Electric MINI revealed -- The Mini E

stopcrazypp · 10-17-2008, 08:10 PM

The MINI E:
572-pound lithium ion battery
150 miles range per 8-hour charge
Consumption 4.4 miles/kWh
204-hp & 162 lb-ft of torque
0-60 bit over 8 seconds
Top speed limited to 95mph
A bit over 3,200 pounds
Regenerative braking

More details:
Lithium pack maximum capacity 35kWh.
Nominal 380 Volts to motor.
Contains 5,088 cells grouped into 48 modules.
Edit Charge port looks similar to but definitely is not the same as the Tesla's.
Seems like it's using commodity cells, just like Tesla is.

No details on pricing.
Update: Between 500 and 1000 examples will be made and leased out to selected customer in New York, LA, New Jersey and possibly London, cities where the necessary recharging infrastructure is already in place.

AutoblogGreen
Forgot the link to the article:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10...ectric-mini-e/

More details in this article, and some speculation on Tesla being involved:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10...it-use-a-tesl/

vfx · 10-17-2008, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stopcrazypp

The MINI E:
572-pound lithium ion battery
150 miles range per 8-hour charge
Consumption 4.4 miles/kWh

Is that a Tesla plug?

dpeilow · 10-18-2008, 02:19 AM

That would be uber-cool if it comes to London.

I think the plug might be a CEE form.

The torque to bhp ratio seems a bit low compared with other vehicles we have seen, though. It's also pretty heavy, it'll be interesting to see how that affects the normally great Mini handling.

WarpedOne · 10-18-2008, 02:54 AM

Quote:

The torque to bhp ratio seems a bit low

Motor cooling.

Cobos · 10-18-2008, 12:01 PM

Hey Oslo also has the recharge infrastructure.... can I have one please? :) Seriously I really like this, and in my eyes this is the first real contender to what I've heard about the Model S yet. I like that they say they will have the models out before the end of 2008, I don't like that they had to ditch the two backseats for the battery. I greatly prefeer 4 seats to 2 seats.

Cobos

Cobos · 10-18-2008, 12:12 PM

Looking at some of the pictures show around the interweb, why does a single gear Mini need a clutch pedal and a very dominating shifter? Anyone know enough about transmissions to give a clue?

Cobos

doug · 10-18-2008, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobos

Looking at some of the pictures show around the interweb, why does a single gear Mini need a clutch pedal and a very dominating shifter? Anyone know enough about transmissions to give a clue?

Cobos

You talking about this picture?

First of all, the car at this point is probably a conversion, so who knows what the final product will be like. But the "pedal" on the far left looks like a dead pedal and not a clutch. As for as the shifter, they still need a way of switching from drive to reverse, and I've seen plenty of automatics that try to have very sporty looking gear selectors.

Edited to add:
Here's the interior of a 2007 Mini with automatic transmission:

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6231320/...ive/index.html

Here's a closeup of the automatic shifter on a 2005 Mini:

stopcrazypp · 10-18-2008, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfx

Is that a Tesla plug?

Looks similar:

TEG · 10-18-2008, 05:19 PM

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog...hargingreq.pdf

Tesla connector looks quite different from that 'Mini' plug.
Tesla:

TEG · 10-20-2008, 11:07 PM

Mini-E pack:
5,088 Li-Ion cells (53x96) @ 1.8Ah each?
53 cells in parallel for a 'unit'. (1.8x53=95Ah?)
96 module groups (48 modules x 2) in series for the pack. (~360V?) [ "nominal"=380V ]
~34kWh (95x360?) for the battery pack.

Compare to Roadster:
6,831 Li-Ion cells. (69x99) @ 2.2Ah each.
69 cells in parallel for a 'brick' (69x2.2=151.8Ah)
99 bricks (9x11?) in series for a module. (~350V [~300V empty, 400V full] ) [ "nominal"=375V ]
~53kWh (151.8x350) for the battery pack.