Vanity Licence Plate

Deutsche Version

In Germany the letters and numbers on a licence plate follow restrictive rules. The first letters designate the city or county, were the car is registered. A big city has a single letter (like B for Berlin or M for Munich), smaller cities or couties have two or at a maximum three letters.
Then there is a hyphen (old style) or just a space (new style) containig the emblem of the county and (at the cars rear) the vehicle inspection sticker.
This is followed by one or maximum two letters.
At the end there is a number with minimum two to maximum four characters (but there are also some restrictions, e.g. a county with three letters never has a number with four characters).

So the highest joy for a german cardriver is a licence plate containing his initials, his birthdate or a number like 1000, 777 or something like this.
Depending on the county the car is registered, you may also choose combinations like AN-NA, LA-DY or even SE-XY.

The BMW corporate cars usually are registered in Munich, so the licence plate beginns with M-, but M-INI is an impossible constellation.
To get the MINIs have MI-NI in their plate affords that the cars are registered in the city of Minden to have the MI at the first letters.

BMW registers a couple of their MINIs for a marketing purpose via a local car dealership in Minden. And they did it as well for most of the MINI Es being part of official test programs.

The number 1231 is one of the simplest ones you can choose.
To say it at a german point of view: MI-NI 1231 is something very special.

Although it looks clear,  not all people understand the connection of the car and the licence plate. A friend of my father asked me: Are you living in Minden now?
And as I was charging the MINI at a public charging station a pedestrian asked me: I see, you come from Minden. How do you get access to a charging station in Munich?

MINI E - ActiveE

German Version

Like almost every other MINI E user I'm very interested in the upcoming ActiveE, the next step of BMW towards a serial production electric car.

Concept ActiveE at BMW Welt Munich

The MINI E is just an experiment that has to provide electric drive experience to a big number of people showing the advantages of an electrical drivetrain - but it has some obvious deficiencies due to its prototype status and its short time realisation.

The next step is the electrified BMW ActiveE based on a 1-Series Coupe. This car should be well engineered and it is a direct predecessor of the procect i /MCV (final name will be revealed at 21. February) using a first version of the new developed electric motor and batteries. Further the concept of operating the car and the display of information should satisfy in a BMW-typical manner.
Accordingly the expectations in this car are very high and it is clear that it has to be almost at a serial production standard with no major and almost no little deficiancies left.

BMW revealed news of the car and through the ActiveE-Facebook-group  I found some very informative links:
BMW ActiveE press release
BMW ActiveE video

Based on this information, I made some comparison to the MINI E:

Thermal management of battery:
One of the biggest deficiencies of the MINI E is the lack of an active thermal managenent of the batteries causing significant influences on range, power, regenerative braking and charging.
So in consequence the ActiceE has a liquid thermal management system that should eliminate those impacts on the battery and should provide a reliable and constant range.
Further you can precondition the battery and the cabin when plugged in to the grid. This are the features every MINI E driver dreams about.
The remote control via smartphone may be a helpful feature. The precondition, however, is solely available with the car plugged to the grid.


Charging:
The charging port of the car meets the SAE J1772 standard so that public charging stations in the US can be used without an adapter. The European cars need a separate charging cord anyway which must have a SAE J1772 connector at the one end and a IEC 62196-Type 2 connector at the other end.

An estimated charging time of 5 hours indicates a higher battery capacity.
MINI Es total battery capacity is 35kWh, 80% of this as a usable capacity results to 28kWh. With an approximate charging rate of 7kW at the wallbox, this leads to the often mentioned 4 hours charging time for the MINI E.
5 hours charging result in a usable battery capacity of 35kWh. In case this is just 80% of the total, the ActiveE may have a battery capacity of about 44kWh.

Recuperation:
The MINI E as a front wheel drive has no problem with some additional load on the front wheels during deceleration.
The ActiveE as a rear wheel drive has the handicap of a decreasing load on the rear axle during deceleration. This means that the effect of the regenerative braking particularely at strong deceleration has to be adjusted dependent on the driving situation to ensure stability and safety.
So modifications on the cars electronic DSC were necessary to deal with the effects of regenerative braking.

However I wonder whether the regen is as strong and constant as in the MINI E.

Energy efficiancy:
As I said in a older post, I like the "braking with the gas pedal" concept of the MINI E and the strong effect of the regenerative braking. And I generally favour this behaviour over a "sailing operation" where the car is just rolling on unabated.
However, in some cases at highway and even urban driving, the unabated rolling would be the most energy efficient way of operating the car. Driving the MINI E means that in this case you have to find a position of the driving pedal that is either not accelerating the car nor slowing it down by regen. But you do not exactly know where this position is nor have a feedback when you reached it. So normally there will be a slight energy consumption or regen effect left even with the energy consumption indicator showing a neutral position.

Activating and deactivating the unabated rolling via buttons, paddels or gear levers is not a practical solution for quick changing driving conditions. This would also implement that the cars general behaviour is dependent on the actual mode activated which may cause difficulties in some situations.

The described "gliding mode" activated at an intermediate driving pedal position sounds like a really good and practical solution for this problem. As you can see in the video, the ActiveE's energy consumption indicator goes to the neutral position in a way that may give you a sufficient feedback when the car operates in this mode. I think this is a very useful advancement and enables the combination of acceleration, gliding and braking in just one pedal.
The addition of a button that reduces some basic settings of the drivetrain and the electrical consumers to a more energy efficient mode may also be an useful option when range is an issue or as a general setting when the effects are bearable.

Display:
Compared to other EVs and EV studies the instrument panel is very "analog" and does not feature any displays, diagramms and graphics. Like the MINI E it seems that the original instrument panel is just a little bit modified to show some different type of information, but it is not upgraded or completely reengineered.
The graphical display of the information is solely available on the cars navigation screen.



I hope I ever get a chance to make a testdrive with this car...

Charging cord storage

Deutsche Version

To connect the MINI E to the wallbox or a public charging station, you have to use a special charging cord. Contrary to the United States where the charging cord is a permanentely fixed part of the charging station, in Europe the charging cord is a separate item. The cord is specified to deal with voltages up to 500V and currents up to 63A. So you can imagine this is not a regular electric cable known from electric devices used in a common household, but it is a heavy and stiff electric line. On top this cord may be wet and dirty depending on the weather and the environment of a public charging station.
If you want to use a public charging station or just a common wall socket (via an additional adapter), you'll have to carry the cord with you in the car. 
I was looking for a suitable bag for this cord and choosed a 14x6,5 " snare drum bag from GEWA. I added some hooks from the building center and connected them to the handle of the bag.
The bag is a bit bulky and maybe a bag for a smaller snare drum would have fit a little bit better, but I think its a useful and fine solution for the storage of the charging cord.

Snare drum bag...

... as a charging cord storage.

Charging at public station of Stadtwerke München

Deutsche Version
In the urban area of Munich the Stadtwerke München (local supplier) operate charging stations of different manufacturers. At sunday I tried out charging at a differnt type of charging station.
I was driving to the Landshuter Allee and spotted the charging station after a short search.
The Map of charging stations did not show the exact position.

Position of the charging station

Nevertheless I reached the charging station. Manufacturer seems to be a company called ESG.

SWM charging station at Landshuter Allee

The charging station has both at the left and right side two shut ports for the plugs and a small but sufficient display (indicating ready for use and a telephone number).

The activation of the charging process proved to be a challenge for an electromobile pioneer.

To use this type of station I got an identification card. Due to the card seems to operate with RFID-technology, I put it against the station underneath the diplay. No reaction. Next try left of the diplay, then right of the display, above the display, underneath again, on the SWM-letters, at the side underneath the closed ports... no reaction.
Maybe there might be a flap which has to be opened first? Going around the station several times, investigating every cavity for use as a handle or a card slot. Some soft-touch areas to open a flap? Negative!


Once more "scanning" the front of the device with the card and finally: as I positioned the card at a distinctive place which I just missed before between the display and the SWM-letters, the display says:
- proving authorisation

approximate position of the card activating the station

The lack of an adequate marking may be due to the recent installation of the charger. 
After positive identification the ports are opened motor driven.

Schuko-plug and IEC 62196-2 Typ 2 -plug

Please plug in

After plugging in the charging cord the three unused ports close one after another, combined with an importunate beeping. So the beeping occurs every time one of the ports is closing, the inexperienced user presumes a problem and panics, but in the end the charging station starts charging the car.
Anyhow, the sound of the beeping and the loudness seems not to be suitable for sensitive residental neighborhood.

Charging cord plugged in.

To end the charging the card has to be positioned at the descripted area once again, the charging operation is aborted and the plug is released to be disconnected.
Concluding the amount of kWh is displayed and the port is shut.

#014 charging at the Landshuter Allee

UPDATE 31.05.2011:
As I had again the chance to use this public station, there was a new sticker on the front side. This sticker marks the position for the identification card. In this case the login works perfectly if you know the meaning of the marked point. A detailed  instruction for a first-time-user like "Please apply your identifikation card here" would have been a little better.

additional sticker to mark the position of the RIFD-reader.

Standby power consumption

Deutsche Version
To have an idea, what is the standby power consumption of the wallbox and the car, I watched the electric meter that was installed with the new power cable feeding the wallbox in the garage. 
Due to the electric meter switches digitally in 0,1kWh-steps and I do not have higher sophisticated measuring equipment, this is not more than an estimated conclusion.

Monitoring the electric meter for several days without pluging in the car shows a power consumption of 0,1kWh/24h. This may be slightly more because of  the digital switch.
So the Siemens wallbox has a standby power consumption of about 4,2 Watt (or slightly more).
This is not a big value, but projected to the period I use the MINI E (9 1/2 month, 285 days) this means 285x0,1kWh = 28,5kWh. This is equal to a full charge of MINI Es usable battery capacity of about 28kWh. At a price of 0,207 Euro/kWh this is about 5,90 Euro for the powering of the wallbox during the test period.
Integrating some smart grid features, the power consumption may rise and developers and customers should have an eye on this.
Whenever I do not need the wallbox for a longer time, I shut it off via the circuit breaker.

Monitoring the electric meter with the car plugged in after achieving a SOC of 100% and the flashing charging light is gone, the effect is the same: 0,1kWh/24h combined consumption of wallbox and fully charged car.
So it seems that the MINI E has a negligible power consumption when it is fully charged and there is no need to plug it off to avoid some extra cost.

 

Siemens Wallbox with plugged in MINI E.

This issue changes with the next generation electric vehicles providing thermal management of the battery pack and preconditioning of the cabin.

I hope the driver may choose from different scenarios ranging
... from full range priority providing optimum battery temperature and fully conditioned cabin neglecting the energy consumption
... to an eco mode with priority to minium energy consumption providing just in time battery temperature sufficient for using the regenerative brake and a moderate cabin temperature.

Blogs of MINI E Pioneers

Deutsche Version
Some information I collected about other MINI E blogs.
I divided it up in users that still have a MINI E as far as i know (does not mean that it is updated regularely) and users whose lease had ended (does not mean that is is not updated regularely).

I try to keep this entry up to date at least as I'm involved in the MINI E project.

Some MINI E Pioneers

MINI E in active service
USA
#053: http://miniwink.com/
#111: http://petersminie.blogspot.com/
#140: http://electricminicooper.blogspot.com/
#183: http://electricmini.blogspot.com/
#230: http://coopere230.blogspot.com/
#249: http://cliffsmini-e.blogspot.com/
#250: http://minie250.blogspot.com/
#364: http://gotplug.blogspot.com/



Former MINI E Pioneers now driving a different EV
Chevy Volt
#304: http://drive-electric.blogspot.com/

Nissan Leaf:
#148: http://ev-nation.org/

Th!nk
#458: http://minie458.blogspot.com/

MINI E mission accomplished
#014: http://kathrynbakken.typepad.com/blog/
#017: http://mini-e-edju.blogspot.com/
#019: http://minie019.com/
#030: http://mini-eroy.blogspot.com/
#059: http://web.me.com/soareyes/Stans_Mini_E/Mini_E_Blog/Mini_E_Blog.html
#066: http://www.eanet.com/kodama/ev-chronicles/mini-e/index.htm
#085: http://www.genesisenergycorp.com/mini/
#116: http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/Vehicles/2009-mini-e/
#150: http://kenkuhl.com/mini-e-review.html
#167, #214, #228: http://www.calstart.org/learning-center/mini-e-blog.aspx?Year=2010
#203: http://digimojo.blogspot.com/
#217: http://electricride.wordpress.com/
#237: http://minielectricandme.blogspot.com/
#259: http://blog.honk.com/whats-it-like-to-be-an-early-adopter-for-new-car-technology/
#268: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/07/bmw-mini-e/
#269: http://mikegrahamjr.blogspot.com/
#277: http://www.stuartistry.com/my-mini-e/
#300: http://www.nygreen.com/MINI/
#339: http://mini-e-and-me.blogspot.com/
#348: http://myminie.com/
#353: http://mini-e-353.blogspot.com/
#380: http://mini-e-380.blogspot.com/
#402: http://mymini-e.blogspot.com/
#412: http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1021505_what-its-like-to-lease-and-drive-the-mini-e-electric-car
#418: http://mini-e-418.blogspot.com/
#466: http://thetruthabouttheminie.blogspot.com/
#484: http://magiccman.blogspot.com/
#486: http://myemini.wordpress.com/
#576: http://electricmini.tumblr.com/
#588: http://hubymini.tumblr.com/

MINI E Rescue Sheet

 Deutsche Version
Reading an article at www.energie-info.net I became aware of the rescue sheet.

Modern automobiles become more and more complex and sophisticated. In case of emergency or accident this makes it more difficult for the rescue personnel.

In order to give fire departments and rescue personnel basic information for a quick, effective and safe rescue, the ADAC (German automobile club) claims a standard sheet which gives a brief overview of a car with special information that may be helpful in case of an accident and rescue.
The data sheet contains information like position of hard to cut ultra high strengh steels, the position of the fuel tank or the location of a cars battery enabling a quick disconnection.
Further the locations of various equipment is shown that can be harmful to the rescuers like airbag gas generators or gas filled spring devices.

High voltage electricity in hybrid cars or battery electric cars is another group of objects that threatens both vehicle occupants and rescuers in case of emergency. This is a very new and up to now a very rare aspect. The rescue and fire departments have little real life experience concerning this special sort of automobiles. So locally available information about position of high voltage wires/components and information about shutdown procedures of the high voltage systems are crucial for an effectiv rescue.

www.rettungskarte.de  provides links to the manufacturers sites where the rescue sheet for their cars will be found. Some additional english information like a translation of the icons can be found at www.rescuesheet.info .
The ADAC recommends to store the rescue sheet at the drivers sun visor to make it quick available in case the rescue team does not have mobile internet access.

Following the links I found a MINI E rescue sheet. So I printed it and located it at the sun visor following the recommendation, because due to its limited number the MINI E may be a challenge for the rescue and fire departments.

Image of the MINI E rescue sheet. For full detail follow the links above.

The mounting to the drivers visor could not be organized in a useful way due to the MINIs vanity mirror. So I took a transparent envelope with the rescue sheet inside, put some self-adhesive hook-and-loop-tape (the hook-side) on it and fixed it to the roof lining.

Rescue sheet in transparent envelope fixed to the roof lining.