MINI Cooper Forum banner

Flashing Yellow Plug icon on the app

5K views 37 replies 6 participants last post by  ro_explorer 
#1 ·
Just looked at my car via the Connected app and the plug and cable yellow icon in the top left is flashing. As i’m A long way away from the car can anyone tell me what that means? The car has been plugged in on the home charger for 6 weeks so i’m Assuming it is cold enough in Scotland for the battery heater to come or rain has got into the car end of the plug......... as it has been raining nonstop for several days in Scotland I wonder if rain has penetrated the plug on the sudecof the car?
 
#3 ·
The Mini Connected app is an optional extra isn't it? Hard to make head or tails of the information out there. I don't have the fancy Navigational system upgrade, so suspect that I don't have access to this app wirelessly?

Just wondering if there is any easy way to obtain mileage information, particularly how much the car has been going on electric and how much on petrol, if that is even possible...
 
#4 ·
It is a free download from the various app stores. You have to put in your VIn number to activate it once downloaded then you would see if your car is “connected” - I thought all Mini PHEVs were connected as standard.
I haven’t yet found a way to separate electric and petrol miles run from the car.
Interesting, I got home last and started the car this morning and even though it is fully charged it started on the petrol engine! I wonder if there is a petrol quality sensor like Mitsubishi Outlander has that forces you to drive on petrol mode every 3 months and burn the fuel in the tank before its quality drops..........
 
#5 ·
Cool thanks, will need to give it a try. Little bit concerning that my car may be connected to them without my knowledge though.

Never thought about that, on the petrol front. Guess too used to burning it all up within weeks, compared to storing it for months at a time.

Is a bit tricky tracking the electric usage and in particular how much money is going into it. All well and good, assuming that the car is only taking in roughly 6kw to charge up, but just have to wonder if the reality is different or not. Hard to tell without being able to reliably monitor it. Guess that is where a well spec'd EV charger installation might come in handy. Not too inclined to install one of those atm though, as unsure if I'll still have this car after 3 years time and whether the EV technology will change in that time.
 
#6 ·
If you charge it home you can install a cheap kw counter just for that socket. I had to make a new installation on my garage as the original had thin wires and could damage the charger (which already happened on another place), so i asked my electrician to install one of those. Is like 10€ and you get that information.

The car should have the information available for how much kw it consumes as you can check the liters on the tank, and how much time and miles you make in electric and petrol too. I’m pretty sure that information is stored in the computer and on bmw servers...


Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk
 
#7 ·
In preparation for my car arriving last June I had an additional double socket powerpoint put into my garage and the advice I was given by the electricians who came to quote was that I should have a new fuse box and a spur of heavier duty cabling to the new sockets - what was installed is heavy duty enough that should I eventually go for an EV then the wiring is now up to the job of being able to wire in a charger for an EV or one of the rapid chargers that some PHEV’s like the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport PHEV’s require.
As far as I know,the X2 and Countryman PHEV’s are the only PHEV’s on the market that have restriction circuits built into the charging system that means that it is pointless to plug into a rapid charger as the system will only permit a maximum of what can be drawn on a domestic socket regardless of the charging rates that public charge points are capable of supplying - the Mini and X2 will not charge at more than3kW/hr because of this.

There is an interesting video on YouTube about a test drive from Norway to Denmark in a Jaguar Ipace - in Norway the driver was able to fully charge it in 45 minutes on public rapid chargers but crossing the border into Sweden the same amount of charge took 5 times longer because in Sweden the public charging points are much lower capacity, same in Denmark. He did say though that the uptake of PHEV’s and EV’s is much higher in Norway than it is in Sweden and Denmark so more demand for very rapid charging.
Here in in Scotland a year of unlimited use of public chargepoints costs me £20 - basically the cost of processing the supply of the RFID card that is needed for all Chargepoint Scotland “free” chargers. Presently the Chargers in Scotland are able to supply at the highest rate available but not up to the rates available in Norway! I have a Chargepoint Scotland RFID card since May.......... and so far I have never used it as the chargepoints are not located in car parks that I would normally use when I go into town although the car park I prefer to use is soon to get 10 Chargepoint Scotland charge points
 
#8 ·
Is good to hear that they have that kind of scheme. Better than the plethora of providers in England, all with their own charges and subscription type services.

Yeah at home, I've set it on the lowest charging setting and not had a problem so far. The drawback being that it takes up to 7 hours to complete a charge.

With a company car, hard to tell if I will swap cars at the end or buy this existing one outright. So guess I'm stuck with this arrangement for the next 3 years and have to see what is best at the end of that period.

I like the sound of an EV, but wife is already suffering from range anxiety. She is the kind of back seat driver that will get a bit frantic in an ICE, when we are driving along and the petrol alert goes off. Her other issue are the trips that we like to take on the weekend, can push the car a bit. As chargers aren't typically easily accessible at the destination, makes the home being the most viable charging point. THis would mean that we would be constrained by the range of the car and would want to leave a little slack there, just in case. During the working week, wife could probably drive all week without having to charge.
 
#9 ·
In Portugal public charging is free in every public chargers.

I don’t think that mini doesn’t accept more than 3kw/h, as it uses to take 4 hours to charge at home and I manage to charge in 3 hours at the mall, and in 2 hours in a Tesla charger...

Like announced on the vehicle brochure.
 
#10 ·
We have the 1.5 petrol all4 so the weight should be closer to the weight of your se . We get 34 mpg with the wife going to work and back three miles each way. About 46 mpg doing longer runs out of town and got 49.9 mpg on the motorway the other day but sticking to 70 mph most of the time. Just thought this would give you some idea of the fuel you save using electric as well .we have only done 5000 mile in the last year so not worth use getting one but would love the extra power some times .
 
#12 ·
It’s just more 350kg for the electric motor :)
It’s like your car full of adults inside...

34mpg is close to what I’m doing this week as my charger broke and I’m waiting for a new one. With charger it goes up to 90mpg.


Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk
 
#11 ·
I used a public charger for the first time today............ according to the charging machine and my dash I had charged to 100% which showed a range of 17 miles .......... I drove home 16 miles and the last 6 of those the dash charge indication showed zero miles range remaining and the outer LED on the central display was showing about 33% charge remaining, yet I managed the journey in fully electric mode. I wonder what the public charger has upset in the car’s measuring systems? The car was set to MaxE and Green mode.
 
#13 ·
Called into the dealership this morning........ “Doesn’t sound right Sir, can we book the car in to have a look at it”. They want the car for 2 days - I suspect that they will be carrying out the equivalent of a “hard reset” by disconnecting the HV battery, discharging it and then recharging it. I gave to live with the issue until October 30th as that is the first day that they can give me a courtesy car for the two days mine is in the service bay.
 
#14 ·
A new development this morning........ car fully charged on low rate overnight, start up and was surprised to see the range on the dash bottom right corner display, showed a range of 12 miles 100% charged but the big LED around the central display showed 100% charge. Drove 5 miles to the next village with heated seats on and heater running. Left the car parked for an hour came back and the range is now showing 18 miles without having been on a charger! Drive 5vmiles home in MaxE electric mode, pull into my drive and range is still showing 18 miles and the big LED ring shows ¾ full battery.......... the plot thickens
 
#16 ·
Has anyone else notice the differences in the recuperation charging in the different modes (green, mid & Sport) ?

Start in green, try coasting from say 50mph and watch where the needle sits in the charging indicator, also notice that the car does not seem to slow much.

Then flip to mid and you will notice it start to slow a bit quicker.

Put it in sport and it seems to slow even more quickly.

I drove home from work the other evening, about 14 miles. It recuperated 48% in sport mode.
 
#18 ·
I did not notice any difference from mid to sport, but green does coast, which does not charge the battery unless you push the brakes. In one of my journeys to work is better for me to use mid than green, as there is some traffic and just pulling the accelerator regenerates. I can do those 30km all in electric if in mid mode, but not in green, and I use little braking in mid...



Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk
 
#19 ·
I drove home from work the other evening, about 14 miles. It recuperated 48% in sport mode.
The recuperation in coasting is purely achieved only in "mid" mode. In this mode the recuperation will be mild when you lift the foot from the acceleration then it will be more powerful when you gently press the brake pedal.

The recuperation in green mode is almost inexistent because green mode is based on anticipative driving style and lots of coasting. Recuperation in this mode is achieved basically only when using the brake pedal.

The sport mode is completely different and has a different purpose. Sport mode will use active engine power to fill the battery and keep it in between 50 and 80%. Sport mode is based on the thermal engine AND electrical at the same time. You can check the current flowing direction (instantaneous consumption basically on the display) and you will see how the numbers are varying. At gentle acceleration there will be power flowing in the battery and as soon as you demand performance it will use electrical engine even without "boost" level.

Sport mode is a kind of "save battery" but aimed at performance.

The truly fun behaviour (and HUGE fuel consumption) is in Super-Sport mode (Auto driving mode, Sport setting, shifter in M/S position). This will put the car in 225 horse power mode with a very snappy acceleration and and with automatic shifting threshold very high on the RPM scale ... you will get that real mini racing feel.
 
#20 ·
Just back from the dealership having dropped the car off and picked up a 2018 3 door hatch Cooper S petrol, Manual loaner. Least said the better about the loaner even though it only has 5000 miles on the clock. There is no way I would have one as my daily runner.

The receptionist has asked to have the car in overnight as there is a software update to be installed - she did say what it was but I didn’t write it down and senility is setting in now I am passed 60 so I cannot remember what it is for! I’ll ask when I pick the car up tomorrow and try to get the update /TSB number and what it is for for you all. The dealers are a bit phased by getting the car in - it is the first PHEV that they have sold locally and don’t have a lot of experience with the electrical systems........... I had this once before with launch day delivered Range Rover Evoque and the local dealer had to get a technician from the HQ in Warwick in to help them sort the problem............ which he did in about 15 minutes and the car then ran faultlessly.
 
#21 ·
Seems that the software update is for the heater system/controls - i’ve Just had a phone call from the dealer saying that that has been done BUT that they and BMW are mystified by my charge versus range issue - they have done a full discharge and recharge if the HV battery overnight and they think that the 100%/16 miles range is accurate - my argumeant was that 4 months ago the full range at 100% charge was showing at 26-27miles all the time then in August it dropped to 18 miles at 100% and now 16 miles. I accept that cooler weather will have an effect and reduces range but over 4 months a 40% drop in indicated range on a new HV battery doesn’t bode well for long term battery life. They want the car for another day - the 3 door hatch is parked outside the house and i’m Using my Defender as a shopping trolley as it is more comfortable than the loaner Mini............
 
#22 ·
Tricky one...the onboard computer on mine was only showing about 16 miles back in September when I was finally able to fully charge it. Bit chilly now end of October and I'm more likely to see 13 miles. Drove to a shopping centre last Sunday without the AC on and managed to coax the computer to display 18 miles of range. Managed a 15m return trip all on electricity, AC off, basically emptied the battery out though.
 
#23 ·
I’ll have to try that and see if it makes a difference - i’ve Learned over the years that it is best to run with Climate Control set to auto as the will also de-humidify the interior which over the years is better for the life of electronic in the cabin as they tend to get condensation on them if you don’t run the CC. Also if you run plain air conditioning all the time it is much better for the compressor/ gas to keep it compressed and the system lubricated, then next summer when you have the 7 hot days that are summer your ac will still work and make cold air or the vents, you can run air con with warm air as well as cold and that also keeps the system in tip top condition.
I haven’t had any phone call from the dealership to collect the car yet but I have noticed this morning that they have disabled the app so I cannot play remotely with the car!
 
#24 ·
Yeah sorry, didn't mean for it to be something to try, just mentioning my experiences with the battery. I've been cheapo as well and not gone with the climate control as an additional extra. Wish I did, as it came as standard with the Lexus.

Agree with running the AC though and keeping it for too long runs the risk of nasty build up in the air ducts, which will make for a stinky AC when you do use it.

Is a shame though, really can't see this as a long term car. I will not be keeping it past the 3 year point, unless the market is so bad, that it is the best of the crop. Somehow, I doubt that. Not surprised to hear that this car is only mainly making sales due to people picking it up as a company car.

I have to wonder as well, is it worth keeping it in 'sport' mode during Winter, then at least you keep the battery topped up and available for the 4WD...
 
#25 ·
Mine is a company car, because I’m the company and all my cars are company cars. The fact you can have benefits puts this care above the competition, but I really wanted to go electric now, regardless of the real cost.

All PHEV deserve a really deep analysis before purchase, as it is not all about power and space that you can check on a test drive. Electric range must be studied on the most frequent routines. I did that and realized this one fitted my home-work-home routine. There are a lot of days in which I don’t use a drop of fuel. In hot summer and cold winter (if we can say that in portugal), the battery will drain much faster.
However I don’t think the range challenge is the most important think on a PHEV, otherwise if you would want to drive all electric you could buy a pure electric like the i3, and have like 4 to 5 times the range.

In PHEV you have to do the math and check the real cost, considering mpg and electricity costs.
I did that and compared to my last cars (bmw 120d, evoque, Audi A3). I realized the cost per 100km was around 10-12€. With this car I’m doing 5-6€.
So, in the expected lifetime mileage of the car, I should save about 10.000€. I have to agree that if it was not for the company government policies, the final save would be zero compared to the diesel, but it’s nice to go around town for more than 1 hour of slow traffic in total silence and think that not a single drop of petrol was used, just 0,6€ of electricity, whereas my last evoque would do 10x the cost of diesel for the same job.

And, last but not less important... the car is really fun to drive!
 
#26 ·
Yeah true, to be honest, my research wasn't that deep and I did not once step inside a BMW dealership. This was mostly based on what I saw on YT and a few review articles. None of them mention the real charge time without using type 2 cables though. On paper spec and the YT vids were enough for me to decide that I wanted to try it, so I ordered it via my company. If it doesn't turn out well, I can always return it in 3 years time.

I did recognize that we would most likely not have to use any petrol during the working week, as it is only a 8 mile round trip for the wife.

One of the other reasons to get this car though, was to provide more boot space over the Lexus I had before. Indeed, don't need to worry about range, as we wanted a hybrid, to remove the range anxiety equation. I just think that in 3 years time, the tech will have advanced to make other cars pretty viable choices. It would be nice to be able lean more on EV mode and way less on petrol, sort of like the BMW i3 with REx. However, with more space inside, the i3 doesn't suit a family with a toddler.

Also have to wonder if uptake of Hydrogen powered cars will make those more viable. Those sound pretty interesting. At the moment, I only know of one hydrogen pump, and it is still over 8 miles away.

I do like the extra power over the Lexus, I do want to try the full power of the machine, but probably when the wife is nowhere near the car :p
 
#27 ·
The Countryman is in the service bay for another day again today “BMW Technical Dept want to check some things with the car, do you mind?” Of course not! The loan car hasn’t moved since I got home with it, i’m Using my Defender for errands instead, it’s the first loan car I have ever had that I haven’t been very enthusiastic about...........

I have a test drive coming up in a Jaguar I Pace, the local JLR dealership is doing their best to get me back into their brand!
 
#31 ·
So basically they have no idea and they are waiting for the real expert to give them the information they need. Has me wondering, how competent my local BMW dealer is, with the PHEV. I have no idea how many are in the area...guess I'll see when the car goes to them for it be serviced next year.

I haven't dare set my car to max charge on a domestic socket yet. It is currently plugged into the garage at the bottom of the garden and I have no real idea how well it is fitted into the house electrics. So it has taken me 7 hours to charge the car fully everytime and even worse now that I have preconditioning on, the car is never at 100% when we leave. The brilliant benefit is no scrapping of ice off windows, that saves a lot of time.

I would be very interested in getting an EV in 3 years time, assuming that the infrastructure improves and I can find one that has the same or better boot size than the Countryman. Not too concerned about the performance, as I'm not a speed junkie.
 
#28 ·
We are in the early days of electrics.

I love the car, but I know it is very likely to be outdated faster than usually. Not in 3 years I think, as the technology has to be improved, then launched to the market (early versions of electric with nice ranges are showing at Tesla and Jaguar for example, but they need to be improved), and then spread over the brands so the cost can be reduced. I’d say 6 to 8 years till we see diesel alike prices in electric vehicles with similar ranges and behavior (the time in which the choice of a diesel would be only to pollute more and spend more money on the energy source).

Hydrogen seems nice, but it’s way more complex than electric engines (we can see it has been in development for years and nothing really comes to the market like electric ended up coming). And you also have the costs of production, storage, transportation, gas station costs, etc. Electricity in the other hand has all the logistics already available. You can charge home, it is easier to install public stations in every street where there is light, and there, almost no Human Resources involved, and the production and storage would not have to have an exclusive line for cars like hydrogen would.

Electric seems really easy to implement and can be green if we install solar panels at home and the electric companies rely on solar, wind and water only.
They just need to improve range, public chargers and, maybe most important, the time to charge. I never thought the range of a diesel would be very important (in my bmw I could run for 1000km in a tank, whereas defender did only half of it). I had to go to the pump more often but those 5 minutes never bothered me. But if I had to stop every 2 day to charge for 45min, that would not be nice...


Enviado do meu iPhone usando o Tapatalk
 
#29 ·
Yeah very true. At the moment the wife is very reluctant to have a type 2 charger installed. Even harder to justify solar panels being installed. UK has a lot of catch up to play in the infrastructure department.

For me, every 2 days for 45 minutes isn't a problem, as long as you are home every 2 days and can charge it overnight. Just would be great if we had say, just even 50 miles range on something like the Countryman.

I've never driven a diesel, has always been unleaded. I was just annoyed at the long term ownership of cars though, so switched to company car 3 years back. The car we last owned was a Toyota Yaris and the last repair cost, wasn't even covered by selling the car. It was 8 years old though. The company car has maintenance charges, insurance and even the tyres covered as part of the package. Takes a lot of my mind, even though I do pay more for it all. At least though, I don't have to waste time and money, troubleshooting and repairing a car where things start failing due to age. Not to mention I get to enjoy that new car smell every 3 years :D
 
#30 ·
Electric range is improving all the time as battery technology gets better. I’m lucky that where I live our devolved government takes a more enlightened view of BEV and PHEV’s than their compatriots in the national government in London and have a rapidly growing network of chargepoints (including Tesla Superchargers) to suit all types of socket and charging rates. There is an admin annual fee for the provision of the smart card required to activate the chargepoints but after that charging is free - although for me I have only had two part charges for the £20pa admin fee so far but now I know that the chargers in my local park and ride car park also give you free parking I will start using my card more and have less distance to drive to the car park I was using!
Solar panels - now they are not a cost effective way to charge the car because the cost to install will far outweigh the amount of electricity you need to buy to charge the car, especially now that the government has reduced the Feed In Tariff to 1p per kWhr you feed in - I was luck and got mine installed 4 years ago when the FIT was 19p. Up my neighbour across the courtyard from me installed her panels when the FIT was 42p a unit. My panels are almost paid off now, and as I get 50% of all production bought by my electricity provider I have earned well enough to be able to basically charge the Countryman for free on the earnings. It’s a lovely Autumnal day here and my generating meter on the solar panels is showing i’m Generating 3.2kW/h - pity I don’t have the car here to charge it!

I wonder about installing a proper charge point at home rather than just plugging into a domestic socket. I think the Mini’s 2-3 hours charge time on a domestic socket is adequate for my needs, it is the range that I gave an issue with. I noticed in the Mini showroom on Tuesday when I left my car with them, that the showroom has some more charge points and also have a home charger on display in the showroom - in the UK home chargers are heavily subsidised but still expensive to install and I doubt I could recover that extra charge even from feed in from my solar panels. Also I am sufficiently impressed by the Countryman PHEV that my next car (if there is to be a next car) will be a purely Electric Vehicle but how easy and costly is it to change the charger / plug if you change to a car with a different socket on the side...... more standardising of plugs/sockets is needed.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Well I collected the car this evening and............ “we can now get it to show 21 miles range sir” and “ there seems to be a problem with the heater software upgrade and we will require the car back again once BMW have worked out what has gone wrong.........” at least I have heating and cooling! However whatever software up grade was done I also have found that I cannot now set the car to use the offpeak timed charge from the dash or the app and the dash now has a different format for programmed charging in that previously I set the timer and one time worked for each day of the week, now I have 7 days of the week in a list but whatever I do I can only set Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday just won’t set and neither will the button to change from immediate charge to programmed charge. They don’t work regardless of whether i’m using the touch screen on the dash or the app.......... I thought JLR’s tech was poor but this is as bad/ worse and i’ll Be booking the car back in again next Monday to see if the dealer can debug the upgrade......... i’m Used to being a JLR guinea-pig with tech items, I expected BMW to be light years better, certainly not what I expected from the maker of the “Ultimate” Driving Machine.......
 
#33 ·
Doh sorry to hear that...

I've been unable to set any of the timed slots from inside the car...best I've been able to do, is to enable precondition via the app, that only allows to be set daily, so I need to remember to change it on a Friday night and a Sunday night, to account for the weekend/working week...
 
#34 ·
I thought I was alone in this.
I can set everything well from the app, but nothing on the vehicle. In the charging menus a lot of things are grey and the ones that are not, won’t assume the configuration after I hit the center button...
So I have to use the app to set charging times.
Dealer told me to leave the car for a night to update the system and check if it solves the problem, but from what I see, it will stay the same...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top