Only in California....


"BMW plans to release a limited run of 500 all-electric Minis next year in order to meet new Californian regulations that require carmakers selling cars in the state to offer zero emission vehicles. These latest spy shots show a prototype of the upcoming electric vehicle only a few weeks out from its Los Angeles Auto Show debut.

The Mini factory located in Oxford, England, supply cars without powertrains to a team located in Munich, Germany, which then adds the electric powertrain. BMW is yet to release any details about the powertrain, but previous reports speculated that it could feature lithium-ion batteries powering a single electric motor driving the front wheels.

BMW is expected to ship all 500 electric Minis to California, with 490 to be leased to selected customers and the remaining ten used as demonstration vehicles. All will be painted silver but are easily distinguished by their missing exhaust pipes and electric motor whine.

If you find the idea of an all-electric Mini appealing but don’t live in California, a company in Nevada can build you one complete with a 105hp (78kW) brushless AC motor and lithium-ion batteries. Nevada’s Hybrid Technologies has in fact been producing the electric Minis for the past year and claims that charging up the car’s batteries takes about 8-10 hours from a regular household power outlet. Top speed is only around 80mph but driving at a slower speed preserves battery-life and means owners will be able to travel up to 120 miles on a single charge."

The idea is okay but what good is only being able to travel 120 miles? Anotherwards, the car is good for local use only.

I'm not against that but the cost to produce and dispose of electric batteries costs much more than the gas/pollution a gas mini uses.

Mark

 

Granted, you wouldn't want to drive it cross-country, but I bet there are a lot of households that could use an all-electric car for a dedicated commuter/around-town car and a "regular" car for longer trips.

And the battery packs already in use in hybrids are proving to be *very* long-lasting, and the technology is only going to get better. There are a lot of 8-year old Priuses still running around on their original packs. Plus, automotive battery recycling is one of the best/most-efficient recycling programs in the country. I promise you that these automotive packs aren't going to be ending up in landfills.

If you can go 80-100k miles before the batteries need to be replaced, that's a *lot* of gas not being burned.

 

COOOOOOL.
dang ive seriosuly been waiting for an electric to come out.
BMW had to make one. i mean they just had to, thanks to the 2003 movie The Italian Job.

120 miles aint so bad.
good for city travel.
at least you wont be paying $3-4 bucks on a gallon of gas!

 

Now I can keep my MINI when the world gas supply runs out - some scientists beleive.

 

Now that will shrink our carbon footprint! [/sarcasm]

 

tahts a scary thought.
if gas runs out in this world, is it possible for MINI enthusiasts to swap the engine out with an electric mod?

like keep the body, but make the insides all electric.
is that possible?

cuz if it is then MINI's might as well be called
"the greatest car on earth"

 

Why are Californians stupid? Isn't it MINI that has decided to make them available in California? I love the idea of a plug in MINI. But I would like to have a gas generator that would be able to charge the electric motor for longer trips, similar to the Chevy Volt. I am very interested in seeing how the Volt an other cars perform. I love my current MINI but would like a car with zero emissions. My goal is to hang on to my 05 until there is a larger supply of plug in cars to choose from. I use my MINI mainly for a daily driver, averaging 30 miles a day so a plug in would be perfect.

 

Scott,

Have you ever seen the dusk to dusk report on how much it costs to manufacture, drive and dispose of cars? It was a report and the bottom line was they broke it down per mile over the life of any particular vehicle.

The destruction to the environment to produce the batteries (I saw a pic of a 5 mile radius where it was BARREN... COMPLETELY BLACK.. nada, nothing) and then manufacture them and dispose of them made the Hummer H2 cost like 2.42 per mile.

The Prius was like 3.85 per mile. The Prius isn't as environmentally friendly as everyone thinks.



You are correct, Mini did make the electric Mini. However, it was to keep up with California's desire to be the tree hugging capital of the world.

And since the elected officials that make the rules are voted in by Californians, I guess that would make most of them stupid.

Great state, stupid rules.... California is always the problem child for the rest of the country because of their rules.

A few examples.

Ever notice that every high performance part always says "not legal for use in CA"., why not, it's California.

You know we almost never got the JCW Stage I kit for the automatics??? Because it wouldn't pass CA emissions and unless it passed there, they weren't going to release it to the rest of the country.

I own two bodyshops and it's just a matter of time before we will have to convert over to waterborne paints. CA passed that law a long time ago.

California.... the land of the tree huggers.

Mark

 

Now Electric will triple......

 

Some scientists believed man would never fly.
Some scientists believed the new atom-smasher would cause a black hole and suck the earth within.
And ...
some scientists believe the earth is only 6,600 years old!
Find me an idea or a cause you want to promote and I can find you a scientist to support it.
I can guaranty that the world will run out of petroleum, but your MINI's great-great-great-great grand children's children won't even have to worry about it.
We have been running out of petrleum now for about 127 years.

 

Hey, if the rednecks in NASCRAP land don't like electric cars, fine. Don't buy one.

 

Maybe MINI should tie in with Tesla, and between the two (Tesla's well-developed high speed/acceleration and distance-between-charges combined with MINI's handling and fully developed platform) we could have a truly sporty electric car. Just a thought.

 

Sounds logical.

 

does the "120mi on a single charge " factor in that in LA traffic it can take 1.5 hours to go 15mi? lol

 

These 500 electric MINIs will only be offered as a 2 year leased. After which they will be returned to BMW and not resold. How BMW disposes of them, is up to them - but the environmental impact would not hit the consumer.

I think the original OP doesn't understand CA's high gasoline and smog woes. Also, more and more communities have electric refilling stations for electric cars... going 120 miles isn't bad at all, especially if the main use is for commuting.

Some perspective on your attack on CA standards - CA has the largest population than any other state, almost 4x the population in North Carolina. The impact on the environment is greater in CA. If all the variables were the same in all states, I am sure all the standards would be the same too. However that's not realistic. You can't prescribe the same treatment to cure every disease.

California.... nice place and yes, you can hug trees if you so choose to but you can do that anywhere.

 

Excellent point Lex. CA has the eighth largest economy in the WORLD. Think about that. It is possibly the only state in the Union (maybe Texas too) that could secede and be it's own country.

 

If the price of the L-Mini (the Nevada based one) goes down to around $30k in the next 4 years, I might actually buy one. My daily commute is around 90 miles, so it fits perfectly for my needs of a commuter car. And hopefully still handles like a proper MINI. For long trips, well, we can always rent something, probably larger anyways.

As far as environmental impact, lithium ion batteries are really pretty green. Take a look at this article on lithium mining:

http://greenlight.greentechmedia.com...al-plants-450/

And lithium in batteries can be recycled 100%. Nickel based batteries are not as friendly, but tbh, no worse than your chrome finished toaster. Btw, nickel is what is used to give the silver color, chrome is actually the transparent layer that gives the "chrome finish" that deep glossy look. Nickel is also used in coins and whatnot. A prius battery uses far less of that material than all your other doodads combined, and has far better chance of getting recycled than the toaster.

Just my $.02

 

so a BMW based vehicle, converted to electric by a Nevada based company to be sold in California = Stupid Californians?

I think you're stupid orangecrush

 

There is alot, of high-milage decade (2000) old Honda Insights still running around, as well. I hope they sell those electric MINIs after the lease and not end up like the GMs on "Who Killed the Electric Car" movie.

 

California is different, most people commute to work, and most parking garages have special sections for electric vehicles to charge up at and most do not drive more than 120 miles one way to work, so that range is good. Almost everyone has at least a two car garage at home. Also, with electric car you can drive in the passenger occupant vehicle lane (carpool lane), park for free at meter parking and park for free at airports, and get a huge tax break. I totally agree electric car is not for everyone, but its defiantly not for every state. I don't think they are good for Philly, PA for example and definitely NOT ideal for "certain demographics"-places like North Carolina, Tennessee or Florida either. I don't think BMW/MINI would put them in those markets, anyways, so you don't have to worry about electric MINIs in your backyard. But if I was back in SoCal I would get on that waiting list for an electric MINI.

 

This whole thing (clean, efficient, sustainable, practical energy for cars) is going to be a rather long discussion/evolution...I welcome any step in the right direction.

 

1) The grid could sustain 73% of the light vehicle fleet as electrics with no increase in capacity if people charged thier car at night. SoCal Edison points out that the cost per KW of electricity will actually drop if people charge thier car at night, because the utilization of capital equipment in power generation will increase. Right now, the power generation capacity is based on peak demand at the very worst (highest) load component. On average, 2/3rds of electric power generation capacity is idle. Sitting there depreciating. Doing NOTHING.

2) If you generated electricity with oil, swapping the light vehicle fleet to electric would cut light vehicle derived oil consumption by 50%.

3) The current cost of oil totally ignors the cost of protection of shipping lanes and the like. To compare production "dust to dusk" costs of electric cars without taking out the "dusk to dusk" cost of production of the IC fleet and the extnal costs that we all pay as subsidies is straw-man arguemetns at thier worst.

4) Electricity can be produced from non-imported energy sources, so there is a very large national security component that your position ignores. There is also our economic exposure to extra-national interests that this ignores as well.

5) There is a 96% recycle rate for lead acid batteries, due to regulation. It's easy to make the rate of Ni based batteries just as high. Probably higher as it's easy to swap your lead based battery at home and not recycle it properly, and it's not easy to change out a Ni-MH battery pack in your driveway.

6) Ni-MH battery recycling can pay for itself by selling of the re-claimed Ni.

7) Li-ion batteries have only trace hazerdous materials content, and can be disposed of in landfills. Further, there is tons of research going into eliminating the trace amount of cobalt used in the anode of the Li-ion battery. When that is done, thare are no toxics in thier construction at all. Li-Ion batteries are put into the normal battery recycling stream not because they are hazerdous, but because it's thought to be too confusing to the public to sort batteries by type.

Really, there is lots and lots happening in this arena, so facts are changing quickly. Sticking to one negative assesment that is an incomplete (at best) description of the technology introduction impact won't serve you well.

Matt

 

This reminds me of the MINI Cooper that Sams Club had in the 2007 Christmas catalog.



I wonder if they'll have it in this years catalog as well.

 

My biggest gripe about electric or plug in hybrids is what do all the people who live in condos and apartments do? No place to plug them in. And most work places/parking garages do not have places to plug in your car. So a huge segment of the California population is left out in the cold for these kinds of cars.

 

For now maybe...that will have to change.