"It's Official: BMW To Lease 500 Electric Minis; Cars to Debut At LA Auto Show" Green Car Advisor

It's Official: BMW To Lease 500 Electric Minis; Cars to Debut At LA Auto Show

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Hydrogen fuel-cell and plug-in hybrid test programs move over. BMW Group is joining the alternative fuels race in a big way, announcing today that it soon will field a fleet of 500 battery-electric Minis in the U.S.

The "Mini E" electric cars will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show's media preview Nov. 19 and 20 and while BMW has not provided a launch date for the leasing program, it said the electric cars are to be built over the next few months, indicating a late 2008 or early 2009 start.

The company, which has been teasing about an electric Mini program since July , said in a prepared statement being released this morning that it plans to lease Mini E models "to select private and corporate customers as part of a pilot project."

In addition to program and vehicle details, the company also released a number of exterior and interior photos (below).

Just the Facts

Not only will the BMW electric cars be limited production models, their availability will be limited, at least initially, to just three states -- California, New York and New Jersey. BMW said it is considering a European pilot program as well.

To pack an electric powertrain with its requisite large battery pack into a car as small as the Mini required one big sacrifice - the E models are two-seaters, the back seat area now occupied by the battery.

The electric drive system, including batteries, adds about 700 pounds to the car's weight, turning it into a hefty 3,230-pounder.

It won't win many drag races, but the company said the Mini E's electric drive system would deliver 162 pound-feet of torque, sufficient to propel the car from 0 to 62 mph in 8.5 seconds. Top speed will be electronically limited to 95 mph.

A Cheap Date

BMW said that the Mini E's advanced lithium ion battery will hold enough juice on a single charge to provide a range of "more than" 150 miles and can be recharged on U.S. household current in just 2.5 hours using a special "wallbox" booster that will be included with each car.

A full recharge will pull 28 kilowatt-hours from the commercial electrical grid., giving it a nominal range of 5.4 miles per kilowatt-hour. Electricity costs vary from region to region, but the recharging cost under Southern California Edison's present rates would be about $5, or 3.3 cents a mile.

Recharging without the "wallbox" amperage booster would take longer, but the company hasn't provided any data yet for un-boosted recharge times.

More Cells Than Sing Sing

Regenerative braking can add up to 20 percent more range, or about 30 extra miles per charge, by converting deceleration forces to energy and using it to partially recharge the batteries - the same kind of system is used most conventional hybrids.

The battery pack is made up of 5,088 individual lithium-ion cells and has peak capacity of 35 kilowatt hours, the company said. It will power a 204 horsepower electric motor linked to the front wheels via a single-speed gearbox.

BMW did not identify the battery manufacturer. The cars are to be built at plants in England and Germany and shipped, ready for market, to the U.S.

Hard To Miss

To differentiate the Mini E from conventional models (as if the two-seat configuration wouldn't be enough of a giveaway), BMW said all 500 models will share the same paint and trim scheme: Dark silver bodies, a lighter silver roof and a special power-plug logo in "interchange yellow" applied to the roof, front and fear fascias, the charging port door, the dashboard trim and the door jambs.

Additionally, the mirror housings, roof edging and seat seams and other interior styling cues will share the logo's bright yellow color. Each car also will carry a serial number on its front fenders.

BMW said that the Mini Es will be leased for a one-year period, with an option for an unspecified extension. Lease terms haven't been released yet, but BMW said the monthly payment will include maintenance and parts.

Mini E drivers will contribute information about their experiences with the cars that will be combined with data collected by the company's engineers to build a thorough assessment of the vehicles in the program.

To avoid the customer dissatisfaction and negative publicity General Motors Corp. and other automakers in an earlier California-only EV test program garnered when they "retired" their EVs -- and destroyed most of them -- as the leases expired, BMW is announcing at the start that it intends to take back the cars and subject them to extensive testing at the end of the program.

More to Come

The company reiterated, however, that it intends to launch a number of electric vehicle models as part of its mainstream retail fleet "over the medium-term."

This initial pilot program with 500 Mini E models "on the road under real daily traffic conditions will make it possible to gain widely applicable hands-on experience," the company said in announcing the program.

"Evaluating these findings will generate valuable know-how, which will be factored into the engineering of mass-produced [electric] vehicles."

Here's The Photo Show