HI - I'm Got Plug? I'm a Mini E. That's an electric car being field tested by Mini. I have a few hundred siblings in the United States. We mostly reside on the left and right coasts where brave volunteers are pioneering with us. The volunteers are, for the most part, humans. You know; feet instead of tires, eyes instead of headlamps, pretty weird but they seem likable enough.

So, I am going to try to keep you interested with a diary of my activities here in the USA. I come from Germany which, of course, means I am very smart, good looking, fast, and thrifty.

Me on the MINI E E*Tour

Me on the MINI E E*Tour
All tucked in for the night

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Got Plug? Chapter 1

Hi, Got Plug? here,  I’m back.  It’s been quite a week getting settled in the USA and meeting my people.  One of my people, an older male, read my first blog and I thought he was going to boil over.  He said although I am a German immigrant my forefathers were from Oxford, England.  My German heritage does make me smart, good looking, thrifty, and fast; but he wanted me to know that, through my English ancestory, I am also regal, elegant, proper, and polite.  Well, I couldn’t argue with that, it wouldn’t be polite.

The first couple of days were real easy, but kind of boring.  People mostly just admired me, although some even looked at my butt for an exhaust pipe.  How rude, I wouldn’t ever produce any carbon.   

I got driven just a little bit to show me off, and never really got turned loose. 

On day three Don, that’s what my male person likes to be called, took me across the bay on the ferry to Long Island and we began to play.  He gave me a start when he pushed my throttle all the way to my floor.  I ran like the wind and he had a big exhaust eating grin on his face, even though there was no exhaust of course.   They don’t have kilometers over here, but I heard Don bragging about “85 miles per hour”.  

After the ferry sailed back to our island,  Don made a big mistake and tried to start me without pressing my brake.  So, naturally, I didn’t respond and even ignored his next few attempts.  That brakeless starting could be dangerous and I knew I had to train Don then and there.  So, he was plenty embarrassed as we rode backward to Long Island again.  I figured he learned his lesson so when we returned to Shelter Island I let him start me up and home we went.

Don’s mate is named Jo, and she is apparently hoping to spend a lot of time with me.  It seems she want to take me to work with her three days a week.  She’s a Veterinarian and knows a lot about how animals work, at least thats what her cats say.  The cats are Dudley, who walks funny after busting his leg.  The other one is a one-eyed Orange boycat called Georgie.   

Anyway, Jo works about 60 miles away and her Hospital will let her plug me in while she works.  Don is a bit of a wimp and wanted to test me before he let me carry Jo off.  He was thinking maybe I wouldn’t, or couldn’t, bring her back.  So, he devised a test for me. 

On day four we left my garage with a 100% charge.  We drove on four lane roads and twisting two lanes roads for 30 miles.  Then we made a u-turn and retraced our rolls back to the garage.  When we got in, I admit I was a bit tired.  I had never worked my charge down to 40% before.  So Don plugged me to sip a solar cocktail for exactly 9 hours.  Then he stopped in, took the straw out of my filler plug, patted me “Good Night” and went back into the house.  I slept well until morning.

In the morning Don came back and off we went.  When we got off the ferry we headed East until we ran out of land.  Being electric, of course this was upsetting because I was trained from birth not to go into the water.  

We turned around are headed back West for a few miles, Don eyeing my trip odometer the whole way.  We we hit 50 miles he had guided me back to the Ferry.  I was getting pretty darned tire by this time.  Last night’s sleepy time cocktail wasn’t really enough and I was pooped.  I wanted to head straight for the garage but Don kept urging me around the block until I literally had no charge left.  Whew!

So, starting with 100% charge and with a 9 hour 110v break in the middle, I staggered home with 117.6 miles.  Thankfully, Don plugged me in right away and let me be for a long time, 36 hours.  By then I was raring to go again.

I’ll be back next week to let you know how it’s going.  Hope you can stop back.  Thanks!

GP-  

No comments:

Post a Comment