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Is this the ultimate City Car? The perfect, clean, fun-to-drive alternative for the urban motorist tired of big, cumbersome, gas-guzzling SUVs?
Visitors at the North American International Auto Show will now see the electric car at the Mini exhibit in Cobo Hall. But in fact, shoppers on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, were the first to see the car on the road.
As our contributing editor, Joe Szczesny, notes in another article on TheDetroitBureau.com, hundreds of Mini Es will soon hit the road, with the automaker concentrating on fleet tests in New York, Los Angeles and Berlin.
A total of 10,000 people have so far signed up on a special BMW site hoping to be one of these special test drivers, but I had the chance to drive the downsized electric vehicle during a trip from The Netherlands to L.A. There’s no question driving the Mini E is a different experience. As soon as you push the start button the electric motor shows that it is alive. Not by a single sound, but you can see it in the instrument panel on the charge indicator that has replaced the rev counter.
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The Mini, powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, surges forward as soon as you push the throttle. The little grey car with its silver roof takes off as being stung by a bee. With 204 hp and 162 lb.ft of torque, it sprints from 0- 60mph in 8.5 seconds, which is faster than a conventionally-powered Mini Cooper.
That is because practically all torque is instantly available and as the electric motor provides its power through a single-speed transmission, the acceleration is constant.
But you feel the front wheels struggling for grip and the traction control working really hard. A certain amount of torque steer is noticeable, but it’s something you easily get used to.
Of course, you could not do 95 mph in L.A., but Mini engineers promise the car has the ability. Inside you hear the tires, but hardly any other noise. Braking is effortless and when you put press the pedal the Mini regenerates energy for recharging the battery pack. The pack consists of 5,088 lithium-ion (or LIon) cells, grouped in 48 modules, packaged in three units. Together with a cooler, the battery adds nearly 400 lbs. to the weight of the standard Mini.
It is not about weight alone. The size of the battery is also a factor. It is placed where your normally find the rear seats. So this City Car suddenly becomes a cozy two-seater.
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You – and anyone walking or driving nearby – will notice this is the Mini electric, thanks to a big, reversed ‘E’ and big Mini letters on the side, all in electric yellow. The E looks like a plug and on the front fenders you might notice the number of the limited edition.
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In Los Angeles, BMW announced that Mini E will not go into production, but an evolution of the plug-in electric power train may be built into the future small car, that BMW has put on its agenda. This completely new mega city car, however, will have more than two seats and will be especially developed for the use of batteries. It is scheduled for 2015 and by that time, there will probably also an infrastructure with charging points.