The BMW Mini E

Full EV House Again
6/20/2009

This was a busy and EVentful week for us! On Monday, we were able to pick up our Mini E, and on Friday, we got our Toyota RAV4 EV back from Toyota with its "new" (refurbished) set of batteries. Since our garage had been half occupied by items for a major house remodeling project, it took some effort to get both cars back into the garage.

To allow for charging either car without moving the cars around, we had to run the charging cord for the Mini-E above the cars. This arrangement allows the Mini to be charged on either side of the garage, and relieves us from having to drag the very stiff and heavy charging cord around to the Mini's charging port. It has the additional benefit of preventing a loose charging connector from ever hitting the floor and being damaged. Finally I found a use for our old mountain climbing hardware! The cord is suspended using nylon webbing loops and carabiners.

EV designers, please note that the best place for a charging port on an EV is not where the fuel filler is normally placed on a gasoline car!