Accident in 2022 Mini Cooper SE

  • Thread starter Thread starter mikeg0305
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 30
  • Views Views 7K
M

mikeg0305

Active Member
I was running an errand yesterday afternoon and was driving 72mph on the highway when all of he sudden in my lane appeared a 6ft plus long piece of metal. I tried to avoid it but ran over it with the right side of our Mini. Immediately blew both passenger side tires but kept the car under control and was able to get off the highway on the right side. Five other vehicles were soon pulled over in addition to an 18 wheeler that all hit metal debris in roadway. The truck was their first which is part of her reason I could not swerve.

Good news is I was and am fine. Glad it was me driving and not my wife or teenage children.

I used the Mini Assist to get the Mini towed to our dealer. Big shoutout thank you to Mini Assist as they were friendly snd helpful and made a terrible situation easier.

The bad news. As the pictures show not only did I blow both passenger side tires I literally broke both rims. The of course I could see on the side of the highway. Would I could not see and just found out was the metal pipe I hit, came up under the Mini and impacted the battery tray in two places. Good news is the battery pack is fine but the shell needs to be replaced, at at not shocking I guess, substantial price. Sounds like we are talking around $5,700 just for the tray which along with the tires and rims brings the early estimate to just over $8,000. The dealer indicated they may have some other things to address but will not know until they get the car back on the road for a test drive. Suspension appears fine but who knows.

Thought worth sharing.

Mike


IMG_6888.webpIMG_6889.webpIMG_6890.webpIMG_6891.webpIMG_6875.webp





Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
oh dear, I am so sorry! I hope you'll be fixed up soon! Always hard when your new car gets hurt.

As an aside I nearly ran over a metal ladder in my old Mini last summer. Other cars had hit it and I fortunately was able to stop just in time and literally rolled up at a super slow speed on the ladder and then back down as I hit the breaks. Unfortunately I was in the center lane and could not safely get out, but a lady in a minivan saw, blocked the traffic in the lane to the right of me and pulled it across as people went flying to the left of me. I was imagining damage like yours but was super lucky. Scary thing to happen though :(
 
So glad to hear you are ok and safe. Sometimes even the smallest of debris can cause catastrophic events.
 
So sorry to hear of the incident but very glad you're safe and was able to keep your SE under control. I hope repairs are speedy and robust.

Mine got its first battle damage/beauty mark this weekend when the car in front of me kicked up a thick piece of rubber debris at highway speeds (I think left over from a tire blow-out earlier that day). Only damage was a scuff on the front lip spoiler, which bummed me out...but pales in comparison to what you experienced.
 
So glad you're okay, and that the damage wasn't so much that your MINI would be totaled. Hopefully you will have it back soon.
 
Newkirk said:
So glad you're okay, and that the damage wasn't so much that your MINI would be totaled. Hopefully you will have it back soon.
Click to expand...

Looking at probably a month, maybe more. The black tentacle wheels need to come from either to UK or Germany as they are new for 2022 and are not in stock yet in the US. And the battery tray definitely has to come from Germany.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
The price of that battery tray is disappointing. I wouldn’t have expected the entire 32 kWh battery pack to cost much more than $5,700.

I wonder if the dealer is marking up the price?

Thanks for the detailed write up, and very glad to hear you avoided an accident.
 
@mikeg0305, this is a nightmare accident--it's sooo good that the car and your driving skill prevented any injuries. I'm glad to learn the expensive shield did its job of protecting the battery. I cannot imagine what the repair cost would be if both the expensive shield and the battery (not to mention the unobtanium wheels) needed replacement.
 
Hopefully your repairs will not take too long.
More importantly you were not hurt .

Dan


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
How awful, glad nobody got hurt. Imagining the force it took to break the wheels, egads. Gives an idea of how strong that battery shield is. Just think of the damage to an ICE undercarriage.
 
I'm so thankful that I can mostly avoid situations like this with the back roads on my commute. Back when I was in California, it was basically impossible to maintain enough of a gap in front of you to react to something like this. As unfortunate as your situation is, I'm glad it's not worse!

Not sure if you seen the story going around about similar damage on a Tesla requiring the entire pack to be replaced but it's definitely reassuring to hear that Mini designed the shell to be dealer replaceable. The $700 "fix" for the Tesla would not be something I'd consider acceptable...
 
Nice article. Thank you for sharing.

I wonder what the cost would’ve been had my battery pack been damaged? We all known that the individual part costs of a modern vehicle far outpace the cost of the car when bought as a whole. But geess, I’m willing to bet the part cost of an EV exceeds that of its ICE cousin.



Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
mikeg0305 said:
Nice article. Thank you for sharing.

I wonder what the cost would’ve been had my battery pack been damaged? We all known that the individual part costs of a modern vehicle far outpace the cost of the car when bought as a whole. But geess, I’m willing to bet the part cost of an EV exceeds that of its ICE cousin.



Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Click to expand...


I looked out of curiosity after reading that article and all I could find was the cost of the first gen i3 battery: $16,000 for the older 22kWh pack

The Mini's battery is larger than that but battery costs have also come down a lot since then so probably pretty similar?
 
Carsten Haase said:
I looked out of curiosity after reading that article and all I could find was the cost of the first gen i3 battery: $16,000 for the older 22kWh pack

The Mini's battery is larger than that but battery costs have also come down a lot since then so probably pretty similar?
Click to expand...

FWIW, I believe that the Chevy Bolt's 60/64 kWh battery pack costs about $12.5-13.5k...although they seem to have a disconcerting tendency to burst into flames, so right now you could probably pick one up for less! ;)
 
My prediction/hope is that once BEVs start to take off and there are some significant improvements in battery design and energy density, there will likely be aftermarket companies offering battery upgrades for improved range/performance in the same way there are currently companies supporting engine swaps and "resto-mods".

This sort of already exists but the target market is currently ICE conversions more than existing EV improvement.
 
Newkirk said:
Yikes! I hope it's not that much in about 10 years if we need to replace the battery. I'd like to hold on to this car for a long time!
Click to expand...
As a thought experiment, how much repair/maintenance would go into an ICE car over that ten years? I'd say $10,00-$15,000 every ten years isn't horrible, especially considering you're likely to get better (more energy and/or lighter) batteries by then. So the question becomes, which makes more sense: replacing the batteries or replacing the whole vehicle with modern features?
 
Glad you are okay and it hopefully it won't take too long get repaired. I keep thinking of the rarity of our SEs and how long it would take to get repaired.
 
Carsten Haase said:
My prediction/hope is that once BEVs start to take off and there are some significant improvements in battery design and energy density, there will likely be aftermarket companies offering battery upgrades for improved range/performance in the same way there are currently companies supporting engine swaps and "resto-mods".

This sort of already exists but the target market is currently ICE conversions more than existing EV improvement.
Click to expand...
Indeed, the replacement battery business will be ready to help when we need help. I installed a Bumblebee Batteries replacement battery in my 2nd gen-1 Honda Insight. The package was a recycled Insight battery carrier with new and better NiMH batteries than the originals. Of course, the Insight's battery weighed about 70 lbs, so it was a lot easier to deal with than any BEV battery.

When the day my SE needs a new battery comes, I expect better batteries will be available. Most people will buy an upgraded replacement battery that provides more range but I hope I can get one that matches the original range while reducing the weight as much as possible.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top