Hey I found this article that show the MINI E will cost less than a MINI Cooper per month. What do you guys think? Do his numbers sound right?

Link to Original Article here:

I also copy and pasted the article here:

Sources have indicated that a lease on the MINI E will cost around $850 a month. This made us here at TheCD wonder if this is a lot of money for a vehicle that doesn't use gasoline? So we set up a simple calculation comparing the MINI E to a MINI Cooper, and a nicely equipped MINI Cooper S.
Background

We chose a base MINI Cooper for people who want to look at the MINI E purely from an economical stance. So we added no major bells or whistles. The MINI Cooper S was also chosen for people who saw the MINI E for its overall packing. We added Lightning Blue Body paint and the "Aero Kit" to mimic the MINI E’s special paint job and it optimized aerodynamics. To match the special leather seating surfaces we added Lounge Carbon Black leather, which has special piping and stitching around the seat. We also added the Cold Weather, Sport, Convenience and Premium packages in an attempt to mimic some of features we saw in the images provided by MINI from a few weeks ago. Since the MINI E doesn't have navigation, we opted out of adding navigation to either vehicle in this comparison. The calculations within this editorial are based on MINI’s typical lease terms of 10,000 miles a year. We also assumed that all vehicles would have the same $2,500 down payment and thus we didn't include the number in this comparison.

So is the MINI E Expensive?

The answer is 'Yes' and 'No', but mostly 'No'. If we look at the lease number alone then the obvious answer is, 'yes' the MINI E is more expensive than it's MINI counterparts. The base configuration will run you about $209 a month and our well equipped version will run you about $424 a month meaning that the MINI E is at least 2 to 4 four times as costly as the other MINI products.

But then there's that 'No' part. If we throw in the $7,500 rebate that was included as a part of the $700 billion financial bailout, approved last month, then that means the MINI E actually will cost driver $225 a month to operate. This is still more than our base equipped MINI cooper at $209 a month, but then we didn't include the price to fuel this vehicle. Using New York State electricity costs, provided by the Department of Energy, we calculate the MINI E will cost approximately $31 a month to operate in comparison to the MINI Cooper's and MINI Cooper S's cost of $68 and $75 a month, respectively. Add all this up and you will find that the nicely equipped MINI E costs about $21 a month ($252 a year) less than base MINI Cooper.

The MINI E will not be for everybody since it’s 150 mile range will limit you to one way trips less than 75 miles. People with relatively short trips or who live in metropolitan areas will find this vehicle more than adequate since it will have decent acceleration and storage space. We at The College Driver, however, do not recommend this vehicle for most college students as most out of state students will not be able to take the vehicle home, and since the vehicle will not have enough space for you to carry most of the stuff you’ve accumulated in your dorm room in one or two trips. The rebate will make this vehicle more attractive to younger buyers but remember it is a rebate, meaning that you will have to fork over the $850 dollars a month until your tax rebate check comes in; which for this vehicle means sometime in early 2010.

The Calculation

Below we have included all the numbers we used for this calculation. At the end of this table you will notice an “Effective Monthly Cost”. This number essentially includes the average monthly cost associated with having this vehicle; this number consists of the lease, fuel cost and any tax rebates. Since energy cost vary from state to state we also included costs for California, New Jersey, and New York; the three states where the MINI E will be available.

 

Well, come now, it's a 1-year lease on a car you won't be able to get on the list for, and in their "calculations" the government is footing nearly 75% of the payments for that 1 year with their rebate.

Total non-story; the author probably had a writing quota to fill.

 

Well i don't see how it is a non-story. This is the first electric car that doesn't look weird, and this guy dug up some facts that seemingly make it more affordable

 

This part has me a little baffled from the posted article:
Where did that come from? I thought it was originally designed to help bailout only the U.S. automakers.

 

There is one cost that may have been unintentionally omitted in the authors writeup. The possibility of having to pay to upgrade the wiring in a residence to be able to charge the vehicle.
According to the press released spec's for the Mini E. It will take 23.6 hours to charge the vehicle using a 12 amp/120vac source. Not too practical for the long run.Charge time for a 240/32 amps will be 4.4 hours, and a charge time of 2.9 hours at 240/48 amps.
Depending on the current wiring that exists in most residential installations, an upgrade in the wiring may be required to charge at a voltage higher than 120. Residences with laundry hookups in the garage may have a 240vac/30 amp source available. However, with a spec of 32/48 amps, the breaker, wiring ,and receptacle will be undersized and need to be modified, not even taking into account if these are circuit requirements, or if these are the actual charging amps, for a given duration, which may mean that a 50 amp+ circuit will need to be installed to meet the charging requirements.

After all that is said and done, I still think the concept is great. A 150 mile range would satisfy most of my requirement, and the above were just some thoughts that occured to me as I was reading.

 

The $700 million bailout was a part of the wall street bailout not the yet to be approved Auto industry bailout.

the link to it was at the bottom of the original story.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27462414/

 

Right that much I already knew regarding the Wall Street bailout.And thanks for posting the link that clears it up now.