Electric mini

Howard17

We purchased a mini electric last September 2023, we reported after several weeks the mileage was ridiculously low 62miles not 110 we knew this would be less in winter? Then the heating failed returned to dealer no fault found ? We picked the vehicle 8 miles from dealership the heating failed again, we returned the vehicle immediately when our next day off we as lap gave the dealership and lease company alphabet leasing I wanted to reject the vehicle and returned the keys. The dealership couldnt find a fault again at first ?  Eventually they found 3 faults and repaired the vehicle several weeks later. 

We still are requesting the vehicle be rejected with 537 miles on the clock. 

We are between a rock and a hard place paying for a vehicle we are not comfortable or safe in ? Or happy with. 

Can the MSE forum help 

Billxx

This does not help but it was reported in the papers today that What Car magazine discovered that under real world conditions the mileage delivered is about 2/3rds of that advertised for EV's.

Keep_pedalling

You can’t reject it on the range you are getting. Based on that extra low mileage it appears you are using it for extremely short journeys which are going to have a massive impact on the range in cold weather because the battery temperature is going to be low throughout the journey never getting the chance to to get warmed up, you will also be heating the cabin up from a low base.

In my EV the miles per kWh in the first mile or so is shown as sub 2.0 by 3 miles that will have climbed to around 3.0 after 20 miles I will getting nearer 4.0.

ididgetwhereiamtoday

In winter conditions it is about 2 thirds of what the manufacturer states. Anything above 7c you should get near the claimed if you know how to drive EVs efficiently and stay off motorways. 

I get an average 5mpkw over the year in my old 30kw leaf. 

henry24

ididgetwhereiamtoday said:

In winter conditions it is about 2 thirds of what the manufacturer states. Anything above 7c you should get near the claimed if you know how to drive EVs efficiently and stay off motorways. 

I get an average 5mpkw over the year in my old 30kw leaf. 

It's worse than I thought, if you buy a EV and want efficiency you have to stay off motorways I'll stick with diesel 

WellKnownSid

henry24 said:

ididgetwhereiamtoday said:

In winter conditions it is about 2 thirds of what the manufacturer states. Anything above 7c you should get near the claimed if you know how to drive EVs efficiently and stay off motorways. 

I get an average 5mpkw over the year in my old 30kw leaf. 

It's worse than I thought, if you buy a EV and want efficiency you have to stay off motorways I'll stick with diesel 

Actually the losses due to speed on an EV is the exact same on your diesel - proportional to v squared.  70mph requiring almost twice the power as 50mph. 30mph over double the power of 20mph.

The reason you can’t tell is more to do with how incredibly inefficient your diesel is, pumping out four times more heat than motive power.

Ectophile

henry24 said:

ididgetwhereiamtoday said:

In winter conditions it is about 2 thirds of what the manufacturer states. Anything above 7c you should get near the claimed if you know how to drive EVs efficiently and stay off motorways. 

I get an average 5mpkw over the year in my old 30kw leaf. 

It's worse than I thought, if you buy a EV and want efficiency you have to stay off motorways I'll stick with diesel 

And diesels don't use more fuel when driven at high speeds?  Wind resistance is proportional to speed cubed, whatever the vehicle.

But when you have an engine that's maybe 40 to 45% efficient, with most of the energy being dumped as waste heat, you will notice it less.

Petriix

Unfortunately EVs don't actually have an 'advertised range', it's just the distance achieved in the standardised test cycle that they publish and that's not a particularly helpful number in the real world. The mini EV has a pretty small battery and is surprisingly inefficient making it very much a 'short range' EV. As noted above, winter range is typically 2/3 of the WLTP figure and can be even lower if driving fast or doing lots of short journeys from cold. 

If you're trying to drive long distances then I suggest driving a bit slower and planning more direct routes/avoiding motorways if practical. It may simply be the case that you've bought the wrong vehicle for your needs. 

If the heating genuinely is broken then you probably have grounds to reject. However it's possible that it's just a setting: some models of EV don't output any heat when in 'eco' mode so it's worth double checking if it heats up in 'normal' mode. 

MikeJXE

henry24 said:

ididgetwhereiamtoday said:

In winter conditions it is about 2 thirds of what the manufacturer states. Anything above 7c you should get near the claimed if you know how to drive EVs efficiently and stay off motorways. 

I get an average 5mpkw over the year in my old 30kw leaf. 

It's worse than I thought, if you buy a EV and want efficiency you have to stay off motorways I'll stick with diesel 

Lol I have never considered an EV and will stick with my 2016 Jaguar XE auto deisel.

I have owned it for 4 years and get 10p per mile on average over that time

I see quite a few Tesla as they are the only ones I recognise.

I was driving up the M1 last Saturday and wondered how to recognise an EV, then the penny dropped they don't have an exhaust 

From that point on I saw loads all in the left lane doing 50/60mph

Yesterday I got my first ride in one (not by choice) not far not fast but bumpy road. 

Yuk plastic seats and no quieter than my Jag 

henry24

Ectophile said:

And diesels don't use more fuel when driven at high speeds?  Wind resistance is proportional to speed cubed, whatever the vehicle.

But when you have an engine that's maybe 40 to 45% efficient, with most of the energy being dumped as waste heat, you will notice it less.

They might use more fuel but I live near the humber bridge and I know I could drive to Edinburgh and most of the way back without worrying about diesel fuel could you do it with electric 

Keep_pedalling

henry24 said:

Ectophile said:

And diesels don't use more fuel when driven at high speeds?  Wind resistance is proportional to speed cubed, whatever the vehicle.

But when you have an engine that's maybe 40 to 45% efficient, with most of the energy being dumped as waste heat, you will notice it less.

They might use more fuel but I live near the humber bridge and I know I could drive to Edinburgh and most of the way back without worrying about diesel fuel could you do it with electric 

No problem, next week I will be driving from Cambridge to Carlisle and back a couple of days later. I will be making 3 comfort stops, and will do a short top up rapid charges at 2 of them. It would be mad to drive all that way without at least a couple of stops so I will take no longer than it would have done in my previous petrol hybrid. 

Apart from using the ACC stay within the appropriate speed limits I won’t be driving slower just because I am in an EV.