Impressive warm weather range

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My wife’s SE seems to average 5+ miles per kWh according to the display (which means more than that in reality) every day here in Texas as long as the trip is more than about 5-6 miles. It’s a very efficient car due to its size and weight…
 
Just how slowly do you guys drive? My daily commute is 90% ~75mph. Warm weather that is over 4 mi/kWh
I've actually been driving my R53 this week. I hadn't driven it in months and it was overdue to blow the mice out of the tailpipe.
 
pictsidhe said:
Just how slowly do you guys drive? My daily commute is 90% ~75mph. Warm weather that is over 4 mi/kWh
I've actually been driving my R53 this week. I hadn't driven it in months and it was overdue to blow the mice out of the tailpipe.
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The 5+ on short trips is in a suburban setting so 45mph with plenty of red light intersections. On longer trips in the same setting we get close to 6.

At a true sustained 70mph I get 4 miles per kWh.
Which for the speed is still very efficient vs other EVs.
 
I easily get over 5 mi/kWh in the summer driving at speeds up to 70 mph, traveling 40 miles at a time (my commute). I will say I live with my my cruise control on as much as possible, which I'm convinced increases efficiency at high speed by a lot.
 
Puppethead said:
I easily get over 5 mi/kWh in the summer driving at speeds up to 70 mph, traveling 40 miles at a time (my commute). I will say I live with my my cruise control on as much as possible, which I'm convinced increases efficiency at high speed by a lot.
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Yes cruise control should maximize efficiency as the acceleration is done gradually and smoothly as opposed to a human foot or finger which typically would cause a more abruptly peak and trough of the delivery of the power which consequently consumes more electricity
 
Puppethead said:
I easily get over 5 mi/kWh in the summer driving at speeds up to 70 mph, traveling 40 miles at a time (my commute). I will say I live with my my cruise control on as much as possible, which I'm convinced increases efficiency at high speed by a lot.
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It requires maximum concentration, but I believe a skilled hypermiler can do better than a "maintain-set-speed" cruise control. Commuting in my Insights, I used gentle acceleration going downhill to gain just enough momentum to get over the next hill without my speed dropping to traffic-impeding levels at the crest. Practicing on the same hills day-after-day eventually resulted in greater MPG readings on the car's Fuel Consumption Display.

Honda must have thought the same as me because neither the 70-mpg 1st nor 2nd version of the gen-1 Insight had cruise control. Our gen-2 Insight had cruise control, but it was Honda's half-hearted, cost-saving attempt to copy the 2nd-gen Prius and achieved only 40/43 mpg, not as good as the 2nd-gen Prius.
 
insightman said:
It requires maximum concentration, but I believe a skilled hypermiler can do better than a "maintain-set-speed" cruise control.
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I believe that's the case in hybrids, but EVs are different with the regenerative braking. I've begun experimenting with shifting into neutral on downslopes, but I'm not sure the SE can be easily hypermiled to improve on the cruise control efficiency.
 
Puppethead said:
I believe that's the case in hybrids, but EVs are different with the regenerative braking. I've begun experimenting with shifting into neutral on downslopes, but I'm not sure the SE can be easily hypermiled to improve on the cruise control efficiency.
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BEV hypermiling would require careful right-ankle modulation to ensure no regen braking takes place. However, I'm no longer a commuter, so I can't conduct long-term testing to prove my supposition. Also, when I'm driving my SE, my right ankle seems to have a mind of its own. Hypermiling isn't on the menu.
 
Puppethead said:
I believe that's the case in hybrids, but EVs are different with the regenerative braking. I've begun experimenting with shifting into neutral on downslopes, but I'm not sure the SE can be easily hypermiled to improve on the cruise control efficiency.
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I'm guessing you don't have any rolling hills on your commute? I have lots of short up/downs and the cruise will floor it on the up to maintain speed then regen hard on the other side to avoid speeding. Because I know there's a short hill, I can choose to let the speed drop on the uphill so I can regain speed on the down back to the target. Regen does help reduce the losses but it's still slightly worse than coasting.

On flat and gradually sloped routes, I do agree that a driver could match cruise at best but would likely be slightly worse. If you watch the instantaneous efficiency on the dash, cruise control does frequently go right to coasting (+/- 20mi/kWh) and hold there when possible which is not an easy thing to train your foot to do
 
Carsten Haase said:
I'm guessing you don't have any rolling hills on your commute?
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I actually have quite a bunch of hills I go through near my house, but the freeway driving is fairly level with only a couple of exceptions. The hills are where I've recently tried neutral, but I find the SE coasts so well I pick up too much speed so it's better to let the regenerative braking reclaim energy.

I do recall there has been some successful hypermiling in the SE.

 
I agree that a good hypermiling driver can beat the cruise control system because you can read the road ahead which the cruise cannot.
Using regen going downhill and then adding power to get up the other side uses more power than simply allowing the car to speed up downhill and carry that speed to the uphill. Both accelerating and decelerating via the motor have losses due to heat.
Many YouTubers say they do round trips to cancel out elevation gains or wind but that’s not how it works.
 
It’s my second summer with MINI, and I’m impressed with increased range as well.

After two days of round trip commute (non-highway) I love these numbers

9f83af5077e318d84434b7a327763d56.jpg
 
AndysComputer said:
I agree that a good hypermiling driver can beat the cruise control system because you can read the road ahead which the cruise cannot.
Using regen going downhill and then adding power to get up the other side uses more power than simply allowing the car to speed up downhill and carry that speed to the uphill. Both accelerating and decelerating via the motor have losses due to heat.
Many YouTubers say they do round trips to cancel out elevation gains or wind but that’s not how it works.
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A somewhat crude test that I did driving up and back down a large elevation change gave me about 75-80% regen efficiency. For every kWh you put into elevation or speed energy, it will regen about 0.75-0.8kWh into the battery going back down.
 
e22mini said:
It’s my second summer with MINI, and I’m impressed with increased range as well.

After two days of round trip commute (non-highway) I love these numbers

9f83af5077e318d84434b7a327763d56.jpg
Click to expand...

Sorry for the dumb question but what app is that?


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
I just turned 3.47 miles/kWh as well here in Tucson where thing are starting to warm up (in the 90s). The GOM gave me 111 after a full charge.

Is there any truth to the US 2024 SE having a the 54 kWh battery? That would be a game changer for the SE.
 
mikeg0305 said:
I might be willing to trade in my 2022.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a43802893/2024-mini-cooper-electric-range/
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I might as well, although 1) I am just as tempted by the descriptions of the handling, and 2) I will have to see how life evolves to determine whether I actually need more range.

Related to the title of this thread, today I drove 102 miles of county roads, state highways, and interstate at 45-70 mph, using 75% of the battery (=4.7 mi/kWh, or 136 mi of total range). I enjoyed the drive, but the bumpiness of the county roads and a construction zone on the interstate made clear that the SE isn't the most comfortable long distance vehicle even if it could go forever without recharging. So, would longer range really be an upgrade if I would opt for another vehicle for road trips anyway? That said, once at a destination, the SEs strengths would shine through, so if I took another vehicle, I would be missing my SE once I got there. Decisions, decisions!

I will say this: when this impromptu trip came up, I immediately grabbed the key to the SE, looking forward to driving it and not for one second worrying about whether I could make it to the rural location and back home (to check out a car for sale) or whether there were any charging stations along the way. I knew that the trip was readily doable, despite the SE's claimed range of only 114 mi.
 
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pictsidhe said:
A somewhat crude test that I did driving up and back down a large elevation change gave me about 75-80% regen efficiency. For every kWh you put into elevation or speed energy, it will regen about 0.75-0.8kWh into the battery going back down.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that information. I'm usually pretty smooth when driving, a habit I developed when gas prices spiked in the early 2000s and I was driving a not-so-economical Outback. My impression has therefore been that the biggest factors influencing my range are 1) cooler temperatures and 2) changes in elevation. However, it's quite flat where I have driven, so really getting a handle on things has been a bit challenging. Knowing how much changes in potential energy seem to cost helps me calibrate.
 
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