Back From The Bay Area Green Drive Expo

Picture of me and #250 on the Jumbotron at The Green Drive Expo

About two months ago I was asked by Brad Berman of PluginCars.com if I would like to sit on a panel of experienced electric car drivers to talk about living with an electric car and answer questions about the MINI-E and BMW's electric future. Brad was putting together the Bay Area Green Drive Expo and wanted one of the event programs to be three experienced EV owners for a Q & A session. I agreed to participate and the event was last Saturday, October 8th at the Craneway pavilion in Richmond, CA.

The event went really well. There were about 3,000 visitors and I got a chance to talk to some long time EV advocates like Chelsea Sexton (Who Killed The Electric Car) and Marc Geller, one of the founders of Plug In America. The two other panelists with me were Darell Dicky and Earl Cox. Darell has a RAV 4 EV and Earl has a Tesla Roadster. Both of them leased an EV-1 when they were available(Before GM took them all back and crushed them) and are fountains of information about electric cars. Darell, Earl and I are all frequent posters on Plugincars.com so I have communicated with them online, but had never met them before the event. It was nice to finally meet some of the people that I have been messaging online for a while now. Being on the East Coast I don't always get to meet many of the hard core EV advocates since many of them live in California where electric cars like the EV-1, the RAV 4 were available for a while. 

I really had a good time. I talked with so many people about the MINI-E, the BMW ActiveE and also the 2013 BMW Megacity vehicle. BMW was not present so I felt like the defacto representative. There were people there that were really interested in BMW's plans for electric mobility. I handed out printed cards that had ActiveE information on them and directed them to BMW's website and Project i Facebook page for information. There was a Nissan LEAF there, as well as two Tesla Roadsters, a Ford Focus EV, a Think City, a plug in Prius, a Mitsubishi iMiev, a Smart car, about a dozen professional conversions, electric motorcycles and electric assist bicycles. Chelsea Sexton was the keynote speaker, Toyota national manager of advanced technology Ed LaRocque gave a speech as did Gil Portalatin of Ford hybrid systems. There were test drives in the parking lot and all of the sponsors and speakers got together for a nice dinner after the event. 

It was really a great expo. Marc Geller even drove me back to my hotel from dinner in his RAV 4 EV. I had never driven in one before so that was a pretty cool experience. For me the best part was getting to personally meet all the people that I have only communicated with by email for the past few years. Thank you Brad for extending the offer to me to be a part of it all.

UPDATE: Someone posted a video of Marc, Darell, Earl and me on Youtube. This was recorded right after we were on stage for our Q & A session. Below is the link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8QsoUMxQbU&feature=player_embedded

BMW Chief Designer Adrian Van Hooydonk Talks About The New MINI-E Scooter Concept

Adrian Van Hooydonk is BMW's chief designer and is generally regarded as on of the best in the automotive industry. Adrian talked a few minuted to describe the new MINI-E scooter concept in the video posted below.

It is a line of electric scooters that were recently introduced at the Paris Auto Show. Adrian and his design team came up with three different designs, one of them shares the MINI-E color combination and subtly design characteristics.  Personally, I think they all look great and if they can deliver the 65 miles per charge that I have read and not be too expensive, then I think they would sell well, especially in urban areas. This further confirms BMW's commitment to electric mobility and that they are proactively thinking out of the box for ways to meet then needs of efficient, low emission personal transportation.

MINI-E #250 Shows off at Green Transportation Expo

 

 I was asked to bring the car to a Green Transportation Expo in Florham Park last week. Fortunately, I pass through Florham Park on my way to work so it wasn't much of an inconvenience at all and I agreed. It was held in the parking lot of Pershing, LLC and there were about 15 other cars there. My MINI-E was the only pure electric so it got lots of attention and I was answering questions about it the whole time I was there. Most everyone really liked it and a few even knew about it. 

I even spoke to one of the organizers and he had told me that they were looking into installing charging stations in their parking lot for their employees. As you can imagine I encouraged him to do so and even offered some ideas and told him I can help him get in contact with the companies that make the EVSE's if he needed help. It's really great to hear employers getting on board with the EV movement. Workplace charging will play a big role in the mass deployment of electric vehicles. My personal experience of living with an EV was definitely improved when I installed a charger at my workplace. 

I talked about BMW's future EV plans including the ActiveE and Megacity vehicle and there was a lot of interest in those cars also. The day went well, there were a few hundred attendees and I'm sure more than a few of them went home with a different outlook on electric cars after I talked to them for a while.

BMW Rendering of Megacity vehicle

In today's NY Times there is an article on BMW's future plans to develop electric cars.There have been a lot of speculation and artist renderings about what BMW's 2013 Megacity car will look like. Remember, the MINI-E is the first electric car produced by BMW's Project I, and was meant to gather information used to help ultimately develop the electric Megacity car. This is the first time a rendering has actually come from BMW and not just some magazine or artist, so it is sure to have some styling cues as to how the Megacity will basically look. It's obviously a concept rendering, but it does tell us what BMW is thinking.

BMW Mega City Gets the Green Light

It really comes as no surprise but it's still nice to hear it formally announced. The BMW Mega City line, a sub brand that will be a line up of electric cars is targeting 2013 as the launch for their first pure BEV. It will be a five seat, three door hatchback and may look very similar to the photo above.

This is great news for everyone following the MINI-E program and other electric cars. Many of us in the MINI-E trial lease have wondered "What are we really working on?" BMW had told us from the beginning that they do not have plans on refining and selling the MINI-E, and that this program was gathering information for a future electric car from BMW. Now we have some clarity and even a picture to look at.

The BMW ActiveE will bridge the gap from the MINI-E to the Mega City vehicle and will have most of the components that will be used in the Mega City. We have been told that those of us in the MINI-E program that sign up for a second year(like I have) will have first priority to get an ActiveE next June. There will be roughly 700 ActiveE's positioned around the world for real world testing.

2010 NY Auto Show Interview

A few weeks back I was contacted by Nathalie Bauters from MINI. She said she was contacted by a German Journalist, Thomas Geiger and that he wanted to know if she would be able to set up an interview with me at the NY Auto Show. He had read about me and how many miles I've driven the MINI-E so far and read this blog so he wanted to interview me about my experiences with the car. Nathalie arraigned for me to get a press pass to the show so I could go on press day which was two days before the show was open to the public.

It was great because I was able to walk around the show floor while it was empty, just photographers and journalists there. I could sit in cars and take pictures unobstructed by the hordes of people that are there once the show is open to the public. 

Finally I sat down with Thomas and another German journalist, Stefan Grundhoff and answered questions for about a half hour. They then took some pictures of me in the MINI-E on display at the show(see above) and I was free to continue to walk around and check out the show floor. Over at the BMW "lounge area" they were serving refreshments and had a small buffet line so I figured I'd partake in the festivities and joined in. I met Gert Hildebrand there, he is a member of the MINI design team. We talked for a while about the MINI-E program, the new MINI crossover, the Countryman as well as the future MINI coupe. Gert was also really interested in my opinions and asked if I think the new MINI coupe would sell if it were offered as an all electric model.


During the interview Thomas asked me if I would mind if he mentioned this blog in his article and I told it was fine. He then went on to say that he was a very popular journalist in Germany and that I could expect to have a lot of visits to the blog once his article is live. He was definitely right about that! The article was posted online three days ago and this blog has had over 3,000 new visitors in the past three days, most of which are from Germany and other European Countries. Just for a reference, I usually have about 60 to 80 visitors a day so his article was responsible for a remarkable boost in traffic. I have also received about a dozen emails from readers in Germany that have asked questions and offered support for the MINI-E and electric cars in general. You can see the article here, but you'll need to read German to understand it.

I get a visit from the MINI-E engineering team

I came to work on Sunday and left for a while, leaving #250 parked right by the front door of the restaurant. When I returned, one of my waitresses said there was a table of guys that were looking at my MINI-E parked outside and when they were seated they asked to speak to the owner. So I walked over and proudly told them "I own the MINI-E and yes it's 100% electric, not a hybrid" I said this because it's very common for a customer to ask about the car, and they almost always assume it's some kind of plug in hybrid.

Well, I was unaware of who I was speaking to. In fact, I might as well have been explaining how to make bolognese sauce to Emeril. The gentleman second to the left in the photo above is Anton Lesnicar, chief engineer for the MINI-E and the other four are all members of the engineering team at BMW. So after they wiped their smirks off their faces and said "yeah, we kinda know what it is, we designed it" I then knew what I was dealing with.

They told me they wanted to meet the pioneer with the most experience driving the car(referring to the 27,000 miles I've logged in the car so far) as well as get some of the great pizza we serve. So they ordered some pizza and I sat down to talk EV with them. We touched on subjects from the cost to be in the program, to the lack of a thermal management system, to future BMW EV's namely the ActiveE and the Mega City. They also told me they are aware of, and visit this blog occasionally.

I had a great time picking their brains and I think they liked the feedback that they got from me. I gave Anton a copy of my trip logs that details every mile I've driven in the car so far which I'm sure he will go over thoroughly. I then asked them to stand in front of #250 charging up on the side of Nauna's and they gladly obliged.

Thanks for stopping by guys, I hope to see you again sometime!

"BMW E Mobility" video is posted on YouTube and #250 and I are the main characters

Back on March 7th I reported that BMW sent a film crew from Germany to film me and the car for three days. It is part of a long term project that will chronicle the shift from internal combustion engines to electric cars so this will  take years to complete but when it's finished, I'll be part of the documentary as one of the early adopters during the research phase of electric cars.

The film crew from TVT productions put together a quick 4 minute video clip to show the executives at BMW and they liked it do it was posted on You Tube. The video above is the four minute clip.

Filming the MINI-E

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Ulrika Ingold of TVT Media in Munich, Germany and was asked if I would participate video shoot for a documentary on the electric mobility and MINI-E. There was very little details about what they would need me to do and how long it would take, just that the film crew would be coming here from Germany the first week in March and needed to film me with the car at home, at work, in New York City and driving in between those points. They were given my contact info by BMW and as an early adopter they wanted my thoughts on the car, my lifestyle, energy and any savings I have enjoyed since getting the MINI-E. I agreed to participate without asking any questions mostly because I do believe in these cars and would like to offer my experiences and opinions for others to see.

On Wednesday morning I met up with Christine Burgmeier, Franz Stepan and Andreas Kickel at my restaurant, Nauna's Bella Casa in Montclair. They had spent the past two days shooting in New York without the car so they were anxious to start the interviews with me at home, work, and while driving the MINI-E.

It took about twenty hours in all between traveling and shooting on Thursday, Friday and Saturday which was much more than I expected. Christine, Franz and Andreas were such nice people I really wanted them to get all the different angles, environments and soundbites that they wanted, but honestly it turned out to be a lot more of an effort than I expected it to be.

Driving around a busy midtown Manhattan is difficult enough, but doing it while someone is driving next to you hanging out of a taxicab window trying to get in perfect position to film you driving is nerve-racking. We did it for about two hours when they either got enough footage or realized that I was beginning to get very anxious and wanted to finish the driving portion of the day.

I'm not supposed to get into much detail about what we discussed so I won't. I can say that they were very interested in my opinions on my energy usage, lifestyle changes and philosophy, maybe even more so than they were interested in specifics about the MINI-E car itself. The one problem I had was that they needed my answers to be brief and full of content. I found it hard to cut my answers down because I had a lot to say about each subject we discussed.

Christine, Franz and Andreas were all very gracious and professional so I hope I was able to give them all the video and sound bites that they were looking for.

Nissan LEAF Tour visits New Jersey

My wife and I stopped by the Liberty State Science Center in Jersey City this morning to see Nissan LEAF. Nissan has dubbed it the Nissan LEAF Tour and they are stopping at various cities around the country to show off the car. I thought the car looked better in person and definitely was designed with aerodynamics as a primary concern. We got there at 9:15 am and nobody was there yet so I could really talk to the representatives. I voiced my concerns about the lack of an active thermal management system which is what I believe is the MINI-E's biggest flaw. It's acceptable in the MINI-E though because we know it's a test mule and not a polished and refined vehicle that will be offered for sale. The reps stressed that the Lithium Ion batteries that will be in the Leaf are superior to the ones in our MINI-E's and have tested well and will work better in cold weather. She also told me that Nissan has discussed this at great length and is prepared to install a thermal system if they see that there are problems with the cars. Anyone that had already bought a LEAF would have the system installed at no cost to them if they decided that it was necessary.

I do like the car a lot, but I am also concerned with size of the battery pack. It's only 24kwh. If you compare it to the MINI-E's 35kwh pack it looks underwhelming. The Leaf is lighter (by about 600lbs) and more aerodynamic though so that should help to bridge the gap in energy storage. Plus, it's been designed from the ground up as an EV, so perhaps it will come close to the MINI-E's true 100 mile per charge range. Nissan is claiming a 100 mile range, but remember the MINI-E was rated as having a 156 mile range and that's about as real as Santa Clause.

As much as I like the LEAF and want to support Nissan for having the guts to be the first major auto manufacturer to actually sell an EV, I think I'll stick with BMW and see where they are going with Project I. We have been told that the MINI-E trial lease participants will be offered another year extension, but we haven't been told what we have to pay if we want to keep the cars for another year. We have also read that BMW will transition some of the MINI-E participants into ActiveE leases in June 2011 which is when our second year lease will be over. Again, no promises and no word on what it will cost us. Even then, it's just a one year lease and we can't keep the cars. Hopefully, this possible three year lease odyssey will end with an offer to buy an ActiveE or Megacity or whatever BMW is going to call the EV they eventually sell. Leasing is OK for now, but in the end I want to own an EV. I give Nissan a lot of credit for bringing the LEAF to the market for sale. After checking out the car in person, I think they are going to make a lot of people that want to own an EV very happy.

MINI-E Program Extended, Will Transition To The ActiveE!

While the trial lease participants haven't yet been notified, it appears as though BMW has announced what we all expected, they are going to extend the MINI-E leases beyond the one year we all agreed to. How many of the existing participants agree to continue will depend greatly on how much the monthly payment will be. We are currently on the hook for $850.00 per month which does include all maintenance and collision and comprehensive insurance. I think most of us agreed to be in this program because we wanted to be part of something that we believe in, not because we think the car is worth an $850 per month lease payment. I know that's way I got involved. I wanted to offer my help and support in the hope that I could help prove that there is a market and demand for electric vehicles. That many people are sick of polluting the air we breath and paying outrageous amounts of money for gasoline while we send billions of dollars for imported oil to radical regimes that are no friend to the US.

I would definitely like to continue and extend my lease for another year, provided the second year lease payments are much lower than $850. I do think BMW will be reasonable here since it is in their best interest to keep many of the same participants involved. We all have installed and inspected wall chargers and that was probably the biggest hurdle for BMW in getting this program off the ground. (Follow this link to read Richard Steinberg's MINI-E program overview.) To now remove all the chargers and install them in new locations just makes no sense at all as the cost would be about $2,500 per participant. Removing that cost alone should knock $200.00 off the monthly payment. I'm going to go out and say I expect the lease offer for the second year to be $450 to $500 per month. I think if the cost is in that range most of the participants will re-up and be happy about it.

Finally, the real carrot in continuing the lease is that BMW is planning on offering a similar lease program for the ActiveE and it's scheduled to begin mid 2011 which is when our lease extensions will end and they are planning on offering us the option to transition into an ActiveE. Now that's what we all have been waiting to hear. The only question I have is "Why another trail lease?" How much data and research do they need. Other auto manufacturers have already announced that they will sell EV's and extended range plug in hybrids in the near future. BMW needs to get out there and announce that they will be selling these cars soon, not only testing them. I believe we will hear a similar announcement soon because I do believe they are committed to selling an EV soon, and that they are just waiting for the right time to announce it. For now we'll have to live in the "research" stage. I'm up for it, the only question is: can I transfer my license plates to the ActiveE?

Another Fill-Up

Unfortunately, It's taking longer than hoped to get #250 back. I Haven't driven it in 11 days now and I had to fill up the Dodge Ram loaner truck again last night. Another $55 bites the dust. Hopefully the Mini-E "flying Doc's" (their description, not mine) can diagnoses the problem and make the necessary repairs. I'm sure the technicians that repair the MINI-E's are more engineer and less mechanic and have been involved in the MINI-E process from the beginning so they should know the car inside and out. I'm also sure that my problem is cold temperature related and this might be the first time they had to deal with problems caused by low temperature. I just hope that once I get the car back there aren't constant problems until the temperatures here get above 45 degrees or so. For all the great things about this car, the obvious weak link in its design is the battery temperature management, or lack thereof. I'm sure this was addressed in BMW's ActiveE. I'm really curious to see what they did and how much better it performs in the cold. This is a major hurdle for electric cars to overcome is the ever want to be sold outside of Southern California or Florida where it's warm all the time.

BMW introduces ActiveE Project i Vehicle

From the beginning we were told that BMW was never going to make a production version of the MINI-E and that the purpose of this trial lease program was to gather information for a future four seat BMW that had a been rumored to be called the Megacity. Many of us in the program wondered what did BMW have up their sleeve. Every now and then you would see an artists rendering of a guess of what the car might look like, but never anything from BMW. Well, we just got what we were waiting for and everyone that I have talked with likes what we see. Detailed information on the ActiveE can be found at this link. I noticed in one of the pictures that it has the same plug as our MINI-E's do which means the wall chargers and cables that the MINI-E trial lease participants have will charge the ActiveE. Hmmm, it would be real easy for BMW to let MINI-E trial lease participants do some real world testing of the ActiveE. Also, it would be a nice gesture to reward us for paying $850/month to help gather information for them. We all have installed, approved and working wall chargers (I have 2 of them) so that would allow BMW to quickly get these on the road without the hassle and cost of permitting and installing new wall chargers. Just in case I'm not making myself clear enough, I would GLADLY offer to do a trial run of an ActiveE would the offer come my way. I say that on the odd chance that some BWM execs might happen across this blog....

The results are in...

Two months ago a started a poll here that asked the question: "Would you buy an electric car if it were comparably priced to a gas powered car." The poll recently closed and 355 people voted; the results are as follows:

Yes, definitely: 329 votes (93%)
No, not interested: 0 votes (0%)
Only with a 150 mi range: 18 Votes (5%)
Only with a 200 mi range: 8 Votes (2%)

What does this prove? Well, probably not much but it was interesting to see how little people voted for the 150 or 200 mile option. I'm sure everyone that is considering an EV has range as one of their top concerns, but that didn't translate in the voting as much as I expected. Now I know that visitors of this site are already interested in EV's so it was an unfair place to conduct a poll like this. I didn't expect to get many "no, not interested" votes, but not even one in the 60 days the poll was up. During that time the blog had about 2,500 visitors as it is averaging about 40 visits per day.

The only thing I can take from this is that although range is a major concern, people just want to opportunity to buy an electric car. Everyone that has been an advocate for EV's knows there will be problems in the early years of deployment. Limited range, unavailability of convenient charging stations, power supply issues at their homes etc. Even with all these obstacles it is clear that people want to have the option of electric drive vehicles for sale. Especially if they have ever had the opportunity do drive one already, like the other Mini-E drivers and I have had. Many of us keep in touch via social network sites like Facebook and blogs like this, and we all share a common desire to own an EV once the trial lease is over and Mini takes the cars back.

The only question is who will we buy from? Tesla? I'd buy a Type S tomorrow if is was available at the estimated $50,000 price tag. Nissan? The Leaf isn't my ideal vehicle, but the price sounds like it will be under $30.000 and if it's my only option, I'll do it even if the batteries are leased as rumored. BMW? We hear Project i is secretly working on a 4 seat, 3dr hatchback but nothing more than that with no real release date other than maybe 2012. Chevy? The Volt is a very interesting vehicle with the gasoline powered generator for extended range driving. I still need more details about the car's fuel efficiency. Don't believe the 230mph crap that GM announced, they did that with smoke and mirrors. I'll be very happy if the car gets 75mph in extended range mode. Fisker also has an extended range plug in like the Volt called the Karma. The car looks awesome and is a full size 4dr sedan. It is expected to be priced around $87,000 and have a 300 mile range. Smart is even making an electric version of their current model the Fortwo. I've driven an ICE Smart, I think I'll pass. There are others, but details are sketchy at best as far as price and availability. I think the auto makes finally get that we want these cars so it's going to be interesting to watch the next couple years as they bring EV's to market. I'm going to own one of them for sure. After driving the Mini-E for a while now, I'm sold on electric.

Oh yeah, and thanks to everyone that voted in the poll!

The devil is in the infrastructure

If you talk to most people about EV's and ask them why they think there aren't really any available to purchase (Unless you have $110,000 for a 2 two seat Tesla) chances are you'll get answers like "Battery technology isn't there yet" or "Because big oil has spent tens of millions of dollars to keep them from being made available" or even "EV's require such little maintenance that auto manufacturers won't make them because they'll lose so much money on repairs". Over the past few years I have had a lot of conversations with friends and acquaintances on the very subject so I know what people think. Personally, I think all of those reasons have some degree of legitimacy, but having now been part of the Mini E program I realize that perhaps the biggest hurdle is the infrastructure. Mini is struggling with different state and local electric codes and getting chargers installed for all of the participants has been more difficult than they anticipated. The auto manufacturers know this is going to be a big issue and require a lot of time and resources. This is going to add to the already high cost of making EV's because of the high cost of the batteries. Last week I posted about how New Jersey in particular has been a tough state for Mini to get the chargers approved for use in. It's such a new industry that I think some of the inspectors are being overly cautious when they inspect the chargers. In reality, the chargers are really not much more than a 220V outlet like you already have in your home for an electric range of clothes dryer. All the electronics that control the charging are built into the car. This is just one aspect of the infrastructure challenges the auto manufacturers will face as they develop and manufacturer EV's

Last week, at the California Air Resources Board's 2009 ZEV Technology Symposium, Richard Steinberg the Mini-E program manager made a presentation that detailed the program. Richard spent a lot of time on infrastructure issues, and one of the most telling lines of the presentation was "BMW/MINI is in the car business; BEV's placed us in the infrastructure business" Talk about leaving your comfort zone! The presentation talks about how quickly the program moved along. BMW only started talking about making a Mini E in the Spring of 2008. They engineered, built and shipped 500 electric Mini E's in less than 12 months! Clearly making the cars is not the big problem, it's going to be charging them. I do give BMW a lot of credit now, more than I initially did. Nobody else has put an EV on the road for real world testing since GM's Ev1 and Toyota's RAV4 EV, and both of those projects ended quickly without the manufacturers committing to continue EV production. BMW has created the Project i program with the sole purpose of building and selling EV's. The Mini E is the beginning, not the end, as was the case with the EV1 and the RAV4.

The good news is that BMW isn't going it alone. Just about all the major auto manufacturers are working on EV's and while thy won't be sharing secrets about the cars they plan to produce, they are working together on Infrastructure Standardization. Public charging stations will need to be able to be used by all EV's and have 220V and 110V capabilities. Issues like should the chargers have an attached cable or should the cable be portable and carried in the car? Recently it was announced that SAE standard J1772 plug would be used as the industry standard, but it doesn't seem like all the auto manufacturers are on board with that decision and discussions are ongoing.

As with all new technologies, there is a learning curve and a tremendous amount of time and investment needed in the very beginning. I'm sure BMW didn't think this would be a walk in the park, and I don't think they started Project i only to terminate the program before they bring EV's to the market for sale. I do hope they see the amount of interest the Mini E program is generating and realize most us in the trial lease program understand it will be a difficult process to develop the necessary infrastructure to make BEV's a viable option for the masses. Just like the manufacturers will have hurdles, the people that buy the first round of EV's available for sale in the next few years will have difficulty finding palaces to charge. That being said, I think there are enough people willing to deal with the inconveniences that will exist to provide the demand for these vehicles that the manufacturers need to have to continue to invest in them. Just about everyone I meet and talk to about the car asks me when will they be able to buy an EV. I'm certain there is a tremendous market for EV's out there just waiting for some manufacturer to mass produce them and offer them for sale (no more closed end leases!). The infrastructure problems will be sorted out in time and BMW will have a head start from the information gathered from the Mini E program. I just hope it doesn't take too long. After my short while driving this car I know I don't want to go back to an ICE, and I won't if there is an electric option when my time with the Mini E is up. I'll deal with the lack of available chargers, just sell me the car.

Is this what we're working on?

From the onset we were told that Mini is not going to sell the Mini-E, and that the purpose of the program is to test the components of the vehicle to be used in a future electric BMW. Nothing has been officially announced, but there has been plenty of talk about what this vehicle might look like. Above is just an artists rendition of what the car might look like, and I for one hope the artist is way off. That thing is UGLY! I know the importance of aerodynamics especially for EV's, but the car still needs to look good for it to sell. I don't expect BMW to put out anything like that.

Nathalie Bauthers, a spokesperson for BMW says: "The Mini E will play a significant role in the derivation of forthcoming strategic and technological decisions." "In talking about their experience with the Mini E, customers will be helping Mini and the BMW Group determine the viability of electric vehicles in big cities." The Mini E is just one example of what the BMW Group is doing to develop future mobility concepts that are efficient and help reduce our impact on the environment and our dependence on foreign oil.," she says. "Mini E is the first product of BMW’s project i (i stands for international, intelligent and innovative) – a program designed to research and develop transportation strategies and new types of vehicles specifically to meet the needs of the world’s growing mega-cities."

Hopefully, we will get something from BMW soon to give us an idea of what this mystery car will look like. I will definitely consider buying one if it looks good and is functional(4 seats). So far, I have very little complaints about the drivetrain of my Mini-E and BMW shouldn't have to change too much to use it in their car. Who knows, maybe Mini will put out an all electric version of their new coupe they just announced this week. Either way, I'm looking forward to having the option of electric drive when I buy my next vehicle, hopefully BMW will make my decision an easy one.