MINI Cooper SE at the LA Auto Show (everything you want to know)

Domenick

Domenick

Well-Known Member
The MINI Cooper SE was at the recent LA Auto Show and @Tom Moloughney, who was in the original MINI-E program a few years back, got to spend some time talking to Patrick McKenna, MINI USA's Department Head of Product Planning and Consumer Events.

He wrote up what he learned from the visit (and much more) in this lengthy piece. And if you do happen to have any questions after reading this, we can maybe summon Tom and get him to spill all the secrets (ok, maybe not all the secrets).

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What's under the hood of a MINI Cooper SE? Unfortunately, not a frunk! With the motor and power electronics up front, there's no room for additional storage in the Cooper SE.


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Sandroad said:
The hood scoop appears to have a grill, so maybe it has a cooling air function for the electronics? @insightman
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I'm all over that stupid hood scoop. It turns out the hood scoop on the regular ICE-powered MINI Cooper S is ALSO blocked off! There's a criss-cross pattern on the front of the plastic that fills the useless slot. I've corresponded with MINI executives (well, only one of them responded to my snail-mail letters) in Germany and have learned it was marketing that decided to add the hood scoop at the last minute. It's going to cost me about $1,500 to replace the hood with a base MINI hood (although I'll recover some of that outlay when I sell the scooped hood on ebay). I've watched at least 5 or 6 video reviews where the reviewers wonder why this electric car has a hood scoop. Please take 13 seconds to watch my online protest.
 
Domenick said:
He wrote up what he learned from the visit (and much more) in this lengthy piece.
Click to expand...
That link doesn't work for me, I hope you can fix it because I can't read enough about this car while I'm waiting to see if MINI will send a few of these cars to any states other than California (eg. Michigan).

Edit after frantic searching:
I found this article by Tom on Inside EVs. Is this the one?
 
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The two questions I would ask: When is the EPA range going to be revealed and when can we expect to see road tests? I'm sure the answer from MINI will be, "When we get closer to the cars being delivered to customers." That time is just now closer.

Of course, the range-ragers who care nothing about the negative effects of a large, heavy battery on handling, acceleration, and interior space will disparage anything less than 500 miles, so just get it over with and tell us the EPA range numbers now. Then MINI won't have to worry about embargoing road tests because it's only the official EPA numbers that count for apples-to-apples EV range comparisons.
 
insightman said:
That link doesn't work for me, I hope you can fix it because I can't read enough about this car while I'm waiting to see if MINI will send a few of these cars to any states other than California (eg. Michigan).

Edit after frantic searching:
I found this article by Tom on Inside EVs. Is this the one?
Click to expand...
Thanks. I pasted in some random text instead of the link. Works now, and yes, that was the very one.
 
insightman said:
The two questions I would ask: When is the EPA range going to be revealed and when can we expect to see road tests? I'm sure the answer from MINI will be, "When we get closer to the cars being delivered to customers." That time is just now closer.

Of course, the range-ragers who care nothing about the negative effects of a large, heavy battery on handling, acceleration, and interior space will disparage anything less than 500 miles, so just get it over with and tell us the EPA range numbers now. Then MINI won't have to worry about embargoing road tests because it's only the official EPA numbers that count for apples-to-apples EV range comparisons.
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Our debut post has the EPA range as 114 miles, though I don't see that figure in the press release (I assume he used the WLTP range and subtracted the typical difference between the two tests).

It has a 32.6 kWh battery, so if you compare it with the 30-kWh Nissan LEAF's EPA range of 107 miles, that seems about right.
 
Domenick said:
Our debut post has the EPA range as 114 miles, though I don't see that figure in the press release (I assume he used the WLTP range and subtracted the typical difference between the two tests).

It has a 32.6 kWh battery, so if you compare it with the 30-kWh Nissan LEAF's EPA range of 107 miles, that seems about right.
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That 114-mile guess (from Automotive News, if I remember correctly) has been bandied around so long that many websites pretend it's as good as the EPA number. It may be spot-on for all I know. Why won't BMW release the actual EPA number? If it is 114 miles, just tell us.
 
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