The electric Minis are in production as we speak and have been for the previous 6 or 7 weeks. They are assembled as pretty much normal cars, then shipped out to Munich to have the electric motors fitted. Once completely in Munich, BMW plans to ship 490 to California.
The Electric MINI’s will be able to be spotted by their exclusive Interchange Yellow roofs and mirror caps.
The tests on the cars will be used over the next 12-18 months to refine the technology. Details about the drive concept and its marketing will be published towards the end of the year. It seems unlikely that the cars will be on-sale to the general public at this time and instead will be leased to hand-picked customers much like the current BMW Hydrogen 7 is.
Hopefully this means that MINI will make a full electric MINI generally available within a few years. I’m hoping 5-6 years. I would be ecstatic if it happened sooner. Conversions are currently prohibitively expensive. I figure with current parts prices it would cost me about $20,000 and between 200-400 hours of work for me to do my own conversion. (DIY conversion, not commercial) It can be done cheaper. But, you get what you pay for. A cheap conversion would not be very MINI-like.
anywhere we can find the specs on these things? motor power, battery tech, etc?
thanks.
Does any one now how these cars will be offered?
I purchases one of the first reissue Mini back in 2002, I was a I would love to be a guinea pig for one of these Electric Minis.
How about a spy pic so we can see the new color for the R57
I’m interested in one of these. I have solar PV panels which could be used to charge this car.
Gabe, any chance you’ll be given the opportunity for some seat time behind the wheel of one of these?
I think this is a good time to recommend viewing the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” available in DVD. A must see documentary detailing the happenings of one of the most successful production electric car efforts in recent memory: The GM EV-1.
The EV-1 was a hoot! And if you’re into doing conversions yourself, the best “kit” that I’ve come across is from AC Propulsion… That’s what was the basis for the EV-1 and the Tesla uses a decendant of it. It’s an AC motor version and has some serious balls, but runs about $25k, or did last time I looked.
Matt