“Pioneers” Meet Up for End the of USA MINI E Trial

This Green Car Reports story about a particularly enthusiastic group of MINI drivers who recently got together found its way to the MF inbox recently. The group gathered at Nauna’s Bella Casa Restaurant in Montclair, NJ to celebrate the end of the MINI E trials before the time came to hand in their electric MINIs. Tom Moloughney, owner of Nauna’s Bella Casa and MINI E alum, hosted the event after clocking more than 65,000 miles in a MINI E of his own. The sentiment among attendees was a bittersweet mix of sadness in having to hand back George Jetson’s MINI, and excitement that even better electric cars are in the works from BMW.

MINI E pioneers – the name that BMW have given to the few hundred of us who leased MINI Es – are both sad and happy. It’s sad to see the end of the program that delivered us one of the most fun-to-drive cars we’ve ever used, but we’re happy that its replacement will be here soon.

That replacement is BMW’s upcoming ActiveE , the all-electric BMW 1-series. With key learnings from the MINI E program, the ActiveE will be an even more refined electric vehicle from BMW Group. The only question for the MINI E Pioneers at this point is, where do they sign up?

Head on over to Green Car Reports for the full story.