When BMW unveiled the first MINI electric-powered vehicle at the L.A. Automobile Bear witness, many people became excited about the possibility of driving the 150 mile range vehicle on the U.South. roads. Unfortunately for everyone, BMW's plans were following a different path, ane that would include a modest grouping of people that will act as some of the commencement MINI Eastward testers.

In the U.S., BMW offered 450 MINI Due east vehicles to only the residents of New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles. The full number of requests exceeded 1,800, despite the $850 monthly lease payment.

The start customer to receive the MINI East was Peter Trap, a Los Angeles resident, who is documenting his ane year MINI Due east charter on a personal blog. These early customers are helping BMW get together all the feedback and information needed, so a more accurate real-life usage can be recorded.

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Initial responses include a broad variety of input including:

  • Optimization of the energy consumption through brake regeneration
  • Managing the trip to the amount of range bachelor
  • Feedback on connected development regarding on-board efficiencies

More than information in the press release below

ELECTRIC-POWERED MINI East TRIAL PROVIDES Practical, REAL-WORLD FEEDBACK FROM HUNDREDS OF DRIVERS

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – Baronial 13, 2009. Two months into its pioneering field trials of electrical-powered automobiles, MINI United states is gathering valuable, real-world data from 450 drivers of MINI E electric-powered vehicles.

These vehicles are now in daily use in metropolitan New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles, where they are beingness driven by private customers, municipalities, universities, public utilities, non-profit and commercial organizations.

Since the field trials began in June, these experiences take been fed back to MINI Usa, with users describing what information technology is like to live with, and to drive a vehicle that has a purely electric drivetrain. Initial responses include a wide variety of input including:
o Optimization of the energy consumption through brake regeneration
o Managing the trip to the amount of range available
o Feedback on continued development regarding on-lath efficiencies

A research partnership betwixt the BMW Group and the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) has been established to further focus on real-world experiences with the MINI E, and is expected to provide valuable insights into existent-life usage and perceptions about electrical vehicles during the trial flow. The study is gathering data from 50 voluntary participants, a subset of the 450 MINI E customers in the Usa, through online travel diaries, written questionnaires and a series of interviews conducted throughout the one-twelvemonth study.

Several MINI E pioneers have started blogging nigh their experiences on the web, reporting on detailed aspects of their mean solar day-to-day experiences of their plug-in MINI.

"The feedback and data provided by these early users is valuable considering it comes from real-world, everyday employ and not some laboratory experiment," said Jim McDowell, Vice President, MINI The states. "Whether information technology's coming from the UC Davis research, consumer blog sites or from straight feedback to our company, this trial is giving us an of import insight into the practicalities of using an electric powered vehicle in this state."

Residential charging stations have been installed in the garages of MINI East drivers. In that location are two high voltage charging systems – the 220 volt 32 amp organization allows a total charge in three to five hours, while a 48 amp system allows a full charge in two to 3 hours. Every MINI East comes with a 110 volt cable that allows MINI East drivers to likewise charge the car at locations abroad from abode charging points.

MINI customers take always had a unique sense of camaraderie and this project has taken it to the adjacent level. I group of customers has created a web site to share their charging stations with other MINI E pioneers for "charging on the become": http://www.waterway4.com/mini-e/.

The 100-mile range on a unmarried charge that is beingness reported in the trials is an accurate reflection of the typical range of the MINI Eastward on a full charge driven in the variable conditions of the real world. Although one contributor to a dedicated MINI Due east Facebook grouping has reported that he has achieved 141.2 miles on a single charge. The driving range of an electric vehicle depends on the driving style and environmental conditions, much more than so than a conventional vehicle and is an important real-world consideration for future attention and product evolution.

In preparation for the field trials, the BMW Group was involved in discussions with the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPA) to help determine an official range for the MINI E and obtain EPA certification as well as the appropriate Electrical Vehicle Energy Consumption labels. The visitor besides worked closely with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to obtain Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) certification.

This pioneering experiment has presented several challenges. As part of the installation procedure for MINI Due east residential charging systems, the project was complicated by the flexibility needed to encounter a range of local community lawmaking compliance bug. In that location were some initial delays in supplying the 220 volt cables for the fast-charging wall boxes and in obtaining Underwriters Laboratory (UL) approving for the charging boxes from local edifice inspectors in some cities. These challenges are now resolved.

The MINI E is the beginning chapter of BMW Group's Project i, the visitor'due south long-term delivery to research and develop a new type of vehicle specifically to meet the needs of the globe's fastest growing mega-cities, where the majority of vehicle growth will come in the next 20 years.

Just last week BMW Group announced that information technology has opted for SB LiMotive as the supplier of battery cells for the start megacity vehicle.

[Source: BMW ]