Don’t know if this is the official Road Trip spot but here’s some info on my first road trip with the Mini:
I don’t really road trip outside of visiting my parents and in-laws a few times a year. Recently, I went to visit my parents and brought my two year old along for the first road trip with the Mini.
The trip is a touch over 200 miles one way with about 90% on major highways like I-95. In an
ICE I would do the trip with a stop halfway for a break/food/bathroom for the family which would be around 15-20 minutes. Granted, these trips were pre-covid and the little one wasn’t walking yet. I could do the trip in about 3 hours plus time for traffic and the break, let’s say 3 and a half hours. It would take about a half tank of gas in our little SUV. Then, multiply everything by two for a round trip.
My plan: Be conservative -
-Don’t want to get stranded, especially with the little one. So, I didn’t try to squeeze in just one charging stop.
-Don’t keep speed low, I feel being slow on 95 in a tiny car is pretty close to a death wish. I also didn’t draft behind any trucks.
-Don’t sacrifice AC, the average temp was about 93 degrees so I ran AC the entire time. I used Mid for the whole trip as well.
I planned two Electrify America stops which were roughly equidistant. A Better Route Planner gave suggestions for what to charge to at each stop. The charging stops were both expected to be between 20-30 minutes.
The Trip There:
Left the house at 100% and ABRP said I should have 33% left at the first stop. This leg was about 70 miles which was mixed with city driving and highway driving. I pulled into EA with over 40% battery left. Spent 24 minutes there to get to 88% and it cost $5. No one else was charging.
Second leg was shorter, about 60 miles but all of it was I-95. I put cruise on 72 (which I think is actually 70mph but whatever) and accelerated as needed to get around slower traffic. Showed up to the EA with about 40%. This was around 10% better than ABRP predicted. There were two others charging and one broken stall so I took the last open spot. Charged for 18 minutes and got to 84%. Cost was a touch under $4.
Last leg was about 70 miles to get me to my location with an estimated 10% remaining. There was a decent amount of traffic, some of which was stop and go (shoutout to one pedal driving for making that less frustrating). Pulled in with 28% remaining.
Overall, the average was 4.3 mi/kwh. Total time was about 4 hours and 15 minutes. Traffic delays hurt that total and of course the charging took 42 minutes. Cost was about $9.
Return Trip:
Left with 100% and reset the mi/kwh. There were heavy winds against me which really dragged efficiency down. Averaged about 3.3 mi/kwh. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t panic watching the GOM plummet. Pulled into EA with a little over 30% left. No one was charging (the broken one was fixed too). Charged to 89% which took 26 minutes and cost a little over $5. At this stop my daughter spilled her drink all over herself so we had to do a whole wardrobe change at the charger, but the whole time the car was charging so the time wasn’t ‘lost.’
The next leg I had the wind at my back which was great. Pulled into the next EA and charged for about 21 minutes to get to 86%. There was one car charging. Cost was about $4.50
The last leg had me pretty nervous because the wind changed again and my GOM was off from my distance by only a few miles. For about an hour I GOM-watched as the gap hovered between 5-6 miles. I decided to chance not stopping to charge and once I exited the highway my gap between GOM and miles left ballooned from 7 to 15+. I ended up back home with 18% left (which the GOM only predicted at 18 miles). Final was 3.7 mi/kwh.
Takeaways:
-Honestly, not that bad. I actually enjoyed the stops because it gave my two year old some breaks which made the actual driving easier on me. In an ICE we’d probably need those breaks for her anyway. Taking five to ten minutes of sitting in an air conditioned car in between driving north of an hour is also a pretty pleasant experience.
-Electrify America was flawless. Each charger I pulled into worked the first time, no need for replugging. There was always an empty spot for me. Cost was good, about $18 for the whole trip (not counting my starting charges which were at home and at a free charger).
-If I wanted to be more efficient, I should have tried to keep the fast charging below 80% since the speeds from 0-80% are the fastest, but I was conservative for my first time. That would have probably shaved about 10 minutes off each way.
), and is likely the best way to get a consistent idea of range.
