Across the internet, there are many car message boards, but one of the best is TheCarLounge. Full of quality posts, not so quality posts, silly banter, and the latest in car news, it’s a place to spent a lot of time if you want to see real world reactions to new cars. Recently we participated in a thread about a San Francisco Bay Area resident, and former Tesla PR Director, who ordered a Leaf. The thread blew up into the usual opinionated spam we’ve come to love, but this fantastic post was spotted in the middle of the white noise.
Brian Hauer from Hawthorne, California chimed in with an exceptional post, describing his experience driving a MINI E for over 10 months. For those of you who haven’t been following the MINI E, it’s a two seat, pure EV version of the MINI Cooper, and is undergoing “Field Trials,” which are basically 1 year leases to determine their feasibility and durability. Brian, like a quite a few others with MINI E’s, will be extending his lease another year, and can’t wait for his next EV.
So what’s it like to live with an EV in SoCal traffic, and the madhouse of traffic and freeways they have? Read this excerpt of Brian’s post:
- Anti-range anxiety. Assuming your daily commute is well within the limits of the car’s range, as mine is, you will develop the opposite of range anxiety. “Range anxiety” is the popular term used to describe the panic of running out of juice while still on the road. The anti-range anxiety I feel is, as you might expect, the opposite: I plug my car in every evening, so every day I start with what you might call a “full tank.” For me, this has totally eliminated the minor anxiety of watching some gauge to be sure I don’t get stranded. With the MINI E’s stated 100 mile range and my daily 10-mile commute, even throwing in errands and trips to visit friends, I’ve never seen the charge below 40%. And that’s in Los Angeles with its “drive everywhere” culture.
- Instant torque is intoxicating. Let me just preface this by saying I am not a MINI aficionado and have never driven a regular MINI S, rather only the non-S regular MINI as a loaner car during routine inspections on the E. With that said, the MINI E is–to me–a dozen times more fun to drive than a regular MINI. The instant torque is absolutely incredible. The regular MINI feels sluggish, slow to respond to input, fidgety, unstable, and obviously loud. My understanding is that MINI used software to ramp the torque slightly on take-off on the E. That makes sense because with front-wheel drive and even the software-metered torque, it’s still shockingly easy to make the wheels slip. Once you’re above 5 MPH or so, the acceleration response is so linear and immediate that you may never want to drive a gasoline-powered car again. The utter lack of any sort of transmission lag combined with the immediacy of torque make maneuvering in traffic almost too fun for your own good.
- The lack of a transmission in the conventional sense (that is, no gear shifts whatsoever) makes the ride surprisingly smooth. Except when you press the accelerator aggressively and push your passenger back in the seat, of course. Don’t get me wrong, the MINI E is no rocket. It doesn’t have a high top speed or the raw acceleration numbers. What makes it remarkable is the delivery of the acceleration in response to your input. There is no lag whatsoever, giving the human-car input system a much more natural feel and making the driver giddy as a result.
- At least in the MINI E, the 30-60 range is the fun spot. You can change your speed between roughly 30 and 60 so effortlessly. I imagine this will be different in other vehicles.
- Regenerative breaking! It’s so much fun. In the MINI E, you can do your entire commute without using the break pedal once you are used to regenerative breaking. It will take the car to a complete stop effortlessly. It’s not like slamming on the breaks, more akin to applying the breaks steadily as would any normal driver in city traffic. You only need to use the break pedal when something unexpected happens such as someone moving into your lane of traffic. This reduces typical driving to one pedal for input. Perhaps it sounds disengaging to a reader, but combined with the immediate response to input that I mentioned earlier, this makes–at least to me–for a more natural and engaging driving feel.
- The sound. I have come to think that the MINI E’s sound has been slightly and artificially amplified as a safety measure. On the whole, however, the MINI E takes a relatively noisy car (the MINI) and makes it quiet. Considering the lack of sound deadening insulation in a MINI, you would be surprised at how quiet it is. Not truly silent, though. It sounds vaguely like a big RC car.
- The standing “neutral.” When in “Drive” the car provides no forward momentum unless the accelerator is pressed. In this manner, its behavior at a stop light is akin to a manual transmission. It will, in fact, roll backwards on an incline. At least to me, this behavior is preferred. I like taking my foot off the pedals at a stop light.
- Laughing at gas stations. I’ve restrained myself so far, but you will feel a great desire to pull a Nelson “HA HA!” as you drive by Priuses at gas stations.
- Dirty windshields. On the flip side, you won’t have a convenient opportunity to squeegee your windshield.
When asked about the social aspects of driving a pure EV, Brian has a slightly different take than the usual “I’m saving the earth, one mile at a time” thought process most hybrid and EV drivers have:
“Socially? The MINI E is fairly incognito. Unless people know what it is, they may not realize it’s an electric car. I prefer it this way as I don’t really like drawing attention to myself. I’m not an environmentalist; I’m not driving the MINI E because I am worried about the planet. I think the planet can take care of itself and what car I am driving doesn’t matter. What does matter to me is more a more selfish obsession: my obsession with technology. Once you drive an electric car, you realize all cars should be like this. Combustion seems so archaic; it might as well be steam power. Not to draw too silly a point, but remember when you first used an iPhone and you realized, ‘Wow, this can actually browse the web? Why aren’t all phones this good?’ Internal combustion is WAP and WML.”
While he is waiting for a Tesla Model S, he does have this little gem to pass along to those waiting for their Leafs:
“If driving a Leaf is anything like driving a MINI E, you are in for a -lot- of fun.”
Thanks for all of the insight Brian, and we hope you enjoy many more miles with your MINI E till your Model S arrives.
Tags: Boardwalk Nissan, boardwalk nissan leaf, living with an EV, Mini E review, Nissan Leaf San Francisco, nissan leaf san jose, nissan leaf vs mini e
Posted in Leaf News & Information | |
Well, we all know to make LEAFs you need to have plants (sorry, bad pun), but for us in the United States, it’s great to hear that one is going to open on our side of the Pacific. While the LEAFs are currently being produced in Japan, Nissan just broke ground on a new plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, and starting in 2012 not only will the LEAF be made in that town, but also the batteries.
