BMW Mini EV Quick Review

that's pretty dramatic, but so are sub zero temps!

 

The thing I think is misleading about that article is it's presentation.
The headline is "What is it like to live with an electric car?" then the sub-headline underneath the photo say's "An unhappy David Beesley is handing back his electric car"...then even the 1st few paragraphs illuminate that he is unhappy but don't reveal why.

Well shouldn't that sub-headline under the photo say "David Beesley is unhappy because he is being forced to hand back his electric car"?

Just because to the casual reader, or someone just glancing at the article, it appears at first to be very negative or ant-electric car.

You have to read quite a ways to discover that he's upset because he LIKES his electric car so much, and can't currently buy a replacement.


Maybe I'm overreacting or being paranoid...but the way the article is structured it's like there is almost a subconcious anti-electric car bias.

 

A warm battery is a happy battery. If you are able to keep the car in a garage above freezing (the warmer, the better) it should still perform well.

 

How disappointing. I had the pleasure of being able to visit London and as an ignorant, mass produced, American I like to dellude myself with the stereotype that The English are the well educated, reasonable types with bad dental care.

Now I find out the BBC is just FOX news with an accent....It's enough to make me want to hit my head repeatedly against my bonnet...

 

Well I meant in FOX like in regards to having and presenting a bias. Not what type of bias.

You have to pay a tax to own a television? You know taxes have gotten the British in trouble before, I'd recommend a protest inwhich you throw your television into a bay or something like that....

 

Well I like the BBC. Or at least it's programming. Gavin & Stacey: "Oh, Doris....where's the salad?". Classic!

 

The worst thing about it is that if you _don't_ have a TV you're likely to get letters and visits from the TV Licensing authority who assume that you must have a TV.

They should just due it through normal taxation. It'd be easy: decide the annual "fee" and do some simple math based on households (use the census - no extra money) to calculate the amount. Since "everybody" has a TV they could even reduce benefits and pensions. The key benefit would be the reduction in "fee" by elimination of the TV Licensing Authority.

 

Hi All,

I think EV's will need something like a Propane or Compressed Natural Gas heater for sub freezing temperature operation. Not only to keep the windows clear, and the passengers warm, but the batteries warm too.

This is not terrible. Such heaters can be 70+ % efficient, and if we do not burn off the Methane, it will be an even more powerful greenhouse gas.

On the BBC Tax, well, I thought it was a generality in Europe that there was a "receiver tax". Buy any kind of TV or Radio reciever, and you pay a yearly tax on it, No? I think such taxes were discussed in the US at the dawn of radio (early 20th century), but they were shot down over freedom of speech concerns. In that, if radio would be delivering such free speech, then taxing it would be taxing free speech - which is not constitutional.

I am glad I do not have to pay a yearly property tax on my car, however (as in some US states).

 

I was disappointed that BMW/mini limited their test to oxfordshire, as i really wanted to try one of these.

As for the BBC, i actually support the licence fee. BBC make the worlds best programmes, and don't have adverts. this simply wouldn't be possible without the funds from the licence fee.

They also use the money to maintain the nationwide television and radio broadcast network, and as far as i know something like 70% of people still receive their tv through a terrestrial aerial. as freeview HD comes online and more bandwidth is freed after analogue switchoff, that number may actually go back up. i certainly don't see any value in a sky/virgin installation...

 

With commercial TV, the real cost is hidden in the price of everything you buy, as the cost of advertising is passed along to the consumer. So, if you watch TV you are assaulted with lies and insults to your intelligence in the form of advertising, AND you pay for that advertising when you buy products. And even if you don't own a TV, you pay for advertising when you purchase anything.

I like that idea! Though, if I were Emperor of the World, I'd simply shut off all TV transmitters (including cable and other TV providers) and use the money to support libraries instead.

Actually, it was because we were not given representation in Parliament. The issue probably could have been resolved if the king had not been clinically insane. When the ruler is determined by heredity rather than competence, you have real problems. (Alas, determining rulers by popularity is no better. I advocate picking rulers at random, from among all adult citizens.)

 

Yeah, the range reduction is going to be a big problem. until we have 300mile+ packs i think range extenders are the way to go.

kind of odd as well, this story is being reported elsewhere saying that sub zero temps are bad, but not common in oxford.....? i'm pretty sure it goes below freezing there every winter, maybe someone is getting confused about sub zero farenheit...

 

Spokane seldom gets much colder than freezing, but at zero Celsius the heater in my Xebra heats the cab just fine without sucking up too much of my range. I'm going to say between 10 and 20 percent.

North Dakota in January would be a different matter.

But OTOH, when I lived in Fargo I never got much heat anyway (in the Prius), because my commute was ten minutes, and the heater was just STARTING to put out some warm air when I got where I was going.

Granted, if you were planning on going 100 miles and arriving dead empty, using the heater would leave you stranded. And I imagine that at 30 below zero Celsius, even lithium batteries would lose some power. I'd expect a 50% reduction in range in January in North Dakota. But for me, that would still have been plenty!

So, yes, cold weather will take its toll. But not nearly as much as some are speculating, and not much at all outside of the northern prairie states & provinces.

Extreme heat and use of A/C will take a toll as well, but it's interesting to note that we did just fine in the old days before A/C. I'm having the A/C removed entirely from my electric Porsche. It's just not worth the reduction in power. The A/C was actually slowing the car down.

 

In cold weather, just need to condition the car beforehand. Should be simple at home - and if you can plug-in at your destination.

 

Depends. Are you talking zero Celeius? If so, you'll be fine as long as you don't turn the heat on full and open the windows. Are you talking zero Fahrenheit? That could be a problem. If you live where it goes to zero F. and you have no alternative transportation, I'd advise waiting until the car's been around for a year. Someone else will not wait, and we'll have real-life data.

Lithium batteries do not lose much range at all at zero Celsius, and reasonable use of the heater in a properly-insulated car will not take too much. (Based on my experience with LiFePO4 batteries in my Xebra at zero Celsius.)

For the matter of that, anybody who suffers from range anxiety should probably wait a year, until there is real-life data available. On both this forum and the Leaf chat board there will be people in extreme climates who will push their car to the edge and report on the results, and Consumers Union may conduct cold-weather tests.

If you are enough of a fanatic to buy the car the first year, you're probably willing to accept the risks of being a pioneer. At least, you should be. There are a lot of unknowns about this car, but they'll all be resolved into knowns within the first year.