500 electric Minis to go on sale in California

It's not quite official yet, but Automotive News is reporting that BMW is planning on offering some 500 all-electric Minis for sale in California. The main assembly of the silver hatchbacks with yellow roofs (apart from the drivetrain) will be completed in Oxford, England, with the batteries and motor installed in Munich. After arriving in the US, just 490 lucky Golden Staters will be able to pick one up -- the other 10 will be show cars. Since BMW hasn't formally announced the plan yet, there's no word on pricing or availability, but something tells us there's not going to be any shortage of buyers when these things hit the streets.

[Via Autoblog Green]

[Hiphop0pot @ Jul 9th 2008 9:07PM]

you know what kind of person buys a first generation of anything electric?.. especially something electric that can malfunction in an intersection. Madonna. Count on it

[chris @ Jul 9th 2008 9:58PM]

granted this is the first electric mini, but there have been many other electric cars preceding the coopers.

[Dylan @ Jul 9th 2008 11:11PM]

No doubt this will be something the stars will buy to further their image and I agree with you in a sense, I rarely buy the first generation of anything, electric or not, just so that the company can get the kinks out of whatever it is, but its no reason to discredit this car. As the guy above me said, theres many electric cars. on top of that BMW wouldn't subject one of their most profitable cars to criticism without good reason so I have faith in this one...as long as its of a reasonable price. In my opinion, and i do understand how much this technology costs, an electric variant on a model should cost within a few thousand of the original, otherwise there's no motivation for people to buy it, if it will take 10 years for the car to pay off what it would use in gas over the extra cost.

[GatgetMan @ Jul 9th 2008 11:16PM]

Engadget, you've done some pretty cool picture editing over the years, but this time, oh this time...


With that license plate, I think you've really outdone yourself....

[jason @ Jul 10th 2008 12:06AM]

wtf... malfunction in an intersection? it is not a wind up toy.

[Craig @ Jul 10th 2008 3:05PM]

Riiight...because mechanical things NEVER malfunction in dangerous ways.

[Sly Fox @ Jul 9th 2008 9:11PM]

I honestly don't have a problem buying an electric car, except for the fact that they don't have any good looking ones available, and I mean all electric cars too. But other than that I would have no problem buying one.

[Andrew @ Jul 9th 2008 9:26PM]

What about the Tesla Roadster? That's a pretty good looking electric car.

[Mam00th @ Jul 9th 2008 9:36PM]

What?!? Me?!?

[mcatrage @ Jul 9th 2008 9:47PM]

I think minis look good.

[Vagrant @ Jul 9th 2008 9:29PM]

I work from home (wherever I can find Internet) and hardly drive. An electric car would be great for city driving for me. I usually take a train, or rent a car for longer trips.

The thing is, I don't drive that much anyways, so the cost of the new electric vehicle is working against keeping my current one and getting gas once a month.

[Flashpoint @ Jul 9th 2008 9:33PM]

forget the style of the electric cars...

These damn things are TINY.

give me an electric earth-friendly car thats the size of a Lincoln MKS or a Ford Expedition.

[jodosh @ Jul 9th 2008 9:43PM]

I love my mini. I rarely feel the need for more space.

[scott @ Jul 9th 2008 10:10PM]

i love mini coopers. but i also love hummer-sized vehicles.

give me either in electric and i'd be happy.

[happy_penguin @ Jul 9th 2008 10:35PM]

Not everyone wants or can afford to drive large vehicles but I'm totally behind freedom of choice. Personally, I prefer mid sized sedans and my current car is capable of 32 MPG with a 215HP engine. Plenty of power when I need it and pretty damn good gas mileage. But the most important thing for me is that it's paid for. Cars are money pits no matter what. I am not interested in dumping a year of salary on a vehicle.

[Quix @ Jul 10th 2008 12:10AM]

Apparently Flashpoint has certain, ahem, *shortcomings* he must compensate for with large vehicles.

Me - I love my Cooper.

[happy_penguin @ Jul 10th 2008 2:13AM]

The Cooper is a lovely car, Quix. I think it's beautifully designed and I admire it a lot even though it's too small for my taste. If I am ever forced to drive such a small car I hope it has half of the character the Cooper has.

[doomster @ Jul 10th 2008 5:24PM]

About 10 years ago a blacked out army hummer 'hummed' passed me on an American base (or fort). After asking a bit the rumours were that it had been purchased off the US army by the SAS (UK special forces) and they'd ripped out the engine and put separate electric motors on each of the four wheels (not actually on them obviously, but a different motor driving each wheel)

No idea how close to the truth the rumours were but it was pretty cool anyway.

[BigD145 @ Jul 9th 2008 9:35PM]

Show cars? It's a Mini. Everyone knows what a Mini looks like. It's had an entire movie to advertise it. Just sell the other 10.

[jason @ Jul 10th 2008 12:08AM]

is the movie you are talking about mini-me's sex tape?

[BigD145 @ Jul 10th 2008 2:45PM]

Where the heck did that come from and how is a sex tape a movie?

[scott @ Jul 11th 2008 9:17PM]

italian job ftw!

[pete @ Jul 9th 2008 9:54PM]

"Andrew
What about the Tesla Roadster? That's a pretty good looking electric car."

5 words:
One
Hundred
Thousand
Dollars
Plus

It damn well better be good looking for that price.

[happy_penguin @ Jul 10th 2008 2:35AM]

You got that right. People need real world affordable electrics. But don't discount the value of Tesla. Development of the technology often comes from the more esoteric. It's all important from Tesla to Volt to Prius to this Mini. We need them all.

[chris @ Jul 9th 2008 9:54PM]

are these actually being sold or leased, like the EV-1s a few years ago - only to be snatched away despite overwhelming interest and support.

that was a horrible ending to such a promising story. if you haven't seen it, i highly recommend watching "Who Killed the Electric Car?" it's a documentary about electric cars, their potential and their death. good stuff.

[chris @ Jul 9th 2008 10:02PM]

you can watch it free on here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7202740060236675590&hl=en

[ddub @ Jul 9th 2008 10:51PM]

On AutoBlog they said they're going to be leased. But Toyota didn't crush all their rav4's so maybe bmw won't.

[jake @ Jul 9th 2008 9:56PM]

There's a big difference between "sale" and lease"
The original source says "BMW sources told Automotive News Europe that 490 of the Minis will be leased to selected customers in California and 10 will be used as show cars."

If it's leasing then it's not much better than the Honda Clarity deal, but I guess it's better than nothing since unlike in the 90s they are doing this voluntarily.

[Rogue_Genius @ Jul 9th 2008 11:35PM]

(+ 1) Jake, I was just cruising the comments to see if anyone had written the correction. The cars will be leased, not sold. Autoweek is saying the same thing. They could be sold upon end of life following the lease, but they are starting with "borrow" before "keep it"

[Jon @ Jul 9th 2008 10:06PM]

I love it, a green car assembled in munich, shipped to the uk, tweaked a bit then shipped to the furthest part of the states from the UK. VERY green...

[Mel @ Jul 10th 2008 1:15AM]

I'm starting to get really annoyed by this argument. Just because something gets shipped around a bit it's instantly not "green". Do you realize how much shipping and moving around is involved in even smaller things that aren't even meant to offset pollution? Quite a bit. This is actually a step in the right direction, and after a while it easily makes up for carbon emission resulting from its manufacture. This is how you build infrastructure. If you're going to complain, don't buy anything imported at all.

[Sabba @ Aug 8th 2008 3:17AM]

well i guess i have to ship all my clothes back to china o_O

[Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Jul 9th 2008 10:08PM]

California Rules!

[obiwan @ Jul 9th 2008 10:24PM]

"Honey? Let's get one of those electric minis".
"Sure baby, it'll be just the think to stick under the wheel of our hummer to keep it from rolling down into the bay".

[wesg @ Jul 9th 2008 10:31PM]

I want one.

[Sukhminder @ Jul 10th 2008 1:13AM]

Same here. After gas hit $1.50/L (Canadian), I wanted something efficient (Prius, TDI, etc), but I also wanted a MINI... Too bad they're not shipping these up north.

[Eric @ Jul 9th 2008 10:42PM]

I have a classic mini, i'm sure with less weight i'll get better range, cant wait to go electric once the mainstream kits are out.

[Al @ Jul 9th 2008 11:15PM]

they are out? or at least that what the electric car people who came to my uni during earth day said.

[OziD @ Jul 9th 2008 11:38PM]

Sell me your car so I can put a Honda motor in it.

[Artie Lange @ Jul 9th 2008 11:11PM]

I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse: suck it.

[diode3diode @ Jul 9th 2008 11:33PM]

Going electric with automobiles means higher rates for our electric bills. Which may, in the future, would cost us money next time we plug in our laptops to public outlets, like the library. This is not good.

What we should have is a better mode of public transportation. Having GPS on busses or trains, or accessing the web, waiting on bus stops would not be a hassle. Just my 2 cents.

Diode.

[Rei @ Jul 10th 2008 12:20AM]

For those who can afford it, don't need it. For those who really needs it, can't afford it.

[collegekid13 @ Jul 10th 2008 1:36AM]

eww. i don't know whats worse the mini or the electric mini

[haX0r @ Jul 10th 2008 2:11AM]

As Rick James used to sing "Give it to me Babe!"

[christapher @ Jul 10th 2008 2:14AM]

DIBS!

[paul @ Jul 10th 2008 2:38AM]

Ugh. Why are they starting this in California? In case they haven't noticed, we're a state that regularly has rolling blackouts every summer. We have enough energy problems without 500 douchebags draining even more electricity.

[Joni @ Jul 10th 2008 3:51AM]

After the gas hit 9,5$/gallon(beat that) in my country, I decided that my next car will be an electric one. Why don't they ship the EV minis here?

Yes, I live in Europe.

[EMoShunz @ Jul 10th 2008 8:23AM]

maybe i'm blind, but can someone please tell me the milage and top speed. also battery tech and charge times would be nice.

[kingu @ Jul 10th 2008 7:25PM]

Is this going to be a copy of the hub-motor project mini?

[Todd Stiers @ Jul 22nd 2008 12:55PM]

Well, its about time. Sign me up!
-Todd in Cali!