Mini E range plummets as winter hits the northeast

[wtmusic]

"Our friend Dr. Lyle Dennis of GM-Volt.com is one of the 450-odd privateers in the New York and Southern California areas that managed to get on the list of lessees for the battery-powered Mini E. Dennis has been driving his Mini mostly pretty happily for the past six months although it has not been ideal. This past week, in particular, it's been a bit trying as the northeastern part of the United States got slammed by heavy winter weather and cold temperatures.

As we learned recently from the guys at Consumer Reports with the Mitsubishi i MiEV, winter and battery cars are a less than ideal mix. All cars loose efficiency for a number of reasons when the mercury drops, but EVs seem to be particularly problematic. When outside of their optimum temperature range, batteries become reluctant to release their electrons. Dennis has a commute into Manhattan that consists of about 27 miles each way, not an unusual circumstance in the U.S. As the thermometer read 23 degrees Fahrenheit last week, the battery level gauge was on 0 after a 55-mile round trip to the office that included two hours on the plug while there."

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/12/29/mini-e-range-plummets-as-winter-hits-the-northeast/

No battery heater (like the Volt)? What did BMW expect?

[madokie]

1. First thing I thought, battery heater.

if you are way out in no where land and there is no hope of making it to where you can get some help starting your vehicle because of temperatures in the minuses and you're stranded but all you get when you hit the starter is a click and maybe a groan. You got the jumper cables like everyone should have but the problem is there is no cars around to jump from. Well all is not lost, take the cables and connect them to the battery as you would if you were getting a jump start then take the jack handle or something steel if you have it and connect the other end of the cables to that piece os steel, wrench whatever and leave it connected for a good ten maybe 20 seconds and then disconnect from whatever you were using to short the battery with and remove the jumper cables from the cars battery and get in the vehicle and start the engine. It'll start because the direct short you just did warmed the battery up and as it warms up its capacity increased. I've been there and had to do just that once, I would have frozen to death otherwise.