I've been itching to take the Mini to Houston again but recognizing that a minimum of two charge stops each way is hard to justify I have held off. But now that gas prices are up so much, even in Texas, at least one factor swung back in favor of the Mini. For the relatively …
Tag: Range
Houston Road Trip Redo
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 …
EV Experience in the Heat
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 …
The Opening of the Tesla Supercharger Network
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
Road Trip! Taking the Mini Outside Its Comfort Zone
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
Review of the 2023 Mini Cooper SE Signature
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
Shopping Round 2: Mini Cooper SE – We Have a New Winner!
Pretty early on in my second round of shopping the Mini Cooper SE caught my eye. From the moment it entered my radar part of me wanted it to be the one. It seemed unique and fun, yet a surprisingly good value. The base model had an MSRP of $30k, which came out to $34k …
Continue reading Shopping Round 2: Mini Cooper SE – We Have a New Winner!
Shopping: Chevy Bolt EV – We Have a Winner!
Eventually I got around to trying the Bolt, which, despite my baseless prejudice toward Chevrolet, already seemed very compelling. It's true that compared to all of the new EVs, and even some of it's older peers like the Niro and Kona, its charging speed of 50kW was unimpressive. And it was a miss that the …
Continue reading Shopping: Chevy Bolt EV – We Have a Winner!
Shopping: Kia Niro EV
The Niro was never a strong contender for me mainly due to price. I just couldn't understand why it cost so much more than something like the Bolt. Faster charging seemed like the main advantage, but that wasn't an important factor to me at the time. I did end up test driving one. What I …
Shopping: Getting Started
Within my original budget of $10-15k I could really only afford an old Nissan Leaf, so that would have been that. The battery would have probably degraded enough that it would have just been for in-town use and we would have kept borrowing a car or bought a cheap gas car for longer trips. However, …
Miniwatt Auto 