New Clipper Creek box

So after changing out the cable first and having the box light up, they changed out the wall box itself and we have been fine charging for 3 days now. I will let it run for a week or two before I claim it fixed, but so far so good.

Charging Problem again

So when I returned home today and plugged the MINI-E into the 30A wall charger, nothing happened. I will be as specific as possible.

1) plugged car into 30A charger and the wall box "thumped" on as normal, but no charge indicator came on on the dash.

2) unplugged-repeat - same thing

3) rinse, repeat - same thing

4) turned on the car to verify that 30A is the current setting, it was and still is. turn off car, plug in wall charger.... The dash light comes on and blinks 2x and for the first time ever, I see the red indicator on the wall charger. I have never seen this indicator before.

5) unplug, replug - 2 dash blinks, red wall box light.

6) decide to try 110v charger as some people have mentioned that this has worked. Got it out fo the trunk (I forgot how thin this cable is, I have had my wall charger for >2 months), plugged it in and everything is working great. Dash charger light is blinking, no error lights on the 12A indicators (OH NO) I forgot to change the car to 12A.

7) Unplug the wall, then the car. Reset car to 12A. Plug back in working great. Hmm, wasn't that supposed to not work the first time because the car was still set for 30A??

8) unplug, reset to 30A, plug in the car to the wall box. Wall box "clunks" on but no dash light.

9) unplug, reset car to 12A and plug in 110V cable. Quietly sipping juice from the GFCI in the garage (I never had a problem with mine, it is direct attached to the panel).

I am going to go down later tonight and try resetting to 30A again to see if it works.

Tomorrow I am going to have to break out the paperwork to find out who to call?????

SOUNDS -- Please put and end to this

So I am now forced to do 2 posts in one day. I just got assignment 3 for our Field Trial site. This one was a bit of a joke, but it did touch on something. I have actually been hearing about this lately in the news as well. I thought it was ridiculous, but now that I was forced to take part in something related, I feel like I have to speak up.

I had 1 post in my online Field Trial journal ....

POST 1

Read my blog

I now have 2 posts in case they ignored the first one.

POST 2

Ok, I was not going to post here but on my blog, but this may warrant a post on both. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT add sounds to our cars. People dont get hit by bicycles. That is why human beings have more than 1 sesnse.....OPEN YOUR EYES and you wont get hit by a car. If you wander out into traffic, sounds or not, YOU ARE GOING TO GET HIT BY A CAR.....

This is rediculous. I have heard mention of this lately in the news as well and please let us know who we need to contact to put and end to this.

Should our cars have special scents as well?

Should we coat them in sandpaper in case anyone wants to avoid traffic by touch?

Should they taste bad?

PLEASE put and end to this...

First Service Report

So I received the service report for #269's first regular visit. As I expected, with the one day turn-around there were no issues to report.

There were 4 entries in the journal....

#1 3 month 3k service

#2 all loaners in the field, authorize enterprise rental

#3 replace front wipers, worn and coming apart

#4 PUMA case (??)

Failed to Charge

So this morning I came out for the second time in a week to find that the MINI-E connected to the 30A charging station had not charged at all overnight.

I have my ritual in the morning where I enter all of the current stats into my journal before I leave for work. I recharge every night. About a week ago, I came out and found that the car had not charged overnight. It was a Saturday, so I had plenty of time to correct the mistake. I assumed that I had not seated the charger correctly. So I have been paying attention in the evening when I plug in the charger that I see the dashboard charging indicator come on so I know I have a good charge.

When I came out this morning and read the charger meter for my journal entry, I got in the car and found that the meter had not moved from the prior day. When I started the car, sure enough I was at 58% charge. and this is how I left for work this morning. This is plenty of charge for me to do a round trip to work, but I am now a little suspicious that something else may be going on here and I don't know what. I will be paying double close attention to the charging indicator now when I park for the night and if I have another problem, I will place a call. But #269 just went in for it's 3 month service and they turned it around in 1 day, so I assume everything is tip top on the car. I guess there could be an issue with the charging station?? If it happens again, you will hear about it here.

Anyone else have a similar issue?

Someone gets it. In France

So Renault is firing the first shot (in my opinion) to the other automakers. Rather than try to calculate how much of a premium people would be willing to pay for EV versions of production cars, they have found a way to price the EV version cheaper than the non-EV version (with subsidies, but whatever works). I'm not saying that I think the battery swapping idea is the answer, but I like the direction that they are heading here and I hope that the momentum builds. I believe that EV's can really transform a significant percentage of the cars on the road, with ideas like this. Making it a premium to the consumer is just going to delay everything.

I guess I'm on a cross post frenzy these days (lots to comment on). Thanks to All Cars Electric, home of #412.

Cross Post - #250 Vanity Plates

I thought this one was worth more than just a link in the fellow bloggers section. Not to be missed.

Well done

#269 is Home

I got the call as I was leaving work Friday that I could pick up my Mini-E. I could not make it last night so I went out this morning and dropped off the loaner and had a great drive home. Just as I was about to plug in to top of the 18 miles I used to get home from the dealership, I remembered to check the voltage setting. I''m glad I remembered because it was still set for the 50A charger they have there.

Happy to be back in the Mini-E

I was told that I would get a report in the mail, but since I was in-out same day, I'm assuming there will not be much to the report. Thanks for the wash...

#269 in for 3 month service - loaner envy

So I dropped #269 off for it's 3 month service this morning. It is just under 3k miles and running great. I am expecting a quick service visit. When I called for my appointment last week I asked if I would be able to get a loaner as I drive into Manhattan each day now from NJ. They said no loaner but they would arrange for a rental. The very nice woman from Enterprise came and "picked me up" from Morristown Mini and about halfway back I asked if this was my rental car. Answer, yes.

Wow. A Suzuki, Tiber..Tiger,,, I'm not quite sure what it is, with 36k miles on it. If I read the contract right they are getting the BMW discount of about $30/day all in. Once again, I have to say.... Mini, please remember we are paying $850/month. To quote Seth and Amy "REALLY Mini?, REALLY???"

I'm going to have to flip over to another window to see if I can find out what kind of car this actually is, but it is what I would imagine a car would be if CostCo made cars. The parts that are required are all there, but it doesn't quite feel like a whole car.

Let's see...

I guess this could be it. I'm guessing on the year based on the miles, but it's the only 4 door they made (not anymore) so I guess it's it. The wonderful Forenza.

So for you folks who have BMW dealers attached to your Mini dealers.... Congrats. you don't want to know what your missing. But don't be cross if I skip over the blog post about the Z4 loaner you got for the weekend. :-(

NO!!! Don't open that.......

So last night I was showing off the MINI-E to some tech savvy friends who had never heard of the program and were very interested that I was driving a fully electric car. The shouts of "How do I get one?" were strong before they even looked at the car. So after taking them outside to see #269, I had the hood open and was talking about something when I hear "SNAP"...... I almost dove onto the electronics assembly box to stop him, but good old Keith had snapped open the right clasp to the gold box. "NO!!, STOP!!" and I got him in time to stop him from breaking the little plastic lock on the left side clasp. I had to show him the paper thin plastic lock that he didn't even realize that he had broken off that is still attached to the one side.

So sorry MINI, you can tell it was never opened, but maybe there is something a little more secure than that if you really don't want it open. A twist tie would have worked better. I can say that I would not have been horrified if he had snapped it off because I would have liked a look, but I did my part as a good pioneer. It's going in Friday for the 3 month service (just shy of 3k miles) so they can put two little locks on there next time to stop my nosey friends if I'm a little slow on the draw next time.

Woops.

September milage/$$$ 7.4c/mile

So apparently I drove a little easier and electricity was a little cheaper. And in the end I netted about $5 less for exactly the same number of miles as the month before. Here is my data

How is this comparing with everyone else? I am heading in for my service this Friday. No loaner car, but apparently a rental.