I'm in Spokane and interested in an electric Mini Cooper. I'd love to hear from anybody in Spokane, or nearby, who can tell me about their experience with having the nearest dealership and service place in Seattle. How did you get your car to Spokane/Eastern Washington? What do you do about servicing it? Excited to learn more! Thank you!
I'm not exactly nearby (Central Oregon) but am in a sort of similar situation to you. My closest dealer is Portland about 170mi away and there's only one charger that makes the trip possible. It's definitely a long trip to get there but thankfully my next scheduled service is in 2023! And in reality that's just a brake fluid change so it could be handled by any mechanic. In the unlikely event of unexpected repairs, this is from the warranty: TOWING SERVICE In the event of a mechanical breakdown, a collision or road hazard event, your vehicle will be transported (at no cost) to the nearest authorized MINI Dealer. The only milage limit mentioned is you can choose to tow to another dealer as long as it's within 50mi of the closest dealer. When I bought my MINI (before the new car inventory got all screwed up) I was talking with Northwest MINI in Tacoma about a 2021 they had on their lot and they were actually willing to ship it to me for free! It's almost the same distance from Tacoma to Spokane. That might be different now though with the shortage of new cars but they seemed like a good dealership. You do seem to have plenty of charging options along the route to Tacoma too so definitely possible to drive it back. Plugshare and ABRP (a better route planner) are good resources: https://abetterrouteplanner.com?plan_uuid=7a5ccfd6-7592-4c08-93e9-f7ca938d757b I'd probably charger more at that first stop at GreenLots, at least until the charge rate started to taper around 85%
Thanks Carsten. I hadn't really taken a close look at ABRP until now. I adjusted for my typical driving routes in and around San Antonio, TX and found a Free L3 (24kW) charger at a Harley Davidson Dealer not far from my house. You are the man!
Awesome! ABRP is a very useful tool but don't expect one button route planning like Google maps. It's still missing some charging options and often does dumb things when routes get tricky (near maximum range) and has to be manually forced to go where you want.
Last summer I was able to get from the North Bend EA chargers to the Ellensburg EA chargers using only about 64% of the battery. I think I had a tailwind because I used more battery going back downhill on the return trip. I wanted to skip the Cle Elum charger because it apparently only charges at 20kW but still charges by the minute. I think the safest/fastest thing to do is use ABRP to figure out what minimum battery level you want to be at when you get to Cle Elum, and if you're below that level when you get close, stop to charge there, but if you're doing well then keep going to Ellensburg.
I think ABRP uses the MINIs published range and efficiency when in reality that is very easy to exceed. I think it also overestimates the charging time a bit too. Using it to find a minimum acceptable battery level at a landmark is exactly what I did on my return trip from the dealership. I ended up passing my emergency L2 with double the expect range left.
