Electric Mini snubs its home for a US launch

Electric Mini is a two-seater

Whether decked out in red, white and blue or British racing green, nothing quite says British motoring efficiency better than the Mini.

But now German owner BMW has a new colour in mind for its iconic run-around: not racing green but environmental green. The car maker has also decided the best place to unveil an all-electric version of its most compact car, the Mini E, is the United States.

Although the Mini E will be mostly manufactured in Oxford, with its electrical innards installed in Munich, BMW will launch the car at the Los Angeles Auto Show on 19 November this year. Following the unveiling, a fleet of around 500 vehicles will be made available to selected corporate and private customers in New York, New Jersey and California.

The cars will be provided under a one-year lease with an extension option, according to BMW. At the end of the lease, the battery-powered Minis will be returned to the factory for testing to help refine the technology.

BMW is still considering when and where a European launch might occur.

"At this stage the cars are all destined for the US for this testing and leasing programme, but given the cars are produced this side there will undoubtedly be a programme of introduction in the UK," said a BMW spokesman. " We need the backing of the UK government to progress with electric powered vehicles."

Fitting four adults in a Mini has always been a challenge, but with the Mini E, BMW has been forced to remove the back-seats altogether to make way for a bulky lithium-ion battery pack. The battery will have a maximum capacity of 35 kilowatt-hours and will transmit energy to the electric motor at around 380 volts DC. The rechargeable battery is made up of 5,088 small cells grouped into 48 modules, the company said. This technique, of using large numbers of small, readily available cells to power a vehicle, was pioneered by US electric car startup Tesla Motors.

Not all of the power stored in the battery is usable, and a full recharge of the Mini’s battery will draw about 28kWh of electricity from the grid. On average, one kilowatt-hour will provide 5.4 miles of motoring, according to BMW.

BMW claims the Mini E will be the first all electric car to be produced by any "premium" car maker. The German manufacturer has been investing in its EfficientDynamics programme for around two years to make its existing petrol and diesel powered vehicles more efficient.

Techologies such as brake-energy regeneration, automatically switching off the engine when stationary, and low-rolling-resistance tyres have helped to make existing vehicles more efficient, the company asserts. "These products have made about 50 percent of the product range very low carbon-emitting vehicles," said the spokesman. "We have stolen a bit of a march on the likes of Audi and Mercedes as well."