Interview with MINI E Test Driver Wilhelm Kirchensteiner

Wilhelm Kirchensteiner became an E.ON test driver four months ago, in December 2009. The 59-year-old vocational school teacher works at the city vocational school for electric plant and building technology in Munich and is a fan of renewable energy. What he values most about electric vehicles is that you can drive a car "with a clean conscience."

Mr. Kirchensteiner, why did you apply to become an E.ON test driver? What made you become interested in electric mobility?

I have been enthusiastic about electric mobility and convinced that it's a winning proposition for a long time. I designed and built a small electric vehicle myself 30 years ago. It was a bicycle with a trailer, which acted as the drive unit. This type of vehicle can still be seen in use today. Take the Munich postal service, for example. At the same time, I became a vocational teacher in the field of electric and solar technology. So you can see that electric mobility has always been a fixture in my life. And E.ON was offering people the awesome opportunity to test a state-of-the-art electric vehicle. It was extremely appealing to me. So I applied right away and was fortunate to be picked.

You deal with renewable energy on a daily basis at work. Do you use this technology in your private life as well?

I am the director of the Solar Technology Training Center of the State Capital City of Munich. It's a department in the vocational school in which I work. This makes me the Energy and Solar Commissioner for the entire city. You can only teach in this area if you're absolutely convinced of the technology and use it yourself. I have a heat pump in my basement as well as a photovoltaic and solar thermal installation on my roof. I feed solar power into the grid and help protect our environment.

Getting back to your experience with the MINI E, what do you think about its range?

It's very good. When driving around town or within a daily radius of 30 to 40 kilometers, it's just great. I was a little worried when taking longer trips in the beginning. For instance, when I drove to Augsburg, I was afraid of not being able to make it back home, because the indicated range dropped so fast. But if you make short breaks or slow down, the battery recovers very quickly and the range goes back up. Based on my experience, now, in the winter, the car can definitely go for 150 kilometers at 4 degrees centigrade. Under normal use, the MINI E's range is easily enough for me.

Where do you charge your car every day?

I usually charge the car overnight in my garage. I only have a standard 230 volt outlet, but the car is always fully charged when I drive to work in the morning. Of course, it charges much faster at E.ON pumps because they supply high-voltage current.

What do you think the power infrastructure for electric vehicles should look like in the future?

Well, I think your service stations are very good. They are easy to use and have shorter charging times compared to my home hook-up. But it wouldn't hurt if they were a little smaller. I think it would be perfect if they were bigger than a parking meter, but smaller than their current size. But we're just talking cosmetics here.

Could you imagine buying an electric car for personal use?

Absolutely! My second car will probably pack up in about two years. I will replace it with an electric one. And if prices are in the order of what normal mid-sized cars cost now-no more than 30,000 euros-then it would be worth it to me.