I just love the efficiency…

My wife is a hoon I drive relaxed. Gom was showing 204km this am when I unplugged and moved out of the garage. She went to work and it’s showing 176 according to the app.

I stick to speed limits and more mild driving. More relaxing

what’s the charging situation in Plattsburgh?

 

Fixed. That's a respectable 4.74mi/kWh.

 

I've only used one of the free L2 units out front of Market 32 (both now inop, oh well), and the EVolveNY (EA) DC station at Sam's Club, which works fine.

 

Charged my car to 100% then left it plugged in for another couple of days. Drove normally to work this morning and reportedly used only 5% of the battery to travel 13 miles (=260 miles estimated total range, versus the 145-165 I have been getting this summer). Cell rebalancing or not, clearly "100%" is not always the same total charge.

(Note that I'm not complaining, just observing.)

 

From what I can tell, the first percent (100) can get me about 2-3 times farther than all the other percents below 100. My kids' school is over 3 miles away from my house (with a bit of elevation gain), and there have been times when SOC doesn't drop to 99% until after I leave the school (if below 100%, I use about 3% to get there). So if I went by that, I'd be getting a range of 350 miles! So the more of the battery we use up, the more accurate our range calculations will be (though 5% to travel 13 miles is still very impressive!).

 

I absolutely agree.

Next time I will see if I can conveniently charge to just 100%, i.e., unplug the car as soon as it reaches that mark, and see if it makes a difference.

One other observation from this morning: it seemed to me that the rate of deceleration when the battery was full was slightly less than what I'm used to when it isn't. IOW, the "substitute" mechanical braking when I let off the accelerator didn't seem to be quite as aggressive as actual regenerative braking. However, I can't say that with certainty, as I had driven my other car for a couple of days in between, and that may have alter my perceptions.

 

I’ve been pestering EVolve NY to consider a station in Rouses’ Point just off the northway. I’d use it passing east-west on US-11. Would that be a useful location for you heading north-south on I-87? Or not so much for you given Plattsburgh has a station? They tell me to divert south to Plattsburgh, but that’s a bit out of my way. Maybe adding your voice would help.

https://evolveny.nypa.gov/en/contact


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Doesn't help me for Plattsburgh, but I'll gladly add my voice. The Veterans' bridge over Lake Champlain and Fort Montgomery gets plenty of traffic from Montrealers heading to BTV and the Greens (or boat slips in RP), as well as from New Englanders headed the other way. It'd be a convenient place for me to recharge on BTV trips.

 

Yeah, that all makes sense. Thanks for adding your voice!


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Braking may feel a little different, as the energy would not need to be recovered since you're fully charged. Just a guess however.

 

Yes, what I meant was that despite MINI's best attempt to make the difference between mechanical and regenerative braking undetectable, they couldn't completely fool me.

(It's still a very subtle difference, though, and far better than the only other EV I've driven, a Chevy Bolt.)

 

The rear brakes on the MINI are used at 95%+ SoC. Feeling wise I would say the two most pronounced differences are the initial bite of the rear brakes (not as smooth as FWD regen) and the temporary load transfer. If you really want to tell the difference, try the regen going down a hill above and below 95% SoC.

 

That has not been my experience. My Bolt feels very different when fully charged, but I have not noticed the same effect in the SE. I think the SE has enough of a buffer above “full” to allow for full regen still.


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Charged to 100%, unplugged, ran an errand. Used 1% of battery to go 5 miles.

5/0.01 = 500 mile estimated range.

(Ok, I'm easily amused.)

 

During a recent road trip, one of the legs of my trip was from the FPL Evolution fast charger in Lake City, Florida to the EA in Tallahassee. Total distance to travel was 102 miles, with the temperature outside at 100F. I ate lunch at a restaurant while I charged to 100%. (I usually don't fully charge using the DC charger, but this was an exception this time.) The GOM estimated that I had 104 miles of range. During the trip, I set the cruise to 70mph and the terrain is mostly flat to gently rolling hills. AC set on 72F.

When I arrived in Tallahassee, I was pleasantly surprised that my battery was still at 18%. I have owned my MINI for 8 months a little over 11,000 miles, and I am very impressed with the range and efficiency. As a side note, the quality of construction is also top-notch. No panel gaps, nothing broken or rattling, no maintenance, no paint imperfections, etc.

 

Lots of subsequent hooning around, and still at 169 miles total range (I.e., .44 miles traveled/26% of battery used).

ETA: Ignoring the "free" 5 miles for 1%, still at 39 miles/0.25 = 156 miles total range. This, despite multiple full power accelerations and with the A/C on 25% of the time.

Next week I am going to charge to 100% then see if I can break the 200 mile barrier by being really easy on the go pedal...

 

Temperature of 99 ºF, dew point of 78 ºF, and still over 5 mi/kWh while running air conditioner full-tilt. I think it's safe to say extreme heat is a minimal issue for the batteries.

***********************************
Aug 22, 2023 at 17:48 ** 96°F ** Wind: 10.862 mph from SW ** Humidity: 0.54% ** Driven: 46.5 Mi ** Start-Batt: 73% ** End-Batt: 42% ** Mi / kWh: 5.19 ** GOM Reading: 45 Mi ** Range Left: 63 Mi ** Total Range (From 73% charge): 109.5 Mi ** Total Range (From 100% charge): 149.991 Mi

 

All this talk of hooning around, what are the actual highway speeds you all are driving? I'm hooning it at 85 to 90 mph and barely get 90 miles of range in the Los Angeles area.

 

Agree that average speed is very helpful in qualifying consumption values. Driving 50 miles at 55mph will yield much better efficiency than driving 50 miles at 70mph.

 

My experience there's negligible difference up to about 65 mph, above that and the speed has some impact on range.