A few weekends ago the right opportunity finally presented itself to take the Mini to Houston again. Our itinerary took us straight to the west side of the city and back: no extra trips around town or to the suburbs that would add charging stops. Several new charging sites have opened since my last epic …
12/6/24 - I, and many other Mini EV owners, got an official update in the mail yesterday about Supercharger access and NACS adapters for Minis. The only really substantive thing it says is that we will gain Tesla Supercharger access in 2025, via a Mini-certified NACS adapters and updates to the Mini App. It does …
August 22, 2024 - 3 years, almost to the day, since I received the fateful notice for my Bolt, I just learned about a battery recall for my Mini. I have not yet been notified by Mini; a news article about the recall came up on my feed, so I looked up my VIN and, …
This Central Texas summer has been much cooler than expected overall. But that does not mean that we haven't had some stretches of 100+ days. Most of the conversation about how ambient temperature affects EVs centers around the extreme cold. However, any temperature outside the 50-85 Fahrenheit that most batteries prefer is going to have …
I've touched on this subject in a couple of other posts, but many people may be curious about this specific subject so I wanted to devote a quick post to it. I charge my EV at home using only the mobile charge cord (EVSE) that it came with and a regular 120v wall outlet. I …
February 29, 2024 represented a significant leap forward for CCS EV owners in the US. It was the day that the Tesla Supercharger network opened at-large to non-Tesla EVs. It is the beginning of what sounds like a very long roll-out, so in reality it does not change much for most EV drivers (myself included). …
Continue reading The Opening of the Tesla Supercharger Network
The Set Up We take a weekend trip to Houston averaging about once a month. I had that drive squarely in mind when purchasing the Bolt, but knew when I got the Mini it was mostly out of the question. At first I wasn't too bothered by that. On paper our Outback is great for …
Continue reading Road Trip! Taking the Mini Outside Its Comfort Zone
Pros Driving Get behind the wheel of the SE and even mundane trips can be fun. More than the zippiness, which I expected, I am impressed by how planted it feels. The low center of gravity, relatively long wheelbase, and well-tuned suspension make it feel really solid on the road. I actually got the opportunity …
Continue reading Review of the 2023 Mini Cooper SE Signature
I got my Bolt on July 1, 2021. Less than two months later, on August 20, 2021, GM expanded the Bolt battery recall to include my 2020 model. For those of you who don't know, over a period of 6 or so months GM issued several recalls for the high-voltage batteries in the Bolts, eventually …
If you haven't read my posts leading up to this, in July of 2021 I bought a new 2020 Bolt EV Premier. I talk more about the electric-specific aspects of it in the previous post, but this will be a more general review of the Bolt as a car. (Note: I will try to indicate …
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