I'm driving MINI E # 014 for two months now. So far no breakdowns occured and I'm still completely fascinated by the electric driving .
Although I use the car almost every day, the trips are short. The current mileage is 13067 km, i.e. since receipt of the vehicle I drove 1591 km. This means about 800 km per month, which is pretty much for my circumstances.
90% of the trips take place exclusively in the city, the other 10% is pure highway driving at higher speeds.
Engine sound:
Inside the vehicle, the engine sound is noticable (with shut off radio) and you have some response caused by the driving conditions (such as the typical buzz that appears in recuperation mode from higher to lower frequency dependent on the driving speed).
Since the sound is not too loud nor unpleasant in the frequency spectrum, I think an appropriate and "natural" electric motor sound in the interior would be useful. The same is true already for normal combustion engines that are on the one hand provided with a sophisticated sound insulation, on the other hand it should be quite noticable for the driver in certain situations (e.g. intense speed acceleration).
An artificial distortion of the electric motor sound or even the acoustic simulation of a combustion engine, I do not consider expedient.
The low operating noise of the car is very pleasant, but it requires a correspondingly prudent driving. Until now there was a single situation where an elderly lady was crossing the street and did not notice me, because she was intensly watching the street to the opposite direction. Accordingly, she was surprised when she finally realized that I had already stopped on the other side and waited until she finished crossing the road. But perhaps she wouldn't had noticed me even with an conventional car.
With the low temperatures much less pedestrians and cyclists inhabit Munichs streets than in the summer, so I currently see no problem with the low external noise.
Recuperation:
I like the strong retarding when releasing the accelerator pedal very much, because with metered changes of the accelerator pedal position you can control the speed very accurately.
Personally I prefer the strong braking effect on the recuperation more than a little braking effect or even a "sailing operation," in which the vehicle does not brake at all and acts comparable with a conventional car with the clutch pedal pressed and rollin on unabated.
Choices between different modes for the recuperation, such as those in the A1 e-tron via shift paddles on the steering wheel or on a pre-selection of the gear lever as in the Mitsubishi iMiEV may be helpful at the beginning for inexperienced e-car drivers. But then maybe a consistent implementation and adoption of e-motor-specific advantages of speed control only via the accelerator pedal is avoided.
However, with the different opinions on this topic, an appropriate choice or a "personal" adjustment of the braking performance should be provided.
Since even the MINI E typical strong retarding effect is sometimes not enough, I think a feature of the AVL eMini is an useful addition. The description for this car says, that with a light touch of the brake pedal you increase the regenerative braking (which should already be active when the foot leaves the gas-pedal). The mechanical brakes are activated at the normal pressure on the pedal. This does not help for the "one-pedal-strategy", but provides more regenerative energy.
Charging:
Until now, I'm charging the MINI E as rare as possible. As my rides are predictable and a second car available, its not necessary to have the car always in a 100%-SoC-condition.
With SoCs of 40% or residual ranges of 50km I have not a big problem on short trips. This was different at the beginning of the test. However, with the temperatures falling I have to call my just won trust in the estimated range into question.
Charging is very simple, but the handling of the inflexible and stiff charging cable is uncomfortable.
A more flexible, perhaps self-retracting cable or even wireless charging based on induction would be an enormous advantage for the daily use of an electric car.
Annotation: here in Germany the cable is not a permanent part of the wallbox. We have a single cable to connect the Mini to all types of charging stations. If you want to carry the cable with the car to use public stations or to have it available just in case of need, you'll have to do all the uncoiling, connecting and restoring operations any time you use even the home wallbox.
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| Munich and MINI E #014 |
