Going Electric
For my first electric vehicle, I had my heart set on the BMW iX2. My 2020 X2 M35i was coming off lease, and I planned to buy out the lease and wait until the iX2 hit U.S. showrooms. The X2 M35i was a smallish SUV — perfect for NYC street parking — with decent cargo space and 0–60 in 4.2-seconds. I kept a watchful eye on the BMW blogs and set up a Google Alert for any iX2 news from Germany.
Then, one day, it hit: BMW would NOT bring its first electric X2 to the American market. Its SUV lineup would lead with the iX4, a brutish vehicle that would not take too kindly to tight city street parking. I emailed BMW North America and in Germany to express my dismay. One executive in Germany finally wrote back and suggested I consider a MINI. A MINI? Seriously? My mind jumped to the chase scene in “The Italian Job.”
My wife wouldn’t even entertain the idea of being in such a “death trap.” Undaunted, I did some research and learned that the MINI brand, now owned by BMW, planned to grow up (and blow up) its Countryman model to the point where the brand name MINI was an oxymoron. The newly designed 2025 MINI Countryman SE All4 would be two inches longer than my X2, but still shorter than other U.S. EVs in its class. OK. One box checked off.
Over the summer, we were invited to the 2025 Countryman’s U.S. unveiling at the BMW/Mini showroom on West 57th Street in Manhattan. Partially incentivized by a $1000 rebate for attending (with lease or purchase), we attended and had a chance to sit in the vehicle, albeit the gas engine model. No electric vehicles would arrive until late September. My wife was surprised by the spaciousness of the cabin. Two boxes checked off.
I delved into it further and soon learned that this MINI model would be built at BMW’s Leipzig plant in Germany, the same plant from which the X1 and X3 models emerge.
Good and bad news. The good: the new model is a purebred BMW, but with a MINI mark (and MINI price point). The bad: as a non-U.S.-manufactured EV, it does not qualify for the $7500 Federal tax rebate. But wait. There’s a loophole. Foreign-made EVs that are leased can take advantage of the $7500 rebate applied to the lease. Three boxes checked off.
Now the specs. The MINI Countryman SE All 4 arrives with 308 horsepower, 364 lb-ft of torque, 0–60mph in 5.2 seconds and a 212-mile range with a dual 66.5-kilowatt-hour (kWh) lithium-ion battery pack. In other words, it’s very quick and would get us from NYC to eastern Long Island (~90 miles) and back again on a single charge. (We’ll see what happens this winter.) Four and five boxes checked off.
Now the color. Here is where it gets a bit sketchy. We were torn between the standard Melting Silver and a new color for this model year: Slate Blue. However, not a single MINI showroom had a car in Slate Blue or even a sample to look at ahead of time. If we wanted the Slate Blue, we’d have to roll the dice and wait until we took delivery of the vehicle. Of course, that roll of the dice might also take a toll on my marriage. My wife, being the good egg that she is, acquiesced. We ordered the SE All4 in Slate Blue.
In the meantime, I looked online for any glimpse of the color and found at least four variations.
In early September, we got word that the car would be in the showroom at the end of the month. I immediately had my BMW X2 detailed and took a bunch of photos. I listed it on Craigs List, eBay, CarMax, Kelly Bluebook, and even on the Bimmerfest BMW Forum. I received a few lowball offers for my rare Bimmer model that I had never seen on the road in my three years driving it. We ultimately drove out to CarMax on the same day we were taking delivery of the Countryman SE All4. They made the best offer, though several offers near my ask came in two weeks later from eBay and CraigsList. Oh well.
Oddly, while at CarMax, I noticed two men admiring my car. I called out to let them know it’s been a great ride. They looked at me strangely. One of the men was turning in the same exact model, color, and year as mine. It was the first time I saw another M35i in the wild…on the last day I owned mine.
I now had to think about charging, which is no small consideration when purchasing an electric vehicle. This vehicle was not yet compatible with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). It would come with a J1772/CCS combo plug. The J1772 would charge the car in seven or so hours, but the J1772/CCS combo (DC fast charger) would get me to 80% in an hour. We also discovered a 350kw EVgo public charger just 20 minutes from our L.I. home, if we ever couldn’t go the distance.
I still needed to have a charger installed. Fortuitously, two years earlier, when we were having a gas line trenched, I asked my electrician to bury a 240V cable from the house to my driveway for if and when we decide to go electric. But which charger? There are a myriad on the market. It was then I stumbled upon Tom Mouloughney and his State of Charge YouTube site on which he tested and rated many of the best EV chargers across a range of parameters. It didn’t appear that he had skin in the game, other than a passion for the EV charging revolution.
Tom was a veritable Godsend. I was close to going with the ChargePoint, and had a couple of conversations with a very helpful techie at Grizzl-e Smart in Canada, but I ultimately settled on an equally top-rated charger from Autel: the AC Lite Home 50A 12kW EV charger. I remain a little sketchy about the company’s China connection, though they claim to be manufactured in Vietnam. What’s more, Autel sold a pedestal, which was mandatory as I didn’t have a garage or wall on which to mount a charger. It also has an app with loads of functionality and charging data and it didn’t hurt that one of the three charger colors matched my Slate Blue car.
The electrician was finally returning to install the Level 2 charger after the mason laid down a concrete slab adjacent to my driveway. Of course, two years had passed since we buried the cable. We now forgot where it was.
After more digging than we care to discuss, we finally found the heavy 240V cable, and let the electrician take it from there. We also reached out to our local electric utility and applied for the $200 charger rebate, to EZPass for the EV toll discount, and to the NYS Dept of Motor Vehicles for the Clean Pass sticker to use in the HOV lane. In addition to the $7500 rebate from the Feds, NY State offered a $500 rebate toward the purchase or lease of an EV.
I’m still getting acclimated to the vehicle’s round OLED touchscreen, but we’ll figure it out eventually. It does sync well with Apple CarPlay. I’m also finally getting my arms around making the Autel app play nicely with the MINI app vis à vis scheduling charging sessions, the charging target (80% is recommended), charging limit for AC charge (48amps), and security settings.
I also learned that my electric utility, PSEG LI, has different time-of-day rate plans. I went with Plan 195 (above), which offers a Super Off Peak rate $.04/kWh from 10PM — 6AM every day. I now try to limit EV charging and home appliance (e.g., dish and clothes washers) usage during those hours.
All in all, I’m over the moon with my new EV. The color is awesome and I’m glad we bit the bullet before the next Administration puts the kabash on federal EV incentives. This 2025 Countryman SE All4 may qualify as the best car I’ve ever owned (or leased).
