Bee.One electric car to be tiny, cheap, and cute
By Laura June 
posted April 21st 2009 10:14AM
posted April 21st 2009 10:14AM
British start-up Bee has just dropped some details on its forthcoming uber-affordable electric car, the One. This five-door affair will have a top speed of around 80 miles per hour, with a maximum range of 200 miles before needing a recharge. The car will run on two battery packs stowed under the floor, and will be easily swappable in case charging stations start popping up all over the U.K. The One will also have a constant 3G connection for management and performance system software monitoring and updates. The most exciting detail about the car, however (besides its adorable attitude) is likely to be its pricepoint: £12,000 ($17,700) plus the recent government subsidy of £5000 ($7400) for electric car purchases will bring this puppy down to about £7,000 -- or just over $10,000. Sure -- it's not Tata-cheap... but this one's electric! The One is scheduled to go into production during 2011 with an initial run of about 12,000 vehicles. One more render of the car after the break.
i don't wanna drive a car designed in flash...
I'm with you on that one. Show a real car concept and then we'll talk.
Try silverlight.
@Pontro!
LOLOL!
I'd like to c some real pictures, rather than just art concepts
y?
A $10,000 electric car? Sign me up!
I wonder how much it would be in the US after the subsidy? I know the Tesla Model S drops $7 000. Is it $7 000 less for any electric car or is percent based?
I wonder how much it would be in the US after the subsidy? I know the
Tesla Model S drops $7 000. Is it $7 000 less for any electric car or
is it percent based?
@entropy
They said in the article:
"The most exciting detail about the car, however (besides its adorable attitude) is likely to be its pricepoint: £12,000 ($17,700) plus the recent government subsidy of £5000 ($7400) for electric car purchases will bring this puppy down to about £7,000 -- or just over $10,000
so at 10k the 7,000 has been taken off :) That's kind of handy, I didn't know there was anything like that for electric cars. I need to watch the news more...
Yeah but that is in the UK.
In the US I think it is $2,500 to $7,500. I think they calculate it as a percentage. I found this:
"The first 250,000 vehicles sold get the full tax credit (then it phases out like the hybrid vehicle tax credits).
Effective January 1, 2009."
ahh I see. Still, it's better than nothing
This looks nice but I'm not fond of their choice to forgo a traditional sound system (cd player/radio) in favor of an ipod dock. I was under the impression that ipod docks were supposed to be accessories not replacements. I could be jumping the gun on this one. Otherwise the specs on this are lovely.
as long as it can dock other players than the ipod i would bee cool with that. Ha puns are fun.
Sign me up! looks like a micro mini-van. When is it headed to the US.
micro-mini-
Why not just call it micro?
Releases in the United States, when?!?!?!?!?!?!
is just me or the first image is missing some rendering?
I just assumed they'd mixed up the CAD model for the manufacturers with the low-poly model for the promotional game, and then made the car like that anyway.
Alrighty then, let's get this thing US safety approved and we're looking at what, $50,000US? I'm in!!!!
is US stafety approval really harder to get then UK/ EU?
serious question btw
I think if pretty much anything makes it past the standards here in the UK it can pretty much pass any countries standards agency standards.
that would have been my thoughts
In the past the US had the toughest safety standards and because of the US Govt's "need" to actually crash test from multiple angles this drove the cost up to get US certification. Honestly I'm not up to speed on the current standards so my off-the-cuff response is based on previous knowledge. I do figure it will cost more to bring these to market in the states, but have nothing but pessimism to base that on.
I do hope this little Bee can come to market at an affordable price. If it does I will be putting my name on the list to get one...
you might find that strength of the falling pound and fact our stuff ALWAYS costs more. its never a simple convertion. The extra you expect to pay might get lost and end up at a stranight conversion from GBP to USD
The problem is often just plain differences between countries, not necessarily that EU or US is more stringent. The typical car sizes between EU / US are substantially different. A big US car won't even fit in a parking space in the UK and that by itself has a big impact on safety for a small car like this.
I have a very important question: Would owners of these be referred to as B-oners?
What's with the micro-suv? I need a car with two doors, two seats and a trunk big enough for a set of golf-clubs and my briefcase. That can get me 6 miles each way to and from work for dirt cheap. Give me a Miata with an electric motor for under $10k... I don't need 80 mph, I need at most 40 mph.
I recommend a Smart ForFour. Not quite to your price, but pretty close, fits all your criteria.
Well then, let's just force those yahoos to stop development on the Bee.One right now and get going on the MadMikeMobile.
Damn Straight! :-)
Give me a Tesla at a realistic pricepoint!
Bee One....BINGO!!
biddddy baaaaauuuum....
Bee One...
Who sunk my battleship
*simpson quotes are always in :D *
I gaurantee if they could deliver that car at that price point, there would be far more demand than they could keep up with. Hopefully they come through.....and I get in on the wait list early.
I think I'd prefer something a little more Rebel Alliance. This is a little to Empire for my taste.
I speculate that this car will never see the light of day. If it should be released overseas it will only make it here with a jacked up price. The two renders above are way different than each other, by the way.
bye-bye Volt... you're HISTORY!! R.I.P!!
Bee.One + Obama subsidy + me = :)
Bring 'em to the States!
This car has potential (no electrical pun positively implied)! They need to offer a good stereo and OUR (US govt) needs to subsidize say 5 years of building charging stations, plus rebates on electric cars to jump-start their use. At least building the charging or exchange stations would guarantee that the US still manufactures *something*. Dave S in Missouri, the "show me more than a rendering so I can test-drive it" state.
Subsidy = evil.
Subsidy means that I am paying for your choice of cars.
I'm not even remotely interested in paying *my* money for *your* car.
If the car is a viable product it will survive in the marketplace on it's own. If it fails on it's own, then it is not a viable product.
@ Freitag
Clearly you don't make use of: US grown food, hospital care, streets, airplanes, cotton clothes, power, and in some cases even the interweb.
"If the car is a viable product it will survive in the marketplace on it's own. If it fails on it's own, then it is not a viable product."
Oil Lobbyist: "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha."
Me: "Yeah, he's cute when he gets all text-booky, isn't he?"
Rick Wagoner: If Freitag was President, I'd still have a job. Plus, I like how he uses *asterisks* to *emphasize* his *points.*
Welcome to the era of Keynesian economics. Oh, btw, did you hear that Max Schmeling KO'd Joe Louis the other day? Major bummer.
It's very Ford in the design language, looks like someone has shrunk a galaxy.
It's too tall, not long enough, and the wheels are too small. Also, 80MPH top speed will never do on the highway. Not for speeding, but for top end efficiency. If the motors are working at peak while cruising on the highway at 70-75 (depending on the state) they won't be efficient and will be burning juice just to turn it into heat and shorten the life of the motor.
Also, did I mention it's too tall, not long enough and the wheels are too small? Where are my low slung, laid back seats and F1 looking cars? I don't want to feel like I'm driving a top heavy straight back chair on shopping cart wheels.
Might need some clarification, but many of these types of smaller vehicles are electronically limited to a certain speed. The Smart cars are electronically limited to 90 MPH I think? So, the engines would not burn out going 75 MPH. Electronically limited speed and technologically limited speed are 2 very different things.
Does it have to be so fugly?
wouldn't the constant 3G connection be a rather large drain on the battery and an ongoing cost?
And the $40k-something Volt is supposed to save GM, how? Not if these things are out and about for a quarter of the price.
New legislation speculation: US embargo on foreign EV's, because GM is just "Too big to fail."
Once again a dirt ugly electric car... The force is not with us :(
if american car manufacturers wouldnt be stupid, they can start produce such cars immediately - there is nothing special about such car. But US car manufacturers see electric car as a "premium brand" - what is stupidity non plus ultra, as their users are people who want to save money for gas, who are green-minded, who do not need to drive fast ... so exact oponent of users of premium brands. But i would not give money to such company - Chineese manufactuers produce today electric cars for about 3-5 000 $ - yes, they are crapy etc. but in two years when Bee.One will produce (if), the first One, they can easily got something better/cheaper. No, i will never buy anything from china (i hate them, because i spent my live under comunism regime), but 95 % will not care and will decrase the potential for such small brands.
What definition of "cute" are you using? Apparently none with which I am familiar.