Long-Term Test: 2009 Mini E

As of this typing, a large pipe off the coast of Louisiana is erupting millions of gallons of raw oil into the sea and there's pretty much nothing we can do about it. The air over densely populated cities is brown. Unpleasant nations — like Canada — are getting rich off our addiction to petroleum products.

Oil is convenient, cheap and familiar and its continued use in motor vehicles could be as damning as relying on cheap, familiar fast food for daily sustenance.

Clearly it's time for a change. But is an electric car a viable alternative? For anyone? Can we give up our nomadic transportation habits in favor of planned routes and definitive distances? We're not sure.

BMW's not sure either, so it created a test fleet of battery-powered Minis and put them into the hands of private owners. We had our own 2009 Mini E for 12 months and this is our electrifying story. (Sorry, that was shockingly bad.)

Why We Got It
"Once the novelty of a battery-powered car wears off, will we still be fascinated by a two-seat, low-range vehicle that's a cross between a science experiment and a toy?" This was the central question posed in the introduction to our experience with the 2009 Mini E. It was also the very question that divided our staff at the end of the loan period.

It all has to do with the 2009 Mini E's battery pack. As we learned from the Mini E's backgrounder from AC Propulsion: "53 cells connected in parallel constitute a unit, two units connected in series constitute a module [and] 48 modules connected in series constitute the battery; [there are] 5,088 individual cells in total."

So what this bit of product information was trying to tell us is that there's no backseat or trunk space in the Mini E. Well, there's a small shelf that you can't put things on for fear of overheating a few hundred pounds of laptop batteries, and then there's a very small "trunk" area that can hold about a half sheet cake — on its side, of course.

But ignoring that, the 2009 Mini E is a fully operational electric car, and there were not many of these on the road a year ago. Could we drive it every day? Would we constantly run out of juice? Would it ruin our lives to live on an electric leash? The questions were many; the answers were surprisingly obvious.

Durability
"I want one," Managing Editor Donna DeRosa wrote in the Mini E's logbook. "The more time I spend with the Mini E, the more I like it. Besides being able to 'refuel' at home, I like to drive it. It's my own little go-kart with nearly instant peak torque of 162 pound-feet. You can really surprise other drivers with how quickly you can dart out from a red light. Rated at 201 horsepower, it has more gumption than the 172-hp Cooper S."

DeRosa fell in love with the Mini E during her 20-mile commute. She loved the 2009 Mini E's looks, torque and surprisingly calm ride (adding a few hundred pounds of chemistry set to the back of a very light car has a nice smoothing quality on the ride, we discovered).

Director of Vehicle Testing Dan Edmunds, on the other hand, wasn't so convinced, maybe because his commute amounted to 60 miles.

"How the heck can I trust this car?" he wrote. "First, the charger inexplicably kicks off while I'm sleeping and denies me a full battery before a long drive. Second, the range meter is a joke. It's making so many instantaneous recalculations that I can't trust it. None of this is a problem in a world where you can refuel anywhere in five minutes, with coffee and lottery tickets close at hand should they become necessary. Driving the car itself should not feel like a gamble. You should not have to do math in your head to see if the math on the dash is good news or bad news.

"And it seems that getting the advertised range out of any battery-powered car is an exercise in restraint and driving well below the flow of traffic, especially on the freeway. Mini says the E is good for 156 miles in its press materials and on its Web site, but the EPA window sticker lists the range as 100 miles. Meanwhile, we've never achieved more than 80-something miles before getting nervous about plugging in again. I like driving the Mini and all. It's rather fun. It drives like a go-kart and a slot car. But this is no way to live. I am not electric car material."

For the first time ever in a wrap-up of a long-term test car, there's no easy entry in the data field for "Breakdowns Stranding Driver." Normally a car is either broken down and the driver is stranded — or not. And for another first in a wrap-up, we have to admit that yes, the 2009 Mini E did break down, stranding the driver, but it was completely intentional and we had a tow truck waiting in the wings.

The goal was simple: We had had an electric car for a full 12 months and nobody had yet to completely kill the battery. We played it safe for a year; it was time to push the envelope. Dan Edmunds took the wheel, headed east and drove a steady 60 mph until the Mini ran out of juice. A chase truck loomed behind, waiting to pick up where the electricity left off.

By the time the Mini stopped, it had gone 128.9 miles, nearly 30 of which came after the Mini's display read zero miles to empty. We can't say whether this was a case of the car not learning our new driving style or a built-in fail-safe to deal with the inherent limitations of a limited range, but the upshot is that the Mini E worked well enough to keep us safe and off the tow truck for 12 months.

Besides this intentional disruption in service, our 2009 Mini E proved fairly solid. It required two services, one of which took eight days to complete. Both times we were handed rental cars and we weren't charged for either one. And because of the field-trial nature of this particular test, we weren't privy to any of the information the dealer had regarding the eight-day disruption. Our car left the office, was fixed and was then returned. No further explanation.

Total Body Repair Costs: $0
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over [12] months): $0
Additional Maintenance Costs: $0
Warranty Repairs: 1
Non-Warranty Repairs: 0
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 2
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 0
Days Out of Service: 9
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: 0

Performance and Fuel Economy
Performance of this ionized pocket rocket is severely hampered by its traction control, which limits performance with an iron fist. And by performance, we mean burnouts. Sure, the traction control system chops the throttle fairly aggressively, but with all of its torque available from what is effectively zero rpm, this car must be just one hack away from being the ultimate torque-steering, front-wheel-drive burnout-contest-winning bad boy. But that would probably negate some of the benefits of electric cars.

Speaking of negating the benefits of electric cars, twice we towed the 2009 Mini E to our test track to see just what it could do when driven with aggression. Initial testing gave us a 0-60 time of 7.7 seconds from a standstill and a quarter-mile time of 15.8 seconds at 87.7 mph. After a year of use, the performance declined insignificantly, with 60 mph coming up in 7.9 seconds and a quarter-mile run of 15.9 seconds at 87.6 mph. Braking showed a significant improvement of 4 feet, as the car stopped in 128 feet in our last test, although a lot of travel in the brake pedal made us concerned about brake fade for this 3,246-pound car.

Handling tests were also limited by the stability control. Our results from slalom testing show the impact of both an active, aggressive stability control system and substantially worn tires. What was a 64.8-mph run when new turned into a 61.9-mph run after 7,000 miles. Noted Senior Editor Josh Jacquot, "Non-defeat stability control means the Mini package's otherwise impressive numbers can't be achieved, which is frustrating." Skid pad numbers remained similar from the first test to the final test at 0.76g.

As far as fuel economy goes, the 2009 Mini E did quite well or very poorly, since it averaged some 0 mpg. Insofar as electricity cost, well, the Mini E traveled 7,683 miles and, using the data from our mandatory Mini-specific battery-charger (there is an SAE-specification charger on the production horizon, which will stop this proprietary nonsense), we spent $25.50 refueling from our office, which was the default charging spot. Only a handful of drivers dared use the 110-volt slow-charge option.

Best Fuel Economy: N/A
Worst Fuel Economy: N/A
Average Fuel Economy: N/A
Longest Range: 128.9 miles

Retained Value
Traditional retained value calculations cannot be applied here, as the 2009 Mini E was only available as a lease for $928.63 per month. At the end of our lease, we were given the opportunity to re-up for another year at a downright reasonable $600 per month — a concession BMW made at the behest of some very vocal (and very pleased) not-quite-owners. Those owners who do decide to follow up and buy in for another year will be the first to get a shot at BMW's next electric car.

True Market Value at service end: N/A
Depreciation: N/A
Final Odometer Reading: 7,683

The Shock Ending
Maybe we're not right for this car. Sure, some of us live in the optimum radius from the office and we could factor in traffic and weather and topography to make the Mini really useful for a wide range of motoring experiences. But not everyone lives at the optimum distance. The 2009 Mini E never gave us range anxiety after the first month or so, but its range limitations did restrict its utility. It was a great second car to have around, but not something we could rely upon to do everything. Which is pretty much what the electric car seems to be about.

We'll leave the summation to a fellow Mini E driver, the lessee of car no. 250, Tom Moloughney: "When I first took possession of my Mini E 11 months ago, I really had no idea what to expect. Would it spend more time getting fixed than on the road? Would it lose power going up long inclines? Would the range decrease as time passed? Would I regret doing this? Well, 11 months and 30,000 miles later I can answer those questions with a big NO."

After 30,000 miles in 11 months — including 50 days out of service to replace the batteries — and he's still excited? That's a ringing endorsement for the viability and promise of electric cars if ever there was one. Just expect to be more like a Boy Scout than a gypsy in your transportation habits — be prepared.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.