 Mini E electric car. Click image to enlarge |
In addition to charging via an electrical outlet, the Mini E feeds a bit of power back into its batteries through regenerative braking. In simplest terms, this involves the electric motor running backwards, slowing the wheels and acting as a generator to feed power back into storage (the car also has conventional friction brakes on all wheels, of course). Take your foot off the accelerator, and the Mini E pushes you forward in the seat; it slows down so quickly that the brake lights illuminate to warn drivers behind you. The car doesn’t coast, and until I got used to it, I found I was stopping several car lengths short of red lights. It’s possible to alleviate the sharp deceleration by feathering the accelerator, but that also reduces the effectiveness of the regenerative system. I expect the ActiveE to improve on this, and the MegaCity to take it even further – part of the reason why new technologies take so much time and money to bring to market.
The heavy batteries also pack more weight into the rear end; it feels like driving a pickup truck with a load in the box. The regular Mini already suffers from torque-steer, and with all that mass in the back, the Mini E’s front end is squirmy and light on acceleration. With its batteries under the floor and better balanced front-to-back, along with its rear-wheel drive, the ActiveE should be a considerable improvement.
 Mini E electric car. Click image to enlarge |
Even so, the Mini E is fun to drive. I know the novelty factor is at least partly responsible for that, but the majority of U.S. lessees also listed enjoyable driving as part of the experience. There’s no engine sound, but there’s still the same amount of road noise, and so there isn’t the feeling of isolated driving that you might anticipate from an electric car.
Of course, the big issue is getting power back into the batteries once they’re empty. The company claims a range of 160 to 190 kilometres on a charge. I was out for a little over an hour, most of the time with my foot in the oil pan, if the car had had one, which ultimately drained the battery to about 70 per cent of its full charge. A few days earlier, a BMW employee had taken the car home for the night, but a malfunctioning plug in her garage meant she couldn’t recharge it. She made the round trip, approximately 150 kilometres in mostly highway driving, with 24 per cent of the battery’s power still intact.
Charging the Mini E from complete drain takes 24 hours on a 110-volt charger, which is how BMW was doing it. On a 240-volt fast charger, it takes between three and five hours, but installing one in the company’s new, environmentally-friendly LEED-certified building would have required several permits, which wasn’t done since the Mini E will only be staying for a couple of weeks. “Fuelling” the car is dead simple: open the filler door and remove the cap, as you would if filling with gasoline, and then push the charger end into the car’s plug receptacle.
 Mini E electric car. Click image to enlarge |
Unlike a hybrid, or an extended-range vehicle such as the Chevrolet Volt, the Mini E driver is out of luck if he or she runs out of power on the road. Improved batteries and lighter-weight vehicle structures will help improve the range, but until a network of quick-charging stations becomes the norm, electric vehicles will undoubtedly find most of their audience within cities, with people who generally travel regular routes and seldom rack up extended trips – hence, the upcoming MegaCity’s name.
“It’s not much different than when gasoline cars came out, and gas stations didn’t exist,” said Rob Dexter, corporate communications specialist of product and technology for BMW Canada. “People would say, ‘You’re going to put a big tank of volatile fuel outside on the corner? You’re nuts!’ But now, of course, you can’t go anywhere without being in range of a gas station. They had to start somewhere. That’s where electric cars are now. There will be early adopters, but eventually there will be a grid. It may take twenty years, but one day we’ll have young people saying, ‘You mean there was a time when you had to put fuel in a car?’ A big chunk of BMW’s future is electric.”
