Accident in 2022 Mini Cooper SE

oh dear, I am so sorry! I hope you'll be fixed up soon! Always hard when your new car gets hurt.

As an aside I nearly ran over a metal ladder in my old Mini last summer. Other cars had hit it and I fortunately was able to stop just in time and literally rolled up at a super slow speed on the ladder and then back down as I hit the breaks. Unfortunately I was in the center lane and could not safely get out, but a lady in a minivan saw, blocked the traffic in the lane to the right of me and pulled it across as people went flying to the left of me. I was imagining damage like yours but was super lucky. Scary thing to happen though

 

So glad to hear you are ok and safe. Sometimes even the smallest of debris can cause catastrophic events.

 

So sorry to hear of the incident but very glad you're safe and was able to keep your SE under control. I hope repairs are speedy and robust.

Mine got its first battle damage/beauty mark this weekend when the car in front of me kicked up a thick piece of rubber debris at highway speeds (I think left over from a tire blow-out earlier that day). Only damage was a scuff on the front lip spoiler, which bummed me out...but pales in comparison to what you experienced.

 

So glad you're okay, and that the damage wasn't so much that your MINI would be totaled. Hopefully you will have it back soon.

 

The price of that battery tray is disappointing. I wouldn’t have expected the entire 32 kWh battery pack to cost much more than $5,700.

I wonder if the dealer is marking up the price?

Thanks for the detailed write up, and very glad to hear you avoided an accident.

 

I am gutted to hear of the damage to your SE, but so glad you are okay.

 

@mikeg0305, this is a nightmare accident--it's sooo good that the car and your driving skill prevented any injuries. I'm glad to learn the expensive shield did its job of protecting the battery. I cannot imagine what the repair cost would be if both the expensive shield and the battery (not to mention the unobtanium wheels) needed replacement.

 

Hopefully your repairs will not take too long.
More importantly you were not hurt .

Dan


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

How awful, glad nobody got hurt. Imagining the force it took to break the wheels, egads. Gives an idea of how strong that battery shield is. Just think of the damage to an ICE undercarriage.

 

I'm so thankful that I can mostly avoid situations like this with the back roads on my commute. Back when I was in California, it was basically impossible to maintain enough of a gap in front of you to react to something like this. As unfortunate as your situation is, I'm glad it's not worse!

Not sure if you seen the story going around about similar damage on a Tesla requiring the entire pack to be replaced but it's definitely reassuring to hear that Mini designed the shell to be dealer replaceable. The $700 "fix" for the Tesla would not be something I'd consider acceptable...

 

I looked out of curiosity after reading that article and all I could find was the cost of the first gen i3 battery: $16,000 for the older 22kWh pack

The Mini's battery is larger than that but battery costs have also come down a lot since then so probably pretty similar?

 

FWIW, I believe that the Chevy Bolt's 60/64 kWh battery pack costs about $12.5-13.5k...although they seem to have a disconcerting tendency to burst into flames, so right now you could probably pick one up for less!

 

Yikes! I hope it's not that much in about 10 years if we need to replace the battery. I'd like to hold on to this car for a long time!

 

My prediction/hope is that once BEVs start to take off and there are some significant improvements in battery design and energy density, there will likely be aftermarket companies offering battery upgrades for improved range/performance in the same way there are currently companies supporting engine swaps and "resto-mods".

This sort of already exists but the target market is currently ICE conversions more than existing EV improvement.

 

As a thought experiment, how much repair/maintenance would go into an ICE car over that ten years? I'd say $10,00-$15,000 every ten years isn't horrible, especially considering you're likely to get better (more energy and/or lighter) batteries by then. So the question becomes, which makes more sense: replacing the batteries or replacing the whole vehicle with modern features?

 

Glad you are okay and it hopefully it won't take too long get repaired. I keep thinking of the rarity of our SEs and how long it would take to get repaired.

 

Indeed, the replacement battery business will be ready to help when we need help. I installed a Bumblebee Batteries replacement battery in my 2nd gen-1 Honda Insight. The package was a recycled Insight battery carrier with new and better NiMH batteries than the originals. Of course, the Insight's battery weighed about 70 lbs, so it was a lot easier to deal with than any BEV battery.

When the day my SE needs a new battery comes, I expect better batteries will be available. Most people will buy an upgraded replacement battery that provides more range but I hope I can get one that matches the original range while reducing the weight as much as possible.