that this screenshot came from? It's very cool.

 

The app is Electrify on the Android play store

 

Any other hints? My searches aren't turning up anything.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bremeier.ralf.electrified&hl=en_CA&gl=US

 

The Google Play Store seems to show that the app is still in development, yet Google shows no updates to the app for almost 2-1/2 years (Oct 2020). Any insight into whether this is still a work-in-progress or not? (Oh, and from what I can see at the Google Play Store, the name of the app is "Electrified", not "Electrify.")

 

I don’t know much about it as I use mi3 on an iPhone, and even then I barely use that app.

 

Ah - ElectrifIED!

 

People may want the latest toy but that applies only to those who can afford, or rather afford to finance, a new car.
There will be plenty of potential customers for a used EV with likely still 100 real world miles of range towards the end of this decade. And I don’t see new EV prices dropping that much, and if you say you can buy a 250 mile range EV new for $25k, that is of no relevance to someone on a sub 10k budget. If I get close to $10k in 8 years for a car I actually paid $20k for new I would be over the moon!
People buy used Leafs with 60 miles of range for $5k with not much motivation to do so at the moment. A Mini with more range when new, and active battery cooling will have a lot more range used than a Leaf so should be more attractive as a purchase and thus worth a little more, maybe $8k, who knows, impossible to predict.
Throw in the cool factor of a Mini and the niche availability and used prices should not be terrible. The only thing working against it is the range and size, which makes the Bolt a better buy new or used for most people, so buying a mini new for $35k or whatever with no rebate is not a good idea if you care about depreciation vs a $27k Bolt with a $7k rebate on top. But if you bought a Mini for $30k and got 7 or even $10k of rebates to bring it to $20k you should avoid any big resale value hit.

 

Mini support has been feeding me noise. Seems it might be a bigger deal.