evse recommendations?

FYI, I now see a YouTube video from a guy who bought one of the Tesla J1772 EVSE on eBay. One of the YT commenters also actually bought one (and received the product) from the Tesla store. Looks like it was (is?) a real product that was quickly & abruptly pulled by Tesla for some reason.

See .

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Does anyone have experience with the Chargepoint flex? I read one post saying that it is difficult to attach to the Mini - that the connectors aren’t a perfect fit. I have one sitting in my front hall waiting to be installed and my SE arriving next week.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have a ChargePoint Flex and am super happy with it. Its connector clicks into my 2022 SE's charge port with a reassuring click and the fit is really solid. As with any product, I'm sure there's a chance one could get a defective unit, but I've been impressed by the Flex. It feels like a lot of thought has gone into its design, ergonomics and engineering—even their documentation is solid! So I suggest that you rest easy in the knowledge that you've got an excellent EVSE that'll work beautifully with your car. Hope this helps!

 

That’s great - really helpful. One week and I’m driving electric!

 

We went with a Bosch Powermax I bought on marketplace used for $100. Is the 30A model (7.2kW).

Works great for our mini and likely will serve me when I get an electric car here in a couple years. I’m a hold out until the capacity of the DCFC rates of the vehicle are higher.

been traveling a bunch with 50kW limitation and it’s brutally slow on long days.

 

In Canada, MINI has had a promotion offering a Level 2 charger by with the purchase of a MINI Cooper SE. It is shipped after the delivery of the car.
The purchaser does get to choose between units equipped with a NEMA 14/50 or NEMA 6/50 plug.
While they do make a “Smart” WiFi version, I honestly do not see the advantage when the MINI app can be used to schedule and set maximum charging rates.
If there is some advantage, I’d love to hear it.
I installed my GRIZZL️E on the wall of my garage near the door so that the 25’ charge cable can be easily used with the MINI parked in the driveway.
(In the summer, I always park outside.)




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While the SE's low-cost charging mode is adequate (and I love my classic Grizzl-E), I still have to change between that and charge immediate for weekends or if I'm out and about during the week and go to a public charger.

For me a smart EVSE that controls when it can be active would be advantageous, then I could keep the car set to "charge immediately" and control the charge window by the EVSE, which is the only place where I have a charging restriction.

 

I can see how that would be annoying if you public charge much.

 

It seems like the car software should know when you are at home via GPS or when it sees your home wifi and automatically adjust the settings.

 

We set our home EVSE as the Normal charging point. I’ll see if the car learns, I know it has some features built into Navi / my mini. Maybe it’s just manual outside of the home location? We will have our first public EVSE to charge at soon here in a few weeks!

I know it uses the home charger location for “range limit monitoring.”

 

Or even just add a button to the home screen:
CHARGE IMMEDIATELY, ONCE.

 

At least it comes up with the menu to change the setting when you turn the SE off, so it's not too inconvenient as long as you remember it needs changing.

 

Has anyone gotten mini to give us a firmware update? Any potential for a future software update? I am assuming dealer only, no Tesla OTA stuff. Little changes would be nice BimmerCode can’t fix.

 

I have an intermittent charging issue with my SE. My Mini dealer is refusing to even look at it as I no longer the original L2 charger. So it MUST be my EVSE. They won't even look at the car.

Is it my EVSE? Well, the 'fix' the last 5 times has been to either lock, or unlock the doors. No amount of messing with EVSE has done anything. The car then immediately starts charging once the locks change position. Anyone who understands how J1772 works would immediately discount the EVSE as the problem...

So, make sure to keep the original EVSE, at least for the warranty period.

 

That doesn't make sense. 21s and 22s didn't even come with the Flexible Fast Charger.

Edit: the dealership's stance doesn't make sense.

 

Iv

I checked the owners manual downloaded from miniusa and pointed out that both my EVSEs meet the owners manual's requirements for AC charging. If he needs to use something else for diagnostics, that is his issue.
I am unfortunately dealing with someone who has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. He says neither of my EVSEs are approved devices, so can't be used and must undoubtedly be the problem. Much confusion in emails as he is using slang terms and I am using the correct terms. He does not seem to know the correct terms. I had to send him a photo of my hardwired carport EVSE before he understood what hardwired means.

He does not understand the significance of the fact that the glitch has only ever been 'fixed' by doing one of the following:
Open doors.
Lock the car
Unlock the car.
No amount of messing and swapping EVSEs has done a damn thing.
The warranty hassles I'm having with this and with the grille shutters is putting me off ever getting another new Mini. Their default response is to try and deny that it could possibly be their issue. Even with a known issue like the grille shutters being improperly fitted. My next nearest Mini dealer is 90 miles away, so that is a real PITA.

I do realise that 98% of owners likely have NFC how this electrickery works, but he is assuming I am even dumber than he is about it. So he isn't passing my emails to someone who does understand the charging systems and what I am trying to tell him. Instead: 'Oh, it's your EVSE, for certain.'

 

That is absurd and unfortunate.

If you could reliably reproduce the problem, I'd say that showing them the problem with an "approved EVSE" they must have on-site should help you convince them to take you seriously. Another approach could be to ask them to point you to MINI's list of approved devices (which almost certainly does not exist), then press them about whether or not public charging infrastructure is "approved" or not (again, with any supporting documentation from MINI).

But at this point it's clear you're not dealing with someone willing to be reasoned with, or certainly not competent enough to diagnose/solve your problem. I think you may be better off escalating to MINI USA.

 

I "liked" this post, but only because there's no emoticon that conveys empathy for your frustration.

 

I'd explain to the dealer that if the SE isn't expected to charge with anything but MINI-provided EVSEs that would be a terrible car to own. It doesn't make sense for MINI (or any other car maker) to design an electric car that's not compatible with standardized EV charging infrastructure. Is it supposed to be as difficult to refuel as owning a hydrogen car?

At the very least the dealer should offer to take your SE to try and reproduce in their service shop. But if you can verify the problem exists with a public L2 charger then it's a vehicle issue for sure (which of course it is). Maybe try calling 866-ASK-MINI?

 

Unfortunately, I have utterly failed to reproduce the problem. I'm not doing anything unusual when it happens. I knew that they would blame my EVSE. I have a nasty feeling I will have to diagnose this myself if I want it fixed under warranty, unless it becomes a lot more common. That may involve sniffing the canbus and reverse engineering the messages. A bit more effort than I'd like to make. I was hoping they'd at least pass it up the chain to an actual expert. One who may have seen this on other cars or can look at other reported faults and can tell my dealer that it's probably the abc321 doohickey. Nope, I only get Captain Clueless.