Mini electric: The electric version of the Mini looks just like the regular version, except that it has a yellow plug logo and yellow trim.
BMW
The new Mini borrows a drive system from a high-performance electric sports car.
On Wednesday, BMW introduced an electric version of the Mini compact car at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The first 200 of the cars have already been delivered to the United States, well ahead of a wave of new electric cars expected from other major automakers starting in 2010.
"They're the first to have a rollout," says Felix Kramer, founder of CalCars, a group that promotes the development of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. BMW was able to speed the introduction of the car by adapting an electric drive system from a small company in California to work in an existing vehicle. Other automakers are instead developing electric-car models from scratch. BMW, which acquired the Mini brand when it bought the Rover Group in 1994, plans to build an additional 300 electric cars by the end of the year, bringing the total to 500. The cars will be leased to select consumers for a year. The automaker's goal is to use the leased vehicles to gather information about real-world driving that will aid the engineering of future mass-produced electric vehicles. "There's no reason, after the first 500, they couldn't sell as many as they could build," Kramer says.
BMW first approached the company that developed the Mini's drive system, AC Propulsion, only a year ago, says Tom Gage, the company's CEO. GM, by contrast, announced its plan to develop an electric car nearly two years ago and says that it will deliver its first vehicles at the end of 2010. (In the 1990s, GM aborted an earlier electric-vehicle program, which had produced a car called the EV-1 in limited quantities.) GM is working with suppliers to develop new battery packs designed specifically for its car, called the Volt. With AC Propulsion, BMW got a ready-made electric drive system that could be incorporated easily into the Mini, and which has been field-tested in AC Propulsion vehicles. Some of these vehicles have well over 100,000 miles on them, Gage says.
The technology used in the Mini is based on a drive system developed for the tzero, AC Propulsion's high-performance electric sports car, which can accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds. The Roadster, a car produced and sold by the startup Tesla Motors, was inspired by the tzero, and the first prototype was based on AC Propulsion's technology. Adapting the tzero's system for the Mini required only minor modifications, Gage says.
The AC Propulsion design is distinctive in part because it uses a single set of hardware to both charge the battery and control the electric motor, saving space and weight. The system is also flexible. The battery can be charged at a variety of rates and voltages, from overnight charging from a standard 110-volt outlet to a 2.5-hour recharge from a special outlet that will be installed in the garages of those who lease the electric Mini.
The production design is ready, but the electric vehicle's battery needs work.
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The electric Mini will be leased for $850 a month? Are you kidding me? My house payment is less than that. Add the cost of solar cells on top of your garage and an inverter and you are talking a grand a month. The Mini started off as a cheap sports coupe, but a grand a month sounds pretty rich to me.
Startup cost. This will change. And I think this is a far better thread for BMW to pursue than their Hydrogen 7, which was a monster that proved how far away a hydrogen economy is.
For the time being, you'll be able to charge this overnight in your garage using off-peak power and helping out the electric company to better utilize its generating capacity.
You're right. That is a bit ridiculous considering that you can get Honda's FCX Clarity fuel cell car for 600/month.
AND it's a 3 year lease.
Honda have said that their FCX leases don't come close to covering the costs of the actual vehicles so I suspect the FCX is still a lot more expensive than an electric Mini. The programme isn't there to make money but to provide real-world testing.
All these costs don't really reflect the final purchase price of a mass produced version so don't take them too seriously. I suspect that AC Propulsion hand-make much of their controllers - clearly not a high-volume production line - and have prices to match.
I think BMW are very smart to put out a car quickly from good off-the-shelf components. Whether they would continue to use these in production cars or get a different supplier or their own design is another question.
Fuel cells currently cost multiple thousand $ per kW. Even an 8500 USD per month lease wouldn't cover a medium power vehicle, not even for just the fuel cell, excluding the car.
Hydrogen is at best far away, and far more likely a total boondoggle. Even the most optimistic fuel cell stack costs are a large factor above what automakers would consider a reasonably priced engine.
It will be interesting to see if they can lease all these vehicles at 850/month. I suspect they will given the staggering amount of rich Californians. But it's a shame that EV enthusiasts won't be a able to ahold of one, I suspect.
Props to AC propulsion on this victory.
Having rode in a tzero prototype, I venture to say this mini has some balls.
At this time when hybrids, and other low emissions vehicles are or have received tax brakes, who or how are the federal or state highway taxes going to be paid? Also at what time will the cost of disposal of the batteries at the end of this type of transportation life, whose paying for that? And at what point in time is the cost of infrastructure going to added in to the environmental cost?
Yes there is a need and place for this type of transportation but are we overlooking what the true cost and impact is going to be.
Hey BMW, get your "GOOD" cars over here now!
I recently drove a BMW in Spain, and WOW!! What great MPG! However, those albeit "Diesel" cars with their proprietary start-stop technology among other hybrid tweaks, are not exported to the states. I refuse to buy a BMW until this technology is available here on their cars made for the USA. The Ford Fusion Hybrid uses this type of technology to my knowledge. While sitting at a red light, the air is powered by the battery system, and zero emissions, like the Prius! But hey, these are not BMW's...
We need a concerted effort to share technology and roll out a global effort to improve MPG while work is done on an infrastructure that will allow for smart charging with solar based charging as one alternative.
Gee, who knew that a technology already exists that blows away everything on sale in the states, and is used everyday in Europe!! We are talking about a luxury sports car, with real driving characteristics, not a golf cart. Check out BMW's website and take a look (over 50mpg on some models). Last, why do continue to make cars whose ice's have to run at a red light? Insane, man, insane...
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mkogrady
425 Comments
Great approach with momentum
The Mini Coop has a great following already, and an electric version may just surpass the Prius, while the Volt languishes in obscurity.
German Ingenuity and a US powertrain? Beats the Daimler-Chrysler model by a long shot. Make it a convertable, and those fun loving Californians will take out a second mortgage in a heartbeat to be eco-friendly! Parks easy I suspect, but how will it handle those hills and stop and go traffic on a hot dry Santa Ana day?
Time will tell, but if it's cheaper than $40,000 like the Volt, GM is in trouble - again.
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