From F56 SE to U25 SE

  • Thread starter Thread starter MichaelC
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It's going to be even easier with the 2026 U25 battery refresh. That could probably be a 25%+ range boost and maybe a better DC fast charging curve.

That means instead of driving 3 hours straight, I could hold for another 45 minutes to spend a penny!
 
The jury is still out on my Maine-New Hampshire-Vermont road trip. Overall, the Countryman SE did well but the app has (again) stopped reporting my trips. As a result, I do not have all the data to fully assess performance. I had an issue with a ChargePoint station in Bridgton which required calling ChargePoint support. The agent was able to restart one of the four chargers to allow an 80% before crossing through the White Mountains to Vermont (lots of range loss and restoration going up and down). It’s interesting that a 100% AC overnight charge at an inn in Vermont yielded a GOM of 286 miles of range. It quickly became more realistic as I drove at 65 mph on an interstate. I’ll plan an update here once I get the BMW server to deliver the remainder of my trip data.
 
Just finished my third, and longest, road trip with Dory (357 miles each way). The built-in navigation's trip planner seems to optimize for the fewest number of charging stops instead of least amount of time charging. Either that, or it favors higher-power charging stations over slower DCFC...to a fault. I was able to shave 30 minutes off my trip home by adding a charging stop at a location with a slower charger, because the original plan wanted me to charge to 96% (!!!) in order to reach a faster charger further down the road. Once the U25 gets to 80%, the charge curve drops off a cliff and you're wasting time waiting around for more unless you really need to stretch the range to get to the next charging stop.

I wish the built-in route planner had a slider like ABRP to weight the plan from "few but long stops" to "short but many stops". I really don't want to drive over 2 hours at a time anyway! At least it's fairly easy to change/add charging stops to the route.
 
You can sort of deprioritize high-power chargers, depending on where you live, by removing the operator from the list of preferred charging operators in the app or car. Around here, putting ChargePoint in and taking out EA will make for more, shorter stops.

But remember that the car is pretty severely limited by the pack voltage, (and thus maximum Amps) so a charger rated for “130kW” at 400V will only deliver a max rate of about 90kW in optimal conditions. The point is—and I am not sure the route planning knows this—is that your effective charge rate will always be about 2/3 of the rating, unless the charger is > 200kW.
 
Fair point about the lower pack voltage. I speculate that could be the reason why the route planner seems to favor high-power chargers.
 
The pack voltage is low, like 286.3V and lower so you will need something in the 500A+ range to max out the charge curve. I'm just happy that the U25 has a small enough battery pack that road tripping is still manageable with 50kW DCFC sites. There could be some decent improvements for the U25 BEV LCI next year, but I'd rather take the $7,500 plus extra incentives!

$269/month lease for 39 months ($4,879 down) is not too shabby. Probably better with loyalty discounts.
 
Probably better with loyalty discounts.

All of the deals that I have seen with MINI USA do not offer loyalty discounts to purchase or lease of EVs. Perhaps that will change with the loss of EV tax credits. (ICE vehicles do get loyalty discounts.)
 
Other credits for loyal customers may apply. National Credit not combinable with MINI Loyalty Credits. Offer valid through September 30, 2025 and may be combined with other offers unless otherwise stated. Models pictured may be shown with metallic paint and/or additional accessories. Visit your authorized MINI Dealer for important details.

Yeah I wasn't implying the 12 month MINI driver credit for cash purchase. It was more related to lease rate deductions or cash on the hood from a motivated dealer. I've seen as low as 0.74% lease rates in certain regions for the U25 BEV.
 
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