Ouch!

Well, its just a matter of time with free range EVs (ie those not in garage captivity) before some form of weather anomaly catches up with you. Would you believe that my MiniE was sucked up into a tornado and deposited safely 50 miles away - thereby extending my all electric range nicely. No? Well would you believe that I forded a 2 ft. flooded road - thereby nicely cooling my battery pack and getting a nice car wash to boot? No? How about that my MiniE #484 survived a golf ball sized hailstorm? OK - now we're talking....

This past Sunday we had some horrific weather move through in NJ, and I was unfortunate enough to be parked at the street of my friend's house for a barbecue. As we settled in for burgers, the sky darkened and we moved inside the house. No sooner settled back to munchinig, the pounding began. Streaking white meteors flaming out into the pool and back yard and yes, onto my MiniE! With a nauseated feeling I ran to the front window and watched the deluge pound my little defenseless coupe. Thoughts came to me like; What if I had gone with the solar panel option? Why can't the vehicle shell draw battery current for a repelling force field? Who is going to believe this wasn't a case of ball-peen anti-EV road rage?

Regaining my composure, I snapped a few Blackberry photos to share with you and the insurance company, and on Monday I was pleasantly surprised and relieved that there would be no big problem getting this fixed. In general, the damage was surprisingly minor - a testament to the rugged shell design of the Mini. All in all, just another extreme performance test passed by the MiniE with flying colors in the real post-Climate Change world. Which got me thinking... Hmmm - wonder how much Co2 is in a golf ball hailstone.