Charging our new Mini.

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patash

patash

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We ordered our new Mini last Memorial Day and got it the end of October. We had the proper 240 outlet installed in the garage for the charger that comes with the car. This was easy since the circuit breaker box is in the garage right next to where we wanted the outlet. But we were surprised that it didn't fully charge in 4 hours like it says -- more like 8 or even more. We called Mini (BMW) and spoke to an "expert" who couldn't imagine why it would take so long and all he could offer was "there must be something wrong with your outlet/power." Finally after hours of online googling and further reading of the manual which I had already read, I discovered a tiny blurb that suggested there is a setting you can do within the car that charges at a lower rate of power. I finally found it and sure enough our car was preset to the lower charge. I managed to change the setting, and viola -- it now charges as it should. My question is -- why didn't the "expert" know that could be the issue and tell me about it?"
 
They went over this with me when I took delivery of my car. Should have been part of your sales person taking you through the vehicles features.
 
Thanks for posting that. It explains why my car said it would require 22 hours to recharge 33% of the battery, when charging from a 120V outlet.
 
MINI claims "UP TO 7.4KW / 20% PER HOUR" and I'd say that's about right on my 9.6kw EVSE. 100% charge efficiency would be ~4 hours, but I've noticed SE wastes a good 15-20% in the process (likely explaining that extra hour.)

I lucked out with a good sales person who did cover it. Most people at the dealer could care less. Nothing really compares to owning and living with it, I assume something few sales people do. Real world performance often misaligns with the spec sheet.
 
Qisl said:
Thanks for posting that. It explains why my car said it would require 22 hours to recharge 33% of the battery, when charging from a 120V outlet.
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Yeah at the highest 120V charging rate a full charge from 10% to 100% should take about 24 hours, in my experience . For 240V at 40amps it should take around 4 hours or so.
 
lknjlsaf said:
They went over this with me when I took delivery of my car. Should have been part of your sales person taking you through the vehicles features.
Click to expand...
They spent a couple of hours with us, including "all about charging", but never once was it mentioned about such a setting -- they acted as if there are just two levels of home charging -- with a 120 or a 240. And since the "expert" at the factory didn't seem to know this, it's no surprise the sales people didn't. And to be clear, this isn't a matter of what voltage you're charging at, it's a setting that would even affect super charging stations -- a setting that allows it to charge at full "throttle" or sort of "half throttle" so to speak, no matter what charger you're using.
 
Without diving into the charging efficiency thread it was about 65-75% efficient for L1 and 70-85% for L2 with the majority of losses relating to temperature and standby losses (fans, cooling system, electronics, etc). The longer the charge time, the more energy is diverted to standby losses.

Generally it is safer for corporate legal to leave the default level 2 charging J1772 duty cycle at reduced and then have the driver reconfigure the MINI to maximum. Personally my EVSE is derated to 20A but that's because I have solar + battery (5kW max discharge) for guaranteed clean energy.
 
patash said:
They spent a couple of hours with us, including "all about charging", but never once was it mentioned about such a setting -- they acted as if there are just two levels of home charging -- with a 120 or a 240. And since the "expert" at the factory didn't seem to know this, it's no surprise the sales people didn't. And to be clear, this isn't a matter of what voltage you're charging at, it's a setting that would even affect super charging stations -- a setting that allows it to charge at full "throttle" or sort of "half throttle" so to speak, no matter what charger you're using.
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Yep, showed me the feature on the main screen, explained that the default was the lowest setting, and recommended I change it to the highest setting when I got home.
 
patash said:
My question is -- why didn't the "expert" know that could be the issue and tell me about it?"
Click to expand...
Simple, that "expert" doesn't read this forum.

After my 2-year service appointment (which included the 3G sunset software upgrade to 4G communications), I spent a half-hour on the phone with different MINI/BMW experts trying to get the analog clock back onto the center display of my 2021 SE. Eventually the right expert was found and the answer was that the clock in the 2020-21 SEs is controlled by a "screen saver" menu entry. I can't imagine why this feature was deleted after the 2021 model. Did MINI decide it over-taxes the resources of the SE's computers?

Now that I think about it, why didn't the software update reset my SE to the factory default of half-speed charging, too?
 
patash said:
We ordered our new Mini last Memorial Day and got it the end of October. We had the proper 240 outlet installed in the garage for the charger that comes with the car. This was easy since the circuit breaker box is in the garage right next to where we wanted the outlet. But we were surprised that it didn't fully charge in 4 hours like it says -- more like 8 or even more. We called Mini (BMW) and spoke to an "expert" who couldn't imagine why it would take so long and all he could offer was "there must be something wrong with your outlet/power." Finally after hours of online googling and further reading of the manual which I had already read, I discovered a tiny blurb that suggested there is a setting you can do within the car that charges at a lower rate of power. I finally found it and sure enough our car was preset to the lower charge. I managed to change the setting, and viola -- it now charges as it should. My question is -- why didn't the "expert" know that could be the issue and tell me about it?"
Click to expand...
Can you tell me where you find this setting? Thx!
 
The max rate on AC is 32amps and the reduced is 16amp iirc. It won’t hit 32amps maybe 28-30tops according to my amp clamp
 
patash said:
We ordered our new Mini last Memorial Day and got it the end of October. We had the proper 240 outlet installed in the garage for the charger that comes with the car. This was easy since the circuit breaker box is in the garage right next to where we wanted the outlet. But we were surprised that it didn't fully charge in 4 hours like it says -- more like 8 or even more. We called Mini (BMW) and spoke to an "expert" who couldn't imagine why it would take so long and all he could offer was "there must be something wrong with your outlet/power." Finally after hours of online googling and further reading of the manual which I had already read, I discovered a tiny blurb that suggested there is a setting you can do within the car that charges at a lower rate of power. I finally found it and sure enough our car was preset to the lower charge. I managed to change the setting, and viola -- it now charges as it should. My question is -- why didn't the "expert" know that could be the issue and tell me about it?"
Click to expand...

You asked "why didn't the "expert" know that could be the issue and tell me about it?"

Answer:. Because that "expert" is incompetent.
 
lknjlsaf said:
They went over this with me when I took delivery of my car. Should have been part of your sales person taking you through the vehicles features.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's part of the delivery procedure. That means OP has a subpar motoring advisor who failed to go over that feature with OP.
 
carrrl said:
MINI claims "UP TO 7.4KW / 20% PER HOUR" and I'd say that's about right on my 9.6kw EVSE. 100% charge efficiency would be ~4 hours, but I've noticed SE wastes a good 15-20% in the process (likely explaining that extra hour.)

I lucked out with a good sales person who did cover it. Most people at the dealer could care less. Nothing really compares to owning and living with it, I assume something few sales people do. Real world performance often misaligns with the spec sheet.
Click to expand...

No you weren't lucked out. You received the proper service by your dealership. This is something that's supposed to be gone over during delivery. Just because many incompetent dealerships fail to do so doesn't make it into a fortunate event that should be grateful for. This is something that should be expected.
 
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patash said:
They spent a couple of hours with us, including "all about charging", but never once was it mentioned about such a setting -- they acted as if there are just two levels of home charging -- with a 120 or a 240. And since the "expert" at the factory didn't seem to know this, it's no surprise the sales people didn't. And to be clear, this isn't a matter of what voltage you're charging at, it's a setting that would even affect super charging stations -- a setting that allows it to charge at full "throttle" or sort of "half throttle" so to speak, no matter what charger you're using.
Click to expand...

That "expert" is not from the factory, it's from the corporate customer service. Just because some "experts" are incompetent does not cause the dealership to be incompetent because the dealerships are not taught and trained by those "experts" who are actually customer service reps.

The reasons your motoring advisor didn't go over the setting with you could be:

1. Lack of knowledge
2. Forgetfulness
3. Poor customer service.

This setting is not some secret hidden feature that requires some sort of advance knowledge and engineering know how in order to get access to. It's right on the center display which can set by anyone.

The lower setting is for safety purpose which prevents a (typically older) circuitry that won't be able to handle the power drawn.
 
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Charging rate will also depend on battery temp. If it’s cold or cold as hell the rate will slowly ramp up as the batteries warm
 
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