Hybrid Technologies from north carolina have built a mini cooper with a 105bhp electric motor and a lithium-ion battery back.
As a result it produces zero emission,yet accelerates faster than the more powerful mini cooper s.
Top speed 80mph.
0-60mph 6.5 sec.
Range 120 miles.
www.hybridtechnologies.com

 

And the cost is?????

 

there was a company that daily planet did a special on that did just that,and said that they got better performance out of the car then stock.. they did porshes, and high end... $35,000

 

This company is different than that other story that got posted here a bunch of times, right? Where that really annoying singer had one? James Blunt, is that right?

 

You mean like this?
http://jalopnik.com/cars/gizmodo/the...-ev-278816.php
(A mini cooper that costs as much as a 5-series BMW)

or this one?
http://jalopnik.com/cars/hybrid/four...ini-189077.php
(A mini with 4 electric motors generating a total of 640hp and 2,213ft-lb (?!) of torque )

Cheers!

 

There is a place by us that is doing electric conversions for $5000.00 - $7000.00-ish dollars. They are NOT using lithium-ion batteries.

I figure you sell the engine for parts and strip any extra weight and you are not paying that much.

 

There was also a company and there was a big thread on it a few years ago the put a few 5.7 liter 350cui in the mini...0-60 in like less than 3....

Jack

 

Mine didn't cost nearly that much...

http://www.phydeaux.net/gallery/main...INI/batteries/

 

I think I'd still have to wait for the hydrogen powered MINI before I'll be able to justify the cost of going green.

 

 

Just a quick note - electric cars are not "emission free" since there is the whole issue of how the electricity is generated. I'd love to see a comparison by an unbiased source showing how many btus of energy are required to power an electric car for a mile by the time you convert fuel to electricity and all the distribution loss of electrical lines....

 

I still want to know who works on it when it breaks?

Hydrogen is a long, long way off. It still creates more pollution to produce the hydrogen fuel needed to drive 1 mile at 50MPH than to burn gasoline in a gas engine.

 

has Hybrid Technologies announced what the price is to convert a MINI to electric?.....looks like it is all electric, and not a hybrid (gas and electric) despite their name

 

Also note the drain on the environment to make the batteries. I will have to do some searching, but someone traced the creation of the batteries for the Prius. The raw materials to the creation of the final product took several trips accross many oceans. The place where the mining occurs is considered to be one of the worst ecological disasters in the world. Nothing grows within something like a 2 mile radius IIRC. In the end an H2 was more econmical to drive based on the production cost to the environment than a Prius.

 

Yes, back to its roots, the electric car is coal-fired with the associated acid rain or is species killing hydro-powered . Until we go electric we're melting a couple of ice caps.

Sorry, hydrogen power requires electrical generation, so its no better.

 

Not to mention the disposal of all those batteries when they fizzle out. What IS the projected battery life, anyway?

 

Actually a stock R56 puts more torque than that to the wheels in first gear. The big difference is that when you upshift in the R56, the torque drops off substantially with each upshift, because of the loss of torque multiplication. Also, a gasoline engine only produces near-maximum torque over a fairly narrow RPM range.

With electric motors at each wheel, you're not shifting gears, so they can produce that 2200 lbf-ft of torque (or close to it) from a dead stop all the way to the vehicle's top speed.

 

Not exactly. Electric motors make maximum torque at zero rpm. As rpm increases, their torque drops substantially. Since these are mounted in each wheel, there's no cvt to keep the motors spinning in their optimum range. Still, an electric motor can spin 10k+ rpm and will make good power even at such a high speed.

 

True - electric motor torque *does* drop off with RPM, but if you have an electric motor driving a wheel directly, the motor only has to turn about 1700 RPM for the car to go 120MPH.

So even though a motor can still make good torque at 10,000 RPM, in this application, it will never need to. The torque at 1700 RPM is still going to be close to the maximum torque of the electric motor.