EV Meets Early Adopter Meets Reality

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: October 29th, 2009

GM-volt.com‘s Lyle Dennis finds out that being one of the first 500 Americans to lease a MINI E has its downsides. Especially at $850/month lease cost. At around 5,000 miles, the troubles begin (OK, continue).

As the car is technically a mule or prototype, it is not production-ready and has had some issues. A month or two ago it began popping loudly into neutral whenever the accelerator was floored. The power electronics control unit was replaced and after that it almost never happened (it happened one more time). So I’m gentle with the accelerator.

The other day I was driving to work and went over an unexpected construction zone pothole. The car was jostled and suddenly it went into neutral. After that it could no longer be put into drive. Despite turning it on and off and moving the shifter in and out of drive neutral and park several times, that was it, dead. A tow truck was called and off it went to the dealership for a MINI “flying doctor” to come and repair it. After a few days I found out it was the power electronics control unit again which was again replaced.

Because this made Dennis “realize the importance of extensive testing of new electric cars over rough road conditions, potholes and the like,” he put in a word to GM’s Volt team to see if they were on top of this potential pitfall. GM’s Tony Posawatz responds:

We do more tests to our cars and especially the Chevy VOLT than anyone could imagine including some pretty severe potholes on our Milford Provings Grounds and other very difficult road surfaces. As you know, the car quite easily navigated up and down Pikes Peak, through the hills of West Virginia as well as Death Valley during the hottest part of the summer (it was 118 degrees when I called once to check on the team).

He’d better hope something like this doesn’t afflict early Volts, or the model will be dead on arrival.

Edward Niedermeyer

More by Edward Niedermeyer

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 14 comments

Bimmer on Oct 29, 2009
mtymsi : I don’t think you could drive enough miles in a months time to make up in gasoline savings the $850 monthly payment. It also includes insurance and maintenance.

Like Reply
DweezilSFV on Oct 30, 2009

Yes, yes. And the Vega and Citation underwent millions of miles of testing, which GM also bragged about. They got the data they wanted to confirm they were correct in their engineering solutions and let the public finish testing the cars for them. They will have done the same thing with the Volt comes out. Gentlemen: start your tow trucks.......

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Ger65690267 Chrysler Crossfire. A rebadged R170 Mercedes, solid car, it was old by the time it was released, so I understand the negativity there, but as a car itself, it was hurt by one funny joke on Top Gear.
Pete Skimmel I can see drivers ed teacher as a third career for Tim Walz.
Lou_BC How about mandatory driver's Ed for anyone under 100 years old? I'm all for mandatory retesting and recertification.
Burnbomber GM front driver A-bodies. They are the Chevy Celebrity, Pontiac 6000, Oldsmobile Ciera, and Buick Century (5th Generation). These are a derivative from the much maligned Chevrolet Citation, but they got this generation good. My 1st connection was in a daily 80 mile car pool,always riding in the back seat, in a stripper Pontiac 6000. It was a nice ride, quiet and roomy. Then I changed jobs and had a Chevy Celebrity as a company car. They were heavy duty strippers with a better than average GM feel (from F40 heavy-duty suspension option). I bought 2 ex-company cars at auction--one for my family and one for mother-in-law. They were extremely reliable, parts dirt cheap (especially in u-pulls), and simple to work on. It was the most reliable GM I've ever owned; better than my current Chevy Equinox, which will take a miracle to last as long as they did.
Slavuta Drivers in Bharat are better. Considering that rules are accepted as mere suggestions and a mix of car, bicycle, motorbike, pedestrian at the same place and time, these guys are virtuosos.