Mini E
 

I saw a MINI E today but I thought that the MINI E was only available on a lease and those leases are up. I also thought that once the leases were up they destroyed the cars :confused: Anybody have any idea why they are still driving around? Your ansewers will be very helpful and much appreciated :)

The MINI-E trial lease program began in late May/early June 2009 and started out as a one year lease. The participants were either in Southern California or New York/New Jersey. There were between 400 and 500 cars put into service.
I had one of them, #250 and I'm driving it in NJ.

In February of 2010 the participants were notified that we could extend the lease for another year if we would like. The cars that were returned were refurbished and sent to similar lease programs in Germany, the UK, Spain, France and now Japan. They are also going to be sent to China and possible Russia in the near future. None of the cars were destroyed, that is a myth.

I renewed my lease and now have 53,000 on it in 21 months. We have also been notified that they are going to extend the leases once again, until October when the BMW ActiveE, an all electric 1 series, is available. That way interested participants can go directly from the MINI-E to the ActiveE.
The returned MINI-E's will be refurbished and sent to new markets to introduce those markets to electric driving and for BMW to begin to work with the local power authorities on getting ready for EV's the those markets.

I blog about driving and electric MINI-E if your interested:http://minie250.blogspot.com/

It's really an awesome car

Thats a pretty nice blog you have there and thanks for all the info on the
MINI E :thumbsup:

Now that Nissan has launched the Leaf, I would like to see the trials for the Mini-E end, and see the car go into full production.

The MINI-E isn't going into production. It was the first part of the three phase process to develop an electric car for the BMW brand.

Phase 1: MINI-E: produce 600 electric MINI Coopers to learn some of the basic challenges that electric cars will encounter. They were deployed in seven countries so far and helped BMW get a better understanding on what range would be necessary, how the public would perceive these cars, what are some of the infrastructure challenges they will face, etc.

Phase 2: BMW ActiveE: The BMW ActiveE program begins in the fall of this year. BMW is making 1,100 all electric 1 Series cars and will lease them for two years in a program similar to the MINI-E program. The lease price is $2,250 down and $499/month. The difference in this program is that the ActiveE is testing the actual powertrain and electronics that will be in the 2013 BMW i3, the first EV that the BMW group will sell, and the final phase of this program started with the MINI-E

Phase 3: The 2013 BMW i3: BMW's first electric car. It will be a two door hatchback with four seats. and be two inches longer than a MINI Clubman and measure 157 inches. It will be made entirely of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and aluminum and weigh only about 2,200lbs. It will have a 150hp motor and a driving range similar to the MINI-E at approximately 100 miles.

There has been rumors that not too long after the i3 is available, MINI will also get an EV based on the MINI Rocketman concept. I hope it's correct because the electric drive platform works really well in a MINI, I've been driving my MINI-E for two years now and it's a fantastic little car.