MINI E Field Trial Details

Here is the official info from the MINI-USA website:

There are 500 MINI E in the US for the field trial in NY NJ metro area and Southern CA. 250 are allocated for the Greater Los Angeles area which includes Orange County. Of those, Crevier BMW will receive 29 MINI E. I was still pleasantly surprised and skeptical about my selection. It’s not false modesty about my qualification to be a field trial participant. My first reaction was “there must have been unexpectedly low number of applicants. $850 per month lease isn’t chump change, especially in this crappy economy. Throw in the 100~120 miles range on a single charge, there’s even fewer volunteers.” Captain Kirk’s answer was MINI received approximately 10,000 applications. I re-read my essay which was saved on my hard drive. Was this good enough to be picked? Do I still want to go ahead with the lease given unknown job security? What if…? After about an hour of deliberation and few well placed calls to my buddies, I decided to jump in with both feet.


$850 per month plus tax, and MINI USA picks up Insurance

So here are the benefits that come with the E:

1. Access to HOV lane
2. Unlimited miles for 12 months
3. Free scheduled maintenance
4. Cheaper insurance cost
5. Theoretically less expensive operating cost of a car (daily expenses)
6. Real world experience with a full electric vehicle, perhaps a look into the future of what daily automobile commute might look like
7. Chance to network with limited number of like-minded car nuts
8. Opportunity to share the experience with any interested people
9. Being on the bleeding edge of automotive technology
10. And so on (list will be expanded as needed)

And the drawbacks too:

1. Expensive monthly lease
2. Limited daily range - really need to plan your day in advance
3. Limited room in the E (it’s now a 2 seater)
4. And so on

It turns out only 1,800 people filled out the online application.
Program participation requirements were very specific which limited number of applicants. Here are some of them:

1. Must be a homeowner
2. Must have a locking garage (umm - how many people can say this in Manhattan?)
3. The said home must have 220V service
4. Clean driving record
5. Clean credit / high credit score

Of the initial 1,800 applicants, significant number have dropped out or didn't accept the invitation for variety of reasons. Of course you can't easily find this info either officially or unofficially (MINI USA was accepting applicants as late as May 18th - that's almost 5 months after the initial deadline...).

Why do I care? Because even this limited sample size is an indicator of where we will be WRT electric or fuel cell powered vehicle adoption in the future.

E Mood: Neutral to pensive...

I finally get a call...

2 months later (Oh, around Fri Jan 23rd – 2:24 PM: checked the call log on my account online. Damn, there's whole lot of information out there on the web), I got a call on my cell phone on my drive home. Caller ID indicated Crevier BMW car wash. "Strange..." I thought as I didn't have my car at Crevier. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from “Captain Kirk” Larson at Crevier MINI telling me that I have pre-qualified to lease the MINI E.

Taking few steps back, the field trial news of the E caught my attention for several reasons. First and foremost, I consider myself to be a car nut and I’ve always leaned favorably to the good folks in Bavaria and their fine products. I currently own a 1993 BMW 740i (e32) and a 2000 Land Rover Discovery Series II (aka Disco: w/ ACE and 3rd row option). More details about my fleet will follow in all its gory detail.

Second, I am turning into a cranky hippie as I hit my forties in full stride. I believe we are not doing our part as individuals to conserve our precious natural resources, and there are many improvements we can make in our daily lives. Some of these actions are simple and easy: some are more difficult and requires planning and sacrifice.

My 7 year stints at various petroleum industry jobs give me deeper perspective on the supply and demand of fossil fuels than an average citizen. Some lessons were global and macro in nature. Other lessons were practical and close to home, including ways to save money at your local gas station.

I’ve seen Chris Paine’s “Who Killed the Electric Car” twice, the last time at the Pacific Design Center in LA with a post-screening Q&A with Chris Paine (hosted by 97.1 FM's Leo Quinones). I’ve driven the EV1 many years ago at the Dodgers’ Stadium during a GM "Auto Show on the Road" event. It was very Star Wars-ish with its red LED lights and hard plastic surfaces. I remember it starting quick off the line followed by eerie silence as I drove it around the mini autocross course. It had potential but certainly needed more development to become a mainstream car.

I’ve watched with interest as other green vehicles came and went, lesser known EVs, later followed by various hybrid powertrain vehicles and clean vehicles as my job change in March 2008 dropped me in the morning commute in the Southland (50 miles one way) with fellow commuters. Add to this mix the stratospherically high gasoline prices in the summer of 2008 ($4.50 per gallon for 87 octane?!?), my need for more economical car especially with HOV lane access became almost a necessity, not merely ideological social responsibility.

I began looking seriously at the CNG powered Honda Civic NGV GX and even made few calls to the local Honda dealers. I researched various CNG refueling stations and frequented NGV message boards. I also started to practice my version of hypermiling to squeeze few more miles from each full tank. It was eye opening to see how much fuel I saved by driving 10 MPH slower. And it brought the morning commute to brand new perspective, next to the 18 wheelers on the I-605 every morning.

E mood: Very Happy...

So it begins

Day 1

Sunday

25 January 2009

So it begins…

I’ve never written a blog until now. When I started my Geocities page in the fall of 1997 (thanks Tom and Donna!), I started the page to share pictures of my first born who was about year and a half old at the time. The site was at its infancy, so I had to learn HTML codes or cut and paste, monkey-see-monkey-do style, to create even the most basic site. And the pictures... I didn’t own a digital camera at the time so it was all old school – scan and upload pictures, one byte at a time. It was a truly a labor of love.

One day, one of the friendly visitors to the site commented that I should start a "BLOG" - and Google didn't exist yet for me to look up what a BLOG was! I thought it would be a good idea, but never started one for 2 reasons – lack of compelling stories to share and lack of time (or was it lack of focus?).

That was a long and circuitous intro to the MINI E – Some time before November 23rd 2008, I came across a link to the all new plug-in, full electric MINI Cooper (MINI E) launch in 2009 and call for 500 “Field Trial” participants. I’ve missed the last opportunity at a similar chance with the Chevy Volt so I jumped at this chance right away.

Sometime around 10 PM, armed with a full stomach and a high-ball glass of vodka tonic, I started filling out the online application with gusto. I was un-phased by the fake error message booby-trap (very clever, MINI-USA...), and completed the application and slumbered the night away.

E Mood: Happy