Posted my first YouTube video about the Mini Cooper SE...

... which is a range test naturally, lol!

Any feedback greatly appreciated!

 

Not that much different to green, a very delayed throttle response.
I’d only use both if I was going for distance as obviously it’s a small battery.
For day to day we just use the default mid as we don’t put more than 20 miles on in an average day.

 

That was part of my theory, even in cold and rainy conditions it should be able to make it no problem.

Usable capacity.
I’m not sure if that’s what the battery percentage gauge represents, although it would make sense. Having said that, given the car can run a few miles past 0% does that mean 100-0 is less than the usable or does that eat into the buffer beyond the usable?
I’ve bought an OBD2 adapter and iPhone app to try and answer that.

So my theory was that in ideal conditions the HVAC wouldn’t actually be running because there would be no need. So I could have used Green mode. But to be 100% sure I figured Green+ was the better option as it guaranteed that. I could have used green and simply switched off the HVAC but I wanted the blower on for fresh air.
When I test in hot weather or sub zero temperatures (the latter of which I did a couple of days ago but need to edit the video)
I will use Green mode as I will want the aC or the heater as anyone would. If I do the same run and compare battery usage that will tell me what the AC costs and what the heater costs. Obviously they are not mileage related, they’re time related. But on this route, in a pre-conditioned car, at sub freezing temperatures it took 63% of the battery to complete the trip vs 46% the first time. Which amounts to 2.2kWh per hour for hearing for those platings along at home…

 

I meant to say "2.2 kWh per hour for heating in those conditions"
iPhone auto-(in)correct combined with late night posting is not good for me, lol!

 

The A - B part of the test, used 21% of the battery to travel 38.5 miles. That works out to 183 miles of range on the battery.

So over 180 miles is easily possible.

But...

While the A start location is 690 feet above sea level and the B turnaround is 670 feet above sea level so we only get a 20 foot elevation drop benefit which is nothing, the return journey does use more energy as there is a long uphill section at 55(?)mph when I turn south, which was a long downhill at 55mph on the way from A to B. That's why even though on the face of it there's no elevation change between A and B pins, the devil is in the detail so I stick to doing A - B - A for a more realistic number.

If I found the right flat route kept my speed down (no 55-60mph roads for example) and didn't have to stop or slow down for so many red lights I could *easily* do well over 180 miles. But I wasn't going for a record and I didn't want to present a range figure that while seemingly impressive involved 4 hours of driving around at 30mph as, well, who realistically needs to do that? It might be an interesting challenge if I get bored though I suppose so never say never!

On a side note the thumbnail for that video mentions 5.92 mi/kWh but the calculation based on distance and usable battery would be 6.15 mi/kWh so I guess he was going with dashboard figures for the efficiency?

 

I do have a 2kWh "solar generator" or rather giant-a*s battery with 2KW inverter which I could use to charge the car if I was desperate.
Not sure it's 60lb of wight in the trunk wouldn't hurt me more than help though, lol!

Might make a fun video though...

 

Thanks for the heads up on the price change on the Leaf, I didn't notice that when I was ordering the Mini back in August, and should have double checked before writing stuff. I'll adjust the description.

Really appreciate you taking the time to let me know. No worries on the sources, I will change it and then follow up with some research into both just to bring myself up to date.

 

So I re-did my cold weather test as on the first run the GoPro didn't record any GPS signal. So that's 2 hours of my life I won't get back...

I did the cold run at 30 degF (-1 degC) so basically freezing and a cold day here in the south. Yes I know that's summer for you guys up north and you have to fight polar bears to even get to your car, but for me, what you have is extreme cold. I'm just going for "cold" here, lol!

At this temperature the heat pump should be running well and the end results suggest to me that it was and I was very impressed with the amount of range reduction, much better than I had heard anecdotally:



I need to wait for summer to test in "hot" weather which would be upwards of 100 degF or close to 40 degC.

But in the meantime, I'll do the same baseline and cold weather tests on the highway as weather, my schedule and availability of the car allows (ie when my wife isn't using it given it's hers).
I did do a baseline highway run but for some reason the GoPro GPS thought I was in California and later the Pacific Ocean so that was unusable...