Mini E News

2012 London Olympics to Go Green with BMW Electric Cars

Eric Loveday — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:41:54 +0000

The electric BMW ActiveE will be used as a VIP vehicle at the 2012 London Olympics.

German automaker BMW has revealed that at least 200 of the VIP vehicles headed to London for the 2012 Olympic games will be of the electric-only variety. According to BMW, the key focus is to make London's Olympic Games the "greenest ever" and a couple hundred zero-emissions vehicles will help the city meet its goal.

Though the majority of the fleet will consist of, ahem, so-called "clean diesels," the high-profile vehicles of the 2012 Olympic Games will be the 200 BMW ActiveE and Mini E electric cars.

The Mini E will appear in London for the Olympic games this summer.

New Research Says Electric Car Driving Range is Mostly Psychological

Brad Berman — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:08:04 +0000

The emobility research team at the Chemnitz University of Technology. The "Cognitive and Engineering Psychology" group is headed by Prof. Dr. Josef F. Krems.

How far does an electric car go on a charge? The answer is determined more by perception than the vehicle’s battery capacity, according to a new study by a team of German researchers. In a paper to be published next month, “Experiencing Range in an Electric Vehicle: Understanding Psychological Barriers,” the team of psychologists from Chemnitz University of Technology reports on a six-month field study with 40 drivers of the MINI E all-electric car.

“As far as I know this paper is one of the first that aims at a systematic understanding of the psychology of range experience, including stress-related personality traits, coping skills, and the ability to deal with ambiguous range,” said Thomas Franke, the paper’s lead author.

Should Electric Cars Give You the Creep?

Tom Moloughney — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:07:30 +0000

The all-electric Mini E doesn't have "idle creep." Should it?

As electric vehicles begin to make their way into showrooms, there will invariably be comparisons to internal combustion engine vehicles. After all, that’s what we have been driving for around 100 years, and that is what we’re used to.

Take the Brief Survey!

Here's your chance to say if you think electric cars should be the same or different from gas-powered cars. Takes less than five minutes.

I was recently discussing with a friend whether or not EVs should have the automatic transmission “idle creep” like internal combustion engine (ICE ) vehicles do. He wasn’t an experienced EV driver and when he drove my MINI E, he was startled by the fact that it rolls forwards or backwards if you are on a decline/incline—even if the car is in Drive mode. He didn’t like it.

Dispelling the Myth of the 100-Mile Electric Car

Brad Berman — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:33:56 +0000

A day behind the wheel of the Mini E, powered by a 35 kilowatt-hour battery pack, revealed what it takes to make a real 100-mile electric car.

I understand why automakers producing electric cars want to claim 100 miles of driving range on a single charge. Because 100 miles sounds better than 99 miles or 90 miles or any number with two digits. But that doesn’t make it true.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my LEAF and believe that it can—given the right conditions on a good day—deliver more than 100 miles of range. I also believe that the 85 or 90 miles that it usually provides is perfectly fine for nearly all my driving needs. But earlier this week, Tom Moloughney—a name familiar to readers of this site—let me borrow his all-electric Mini E for a day, and that got me thinking about the 100-mile driving range claim that so easily gets tossed out from automakers.

April 20: Live Webcast about BMW Electric Car Plans

Brad Berman — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:53:08 +0000

Tom and his Mini-E.

Richard Steinberg, BMW’s manager of electric vehicle strategy, and our own Tom Moloughney will be webcasting live from the BMW booth tomorrow at the New York International Auto Show from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. EDT.

To access the webcast, go to the BMW USA Facebook page and click on the conversations tab. The video will streaming there. You can ask questions about the ActiveE or anything related to BMW's electric car plans and programs including the MINI-E. The same Facebook page is open now, in case you want to post a question before the webcast.

As part of our coverage of plug-ins at the show, Tom will survey the show floor for EV action, and report it on PluginCars.com. If you have specific questions that you want him to ask the carmakers, please submit them as comments below. Stay tuned for Tom’s observations and photos from the show.

Mini E Going Strong After 1,000 Recharges

Tom Moloughney — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:36:53 +0000

I've plugged in my Mini E a thousand times, literally.

One of the cool things about being in the Mini E trial lease program is that I can basically do what I want with the car. When the program ends this fall, I just hand back the keys and I’m not liable for anything. That’s allowed me to do things with the car that I wouldn’t necessarily do if I owned it, like: frequent deep discharges; driving it when the battery temperature was extremely high; racking up 54,000 miles in 22 months; and charging it constantly.

All of these actions will most certainly bring on early degradation, something I would not want to do to a car I paid for. However this is a test car, and we have BMW’s blessings to drive it and charge it as hard as we want without worrying about the consequences. In this way, we all learn about the limits of this electric car.

1 Million EVs by 2015 Too Modest and Building Credibility

Chelsea Sexton — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:10:46 +0000

One million electric cars by 2015? Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts, on the set of Revenge of the Electric Car: “I think that when we...look back, we’re going to wonder why we were ever so modest.”

Note from Brad Berman, PluginCars.com Editor: Here we are, about one month after the arrival of mainstream electric cars from Nissan and General Motors, and the volume of exciting electric car news is only accelerating. Some of the headlines are very encouraging, but other stories getting just as much play are not much more than EV buzz for buzz sake.

So, I asked Chelsea to help us sort out the wheat from the chaff by pointing out a handful of stories that deserve some attention. Take it away, Chelsea...

Electric Car Owner Challenges Washington Post EV Critic to Reality Test

Tom Moloughney — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:42:26 +0000

The Washington Post's Charles Lane wrote an article on Friday called “Cold truths about electric cars' cold-weather shortcomings.” I feel compelled to write a rebuttal article for PluginCars.com, based on real life experience, not quotes from obscure websites and “what if” conjecture.

I’ve been driving a MINI-E in Northern New Jersey for the past 20 months now. Last year's winter was much harsher than usual and this winter has been one for the record books. In January, the Tri-State area set all-time records for snowfall and temperatures have been averaging in the 20s for most of the month, even dipping below zero a few times. I’m only a few hundred miles short of 50,000 now, which means my little electric car has been averaging 2,500 miles per month, rain or shine, hot or cold. After reading Mr. Lane's article, I’m starting to wonder how that could be.

British Tesla Owner Schools BBC in the Art of Electric Road Tripping

Zach McDonald — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:04:31 +0000

A BBC report in which a correspondent drove a battery-electric Mini E from London to Edinburgh, has managed to raise the ire of British plug-in car fans—and a surprise challenge from one proud Tesla owner. Reporter Brian Milligan set out to make the 484-mile, four-day journey using only publicly available charging infrastructure, making eight stops and spending about 46 hours of his total trip sleeping and waiting for the Mini E to refill its battery.

Upon reaching Edinburgh, Milligan calculated the average speed for his trip to be about 6 mph—having complained along the way about range anxiety and the cold temperatures he was forced to endure during stretches where he decided to keep the heater off for fear of running out of juice. “Despite the hype of the battery revolution, it is still not easy to drive an electric car any further than the supermarket and back,” the reporter concluded.

Mini E Receives Jersey Questioning

Zaher Karp — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:51:14 +0000

BMW's Mini E has just completed a pilot in nine New Jersey towns, and received a series of mixed reviews from municipal officials. A mayor referred to the $50,000 sticker price as being "too much money too pay for what we were using the vehicle for."

According to North Jersey.com, almost all officials who were interviewed responded positively about the Mini E, saying that it performed well, but were nonetheless deterred by the cost.

In the pilot, the cars were primarily used for parking enforcement, which the car was "perfectly suited for." However, in Haledon, N.J., officers would not take the Mini E out in extreme weather, and mayor Domenick Stampone suggested that BMW make an all-wheel drive version.