Dispelling the Myth of the 100-Mile Electric Car

By Brad Berman · July 27, 2011

A day behind the wheel of the Mini E, powered by a 35 kilowatt-hour battery pack, revealed what it takes to make a real 100-mile electric car.

I understand why automakers producing electric cars want to claim 100 miles of driving range on a single charge. Because 100 miles sounds better than 99 miles or 90 miles or any number with two digits. But that doesn’t make it true.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my LEAF and believe that it can—given the right conditions on a good day—deliver more than 100 miles of range. I also believe that the 85 or 90 miles that it usually provides is perfectly fine for nearly all my driving needs. But earlier this week, Tom Moloughney—a name familiar to readers of this site—let me borrow his all-electric Mini E for a day, and that got me thinking about the 100-mile driving range claim that so easily gets tossed out from automakers.

Not only was Tom’s Mini E a total blast to drive around the streets of Northern New Jersey, Manhattan and Queens, it actually delivered 100 miles or driving on a full charge (despite my high-speed antics and the Big Apple’s current heat wave). It took a while to get used to the Mini E’s power, its tight steering, its hard ride on New York’s pothole-ridden streets, and its super aggressive regenerative braking that quickly brings the car to a stop without having to use the brake pedal. By the end of the day, I had fallen in love with how it drives. But I would have no trouble at all adjusting to the range of the Mini E, that easily puts the LEAF’s distance-per-charge to shame.

Tom shared his meticulous driving/charging logs with me. (The man loves data about his electric car.) On nearly every day that he started with a full charge, the number of miles driven, plus the estimate of remaining miles, broke into triple digits. On a few days—due to heavy use of air-conditioning or “spirited driving”—the number dropped into the low 90s or even into the 80s. But keep in mind that these figures do not include the 10 – 15 miles that the Mini E holds in reserve below the official estimate or “E” level, as a buffer against running completely out of juice.

Do the Math

If you apply some logic, it’s not surprising that the Mini E serves up better than 100 miles of range. The car has a 35 kilowatt-hour battery pack. Using a fair number of 3.5 miles per kilowatt hour as a rule-of-thumb for efficiency, a 35 kWh pack can provide 100 miles or more—even though EVs don’t use all of the potential storage provided by their batteries, and the lack of a good thermal management system can diminish range on very cold or hot days.

Tom has logged more miles on his car, than any other Mini E driver.

The ride in Tom’s Mini E provided more concrete evidence why the 100-mile claim of other EVs—including my beloved LEAF—stretches the truth. Electric car buyers beware: Don’t believe the driving range numbers provided by carmakers. Instead, look at the kWh rating of the battery pack. If it doesn’t come close to 30 kWh, or beat it, you will not have 100 miles of range on most days. (The Coda Electric Sedan, for all its shortcomings, will have a 34 kWh battery pack and an active air-cooled thermal management system).

This is not a ding on electric cars. It’s reality. It doesn’t help the EV movement to have early customers or media complain about false promises, especially when it draws attention away from the myriad of benefits and joys of driving electric.

A big-time thanks to Tom for the time with the Mini E. For readers who didn’t hear, on Tuesday, July 5th, there was a fire at Tom's restaurant, Nauna's Bella Casa in Montclair, New Jersey. Our thoughts are with Tom as he works to reopen.

About the author

· Brad Berman

Bradley Berman is the editor of PluginCars.com. Brad writes about alternative energy cars for The New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Reuters and other publications. He is quoted in national media outlets, such as CBS News, ABC News, CNBC, CBC, and MarketWatch. Mr. Berman is a tireless researcher of the green car market. He is the transportation editor at Home Power magazine.

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Comments

· Tom Moloughney · 42 weeks ago

Hey Brad, I was happy to give you the car for the day, I'm glad you had some fun with it.

One thing I forgot to ask you though. There's been a lot of talk here about the SOC meter vs. a fuel-gauge type bar system like the LEAF has. How did you like the big SOC% gauge right in the middle of the instrument cluster? It's really all I ever look at. Remaining miles is useless to me. I know how far I can go based on my SOC and the type of driving I'll be doing.

Besides that, how long did it take you to drive with only one pedal?

· KeiJidosha · 42 weeks ago

"total blast to drive "
"get used to the Mini E’s power"
"super aggressive regenerative braking that quickly brings the car to a stop without having to use the brake pedal."
"By the end of the day, I had fallen in love with how it drives"

Yup!

· Brad Berman · 42 weeks ago

@Tom - I really liked the SOC% gauge right in my face. It's by the far the most important piece of info. Why not put it front and center? Re time to learn the one pedal approach: About two hours to start to get the hang of it. I bet within two days, it would be natural.

· Peder Norby (not verified) · 42 weeks ago

Brad,

Welcome to the Mini-e fan club! It's my hope and belief that the i3 when produced will have similar or better range and similar or better driving dynamics compared to the Mini-e.

With the Mini-e you can see how much more of a sports car feel the car has thus more in line with the BMW brand. It's going to be a great future!

Cheers
Peder
Mini-E #183,

· ex-EV1 driver · 42 weeks ago

Re: Brad's: "time to learn the one pedal approach: About two hours . . ."
That's only because of the strange half second delay that the Mini-E has. With the instant response of Tesla or ACP's, it only takes a few minutes to fully adapt to the aggressive regen.
The Mini-E is awesome but it should only get better if the ICE industry isn't allowed to drag their feet on exploiting the EV's benefits.

· Tom Moloughney · 42 weeks ago

Peder: We're going to get some info on the i3 in two days. BMW is holding a press conference in Munich and is going to reveal a pre production i3 & i8 this Friday. I'm not sure how much detail we'll get about the drivetrain, but we will see the car for the first time without the camouflage.

The good news is plugincars.com will be there to get us all the details.

· EVNow · 42 weeks ago

My average range in June & July is over 100. Essentially, if you don't get 4.8 m/kwh on the Leaf dash, you aren't going to get 100 miles of range. My avg for June was 4.9 m/kwh and for July it is 5.1.

· Jim McL (not verified) · 42 weeks ago

I believe the Mini E has 28 kwh USEABLE energy. I could always get 120 miles out of it, even in cold weather. But it takes some doing. I believe I came in second in the first year mileage total, just after Tom. Some drivers got over 140 miles per charge on occasion, BMW claimed over 150 best case.

Tom, sorry to hear about the fire. Can I assume no one was hurt?

· Jim McL (not verified) · 42 weeks ago

Never mind, I see from your blog everyone is OK.

· darelldd · 42 weeks ago

> That's only because of the strange half second delay that the Mini-E has. With the instant response of Tesla or ACP's, it only takes a few minutes to fully adapt to the aggressive regen.

Mark the date... I'm in complete agreement with ex-EV1 here! That delay is a real deal-breaker for me, and I just don't understand it. The unadulterated version is SOOOO much better!

· EVNow · 41 weeks ago

"With the instant response of Tesla or ACP's, it only takes a few minutes to fully adapt to the aggressive regen"

Didn't ACP develop Mini-E drivetrain ?

· darelldd · 41 weeks ago

> Didn't ACP develop Mini-E drivetrain ?

Why yes they did. And then BMW inserted their black box between the driver and the ACP unit... adding in that great delay.

· marshell electric vehicles (not verified) · 41 weeks ago

Wow, this car is very beautiful. From the appearance, I can't know it was an electric car.
So good.
Tnanks

· Tom Moloughney · 41 weeks ago

Brad, did you notice much of a delay in the regen activating?

The reason I'm asking is the regen is one of the thing's BMW has tweeked the most during the past two years. All of us MINI-E drivers have to bring in the cars every 5,000 miles for check-ups and to download the latest software patch. Some barely drive the car 5,000 miles per year, but I drive 2,500 miles per month and bring it in every 8 weeks or so for the service. Just about every time I go, they have tweeked something, and a lot of times the regen is one of the things they have adjusted. It's been stronger, weaker, have had a longer delay, and a shorter delay. In the dead of winter last year they reduced the power a bit in the hopes they would increase the cars range, but I didn't notice much of a change.

One of the reason I've gotten to know the engineers so well is that since I'm there so frequently, they can ask me what I think about the changes. They never tell me what to look for, they just ask if I noticed any difference. I've been for these regular service calls twelve times now so I know when they changed something or when they didn't.

So getting back to the regen. The response time is definitely shorter now than it was when I first got the car. I'm wondering if Earl and Darell have driven a MINI-E lately, one that has had the latest software upgrade.

I really need to get Michael Thwaite to chime in on this. He owns a Tesla Roadster and leases a MINI-E. I think he would be able to really give a good comparison. I've driven his roadster and the only difference I noticed is that the regen wasn't as aggressive as it is on the MINI-E, but I must admit, I was concentrating more on accelerating than I was on decelerating while I was driving it. :)

· Tom Moloughney · 41 weeks ago

Jim Mcl had the best consistent range I've ever seen by any of the MINI-E drivers. As he said, he averaged 120 mpc. He stopped by my restaurant a few times to charge up when he was on a long trip and needed a boost. It takes a good day for me and under very good driving conditions to get up into the 120's. I can do it, but I have to really concentrate on driving as efficiently as possible. I've got a lead foot and can still do 100 mpc with the MINI-E, that is really all I need. Jim bought a Th!nk a few months ago and loves it.

· darelldd · 41 weeks ago

> I'm wondering if Earl and Darell have driven a MINI-E lately, one that has had the latest software upgrade.

Nope... not me! You'll have to drive it out here. ;)

· EVNow · 41 weeks ago

Back to the original point, the thing to note is that extra range isn't free. It will always come at the cost of extra batteries, heavier car (and thus even more batteries) and lesser space for everything else.

EPA range for Leaf is 73 miles. Most people report getting that 73 miles easily. So, let us take that as the realworld miles. Taking Nissan's nominal 24 kwh, to get to 100 miles of range, we need 32 kwh of total battery to get to 100 miles. That would add another 4 to 6,000 in cost. Reduce the trunk space, make Leaf heavier by a couple of hundred pounds etc.

· Peder Norby (not verified) · 41 weeks ago

EVnow, you're point is accurate for cars that are of a similar wieght.. the Leaf is 900 lbs hevier than The Mitsubishi Imiev at 2400 lbs. so the imiev will go further per kwh in comparison.

the future i3 should weigh in at 2000-2400 lbs due to cfrp and aluminum, and will be able to acheive the same range as the Mini-E (3600 lbs) with 18-20 kwh. Additionally, driving the Mini-E is like pushing a garage door through the wind. It has the drag co of a brick. A better drag co =s better range.

weight drag and kwh are all important.

Cheers
Peder

· Michael · 41 weeks ago

"All of us MINI-E drivers have to bring in the cars every 5,000 miles for check-ups and to download the latest software patch. Some barely drive the car 5,000 miles per year, but I drive 2,500 miles per month and bring it in every 8 weeks or so for the service."

I'm really suprised to read this, since the big selling point of EVs (at least on this forum), is how they require virtually no service.

· Tom Moloughney · 41 weeks ago

Michael,

The MINI-E is a prototype test car. I'm in a small pilot program driving it for BMW. It's purpose is to gather information for BMW to use in developing the 2013 BMW i3. It was genius for them to find people like me who will actually pay to "test" a car for them. Every 5,000 miles they download data, check everything out and tweek the software and then check the results in the next 5,000 mile check. This isn't a production car and these service visits are for research, not maintenance.

· EVNow · 41 weeks ago

@Peder Norby "weight drag and kwh are all important."

Ofcourse. But remember - a lighter car will suffer worse % degradation as you put more batteries.

My main paoint is that there is no free lunch here. More range = sacrificing something else in return.

· Michael · 41 weeks ago

Make's sense. Thanks, Tom.

· Anonymous (not verified) · 41 weeks ago

My Prius -2007 gave mid 30s in Peak Winter, but in summer it gives 50. I am both surprised and happy. Thermal management is very important.

Mini Cooper - gas version is selling well, so is the Mini Countryman, but not the Mini with its weird 1 rear door. Better Mini sells Cooper & Countryman alone and also launch a EV version of Countryman.

· EVsRoll (not verified) · 41 weeks ago

Great article on EV range.

The key thing to notice is that 35kWh is the energy found in just one gallon of gasoline! http://www.evsroll.com/Electric_Car_Basics.html
This goes to show how efficient the electric car is compared to the gas burner.

EVsRock!

· Michael · 41 weeks ago

@EVsRoll,

It's not really an apples to apples comparison, since most electrics use electricity from a fossil fueled power plant, in which case it would be better to compare it at the point of fueling. It does get messy, though, because there are renewables in the equation, and you can get into how much energy it takes to get gas, coal, and oil out of the ground, refined (if oil), and transported to he point of fueling (let's not go there - too much guesswork).

· ex-EV1 driver · 41 weeks ago

@Michael,
I think that we actually do have to go there. The 'upstream costs' can be significant and ignoring them can lead one to wrong conclusions about these issues that are so critical to our society's long-term survival.
I do agree with you that it does get messy and the information can be very difficult to obtain.

· Herm (not verified) · 41 weeks ago

I Coda still alive?

· Prognog (not verified) · 41 weeks ago

Thanks for the review of driving Tom's Mini E...sounds like a great car.
I do think the 100 mile number is fairly important at this point as it's a nice, round number that people can get their head around; however, I hope that at some point in the not too distant future we can be talking fondly about the "old days" when EVs only got 100 mpc.
I know that Moore's law doesn't really apply to batteries, but I'm hopeful we'll see some major gains made in the next decade to dramatically bump up these numbers.

Re Michael's comment on the upstream costs of gas, I completely agree with ex-EV1driver's thoughts. These figures are often overlooked and/or ignored, notably when people attempt to disparage the viability of powering vehicles with electricity.

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Dispelling the Myth of the 100-Mile Electric Car

Do the Math

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