Living With The Mini E Electric Car For Two Years: Memories

By Pamela Thwaite

Pamela Thwaite

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I'm a keen advocate for healthy low-impact living, supporting local and organic producers. I've latterly become an electric car convert and signed up... More

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Living With The Mini E Electric Car For Two Years: Memories
So, first, a little history. Our family car was a 2008 Audi A6 Avant S Line, silver with a black... Read More

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1,236 views Feb 14, 2012

Mini E and BMW ActiveE in New Jersey (photo: Michael Thwaite)

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So, first, a little history.

Our family car was a 2008 Audi A6 Avant S Line, silver with a black interior. My husband Michael had a 2005 Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works. Both were very nice cars.

In February 2008, Michael discovered the Tesla Roadster, and decided he had to have one. We did the math, put down a deposit, and his dreams of an electric car were about to become a reality.

We had to sell his beloved Mini, as we couldn't afford to keep both it and the Tesla. But it sold quickly and, to bridge the gap, he bought a 2005 Honda Insight hybrid. Apparently, he had always wanted one. It had high mileage, and was blue on the outside and a horrid pale beige inside.

That's no problem, I said. I'm not driving it. Though every day, I got to hear about how many miles per gallon it got.

August 2009 finally arrived, and the Tesla turned up in a very large crate. Michael was one very happy person--and you might think, the Tesla was here, so we'd sell the Insight?

But, oh no, "We'll keep it!", said Michael. "Our daughter can learn to drive in it." Oh, great.

In time, our daughter started to learn to drive in the Insight. But then, somehow, guess who else ended up having to drive it? Yes, that's right... me!

MINI E

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"The Audi gets such bad gas mileage compared to the Insight," I heard. "Why don't you drive that instead? It costs us less in fuel and you don't need the space of the Audi all the time."

OK, I relented, the environment deserves to be treated better. Reluctantly, I started driving the Insight, hoping that no one would recognize me.

The problem was, it got to be a competition. Who can get the best gas mileage?

Michael still used the Insight as well, and we both drove it carefully, even with a long line of cars behind us. After all, we were traveling at the speed limit, so of course all the drivers behind us will thank us, won't they? They were getting better mileage too, and the planet will be happier.

One day, we were invited to a Mini E event, with Michael being asked to bring his Tesla Roadster. There, we heard some talk that a few Mini E drivers had returned their cars, and there were a few that hadn't yet been assigned.

Hmmmmm, we thought. We hadn't originally applied for the Mini E because the monthly cost seemed so high. But after enjoying electric drive for a few months, the idea of an electric car started to seem more important.

So we said we were interested, and on December 16, 2009, we picked up our own Mini E (number 361). And so began my two years, one month, and five days of driving an electric car.

What about the Honda Insight and our Audi A6 Avant? The Insight was sold promptly, and I was happy to see it go. We decided our daughter would continue to learn to drive in the electric Mini instead, and we kept the Audi for the times when we went out as a family.

Taking a Driving Test in a 2009 MIni E

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Except that it mostly sat in the garage, and when we went out as a family, we ended up taking two electric cars. We realized it was still better to travel on electric miles and, actually, it was a lot cheaper than the Audi too. It was only two years old, it had less than 19,000 miles, but it only left the garage to go to the Audi dealer for its service.

We decided that if we needed to go on a long drive, we would just rent a car, saving money on insurance and depreciation. So, we advertised it and sold it very quickly. I was sad to see it go, as it really was a fantastic car, but it just didn't fit our lifestyle anymore... we had become true electrics.

I've spent the last two years (and a bit more) driving the Mini E--and occasionally the Tesla, if Michael allows me--and it's been great. I've loved every minute of it.

Well, almost.

On a couple of occasions when it was really cold outside, the range of the Mini E was reduced significantly. It didn't have battery heaters, and cold batteries don't make happy  batteries. On those occasions, it wasn't unheard of--on days when I knew I had some miles to do--for me to drive the MINI-E with the heat off, to conserve my miles.

The heater ate into the range and I couldn't afford to run out, so I'd dress really warmly. It was fine, you do what you have to do for the planet--a true pioneer, I'd say!

The Mini E never let me down. Even when warning messages threatened that something was wrong, it kept going. It spent a few days at the Mini garage having its charger fixed, but that's all that went wrong. Other problems we had with it were actually about it being a Mini, nothing to do with it being electric.