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BMW will build 500 all-electric Minis
BMW is preparing a new "green" variant of its popular Mini

The fuel economy/eco-friendly push is in full effect these days in the auto industry. BMW is looking to boost its efforts in this field with a new variant of its popular Mini in the U.S. market.

According to Automotive News, BMW has plans to lease 490 all-electric Minis to California residents. Ten additional vehicles will be used on the auto show circuit to showcase BMW's prowess in zero-emissions vehicles.

According to sources close to the project, the Minis will be assembled in England, however, the engine, transmission, and fuel tank will not be installed into the chassis of each vehicle. Instead, each partially-assembled Mini will be shipped back to Germany where they will be equipped with electric motors and battery packs.

Other details of BMW's latest venture are rather scarce at the moment. BMW officials failed to confirm or deny the report and simply stated, "BMW will announce whether it will build electric vehicles or not later this year."

500 vehicles are definitely not enough to make a huge dent in BMW's efforts to produce more eco-friendly, but it's a start. BMW is making similar baby steps with its Hydrogen 7 luxury sedan. The Hydrogen 7, which is a heavily-modified 7-Series, features a 260 HP twelve-cylinder engine that can run on either on conventional premium gasoline or hydrogen at the push of a button.

BMW's niche efforts with an all-electric Mini and the Hydrogen 7 will join other efforts from General Motors with the Chevrolet Volt plug-in series-hybrid electric vehicle and Honda with the FCX hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

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why limit it?
By Screwballl on 7/9/2008 12:32:46 PM , Rating: 1
Why limit it to 500 cars? This is what we need worldwide, a lower cost but safe and good looking electric car that can be mass produced for under $20,000.
I assume by leasing, they can pull what GM did with its EV-1 when big oil says "these are getting too popular, it will cut into our profits".




RE: why limit it?
By FITCamaro on 7/9/2008 12:38:02 PM , Rating: 5
I doubt the cost of these cars is under $20,000.


RE: why limit it?
By daftrok on 7/9/2008 2:41:34 PM , Rating: 2
You never know. If the HP is around 70-100 and the range is around 200-250 miles then this would definitely be around 20-30k.


RE: why limit it?
By Doormat on 7/9/2008 2:58:39 PM , Rating: 2
No, even if you figure its 70% of the weight of a roadster with 70% of the performance, it would still need a 40kWh battery pack. $15,000.

If the Volt cant get below $40k with its 16kWh battery pack, this certainly cant.


RE: why limit it?
By FITCamaro on 7/9/2008 3:29:33 PM , Rating: 3
What does the horsepower of these cars matter? The high cost of either NiCad or Lithium-ion batteries will drive the cost of these things up quite a bit. Under $30,000? Perhaps but then its not going to go very far. Considering the only other all electric car out there is $100,000, that makes me believe these will be far more. The Tesla only goes 200 miles with all its lithium ion batteries. The weight is comparable. So even if BMW used the same number of batteries, its only going to go as far as the Tesla. Sure the mini isn't made of really expensive materials like the materials but thats not the bulk of the cost.


RE: why limit it?
By daftrok on 7/9/2008 4:45:36 PM , Rating: 2
But you also have to realize that the Tesla is a beast. It goes 0-60 in less than 4 seconds. The reason why I believe that this car will probably be around 30 grand is because less horsepower means less energy needed which in turn means less battery. Horsepower is a major factor in determining the cost of any vehicle, especially an electrically powered one.


RE: why limit it?
By FITCamaro on 7/9/2008 4:56:40 PM , Rating: 3
The Tesla gets to 60 quickly because its light and electric engines make all their torque at 0 rpm. Yes it probably has a larger electric engine than the Prius, but still.

Any full electric car is going to cost a lot if its going to have any kind of range. If its only got a 50-60 mile range then it might be under $30,000.

It doesn't really matter what it actually costs. They're only leasing them out. Then they're likely going to take them back and dispose of them.


RE: why limit it?
By FITCamaro on 7/9/2008 4:59:29 PM , Rating: 2
And its not like the Tesla can achieve that 200 mile range with you testing out that 4 second 0-60 time.


RE: why limit it?
By Spuke on 7/9/2008 5:55:01 PM , Rating: 3
I doubt seriously that BMW will price this less than a fully equipped JCW version. This is a showpiece and a gauge of market interest. It will be priced accordingly. It WILL not be under $30k. Like someone else said, the price of the batteries alone is $15k.


RE: why limit it?
By jRaskell on 7/9/2008 5:10:08 PM , Rating: 2
The Tesla is capable of 0-60 in 4 seconds, but it will not have a 200 mile range while doing so. It'll only have a 200 mile range when driven modestly (ie using a fraction of it's available HP).

A 160hp electric motor operating at 10% of it's power isn't noticably less efficient than an 80hp electric motor operating at 20% of it's power. Both will draw similar amounts of current to generate similar levels of output power.

In the end, battery capacity is the primary factor in vehicle range. How powerful the drive motor is only affects how much a person can reduce that potential range with a lead foot.


RE: why limit it?
By Drexial on 7/10/2008 3:12:32 PM , Rating: 2
The Tesla is also $100,000 cause it's a start up company. Tesla had to start from scratch and repay investors.

BMW I think has the funds to just go for it. I see it being between $30-40k


RE: why limit it?
By OxBow on 7/11/2008 9:39:33 AM , Rating: 2
The question is moot. They are leasing them, not selling them. As such, there is no retail price.
The lease price will be to just offset the cost of this marketing move. This is just advertising, nothing less.


RE: why limit it?
By pauldovi on 7/9/2008 12:59:43 PM , Rating: 2
Oil companies don't make a significant amount of money off of gasoline sales. All their profits come from other petrolium derivatives.


RE: why limit it?
By FITCamaro on 7/9/2008 1:08:41 PM , Rating: 4
They make quite a bit of money. They just make very low margins.


RE: why limit it?
By Clauzii on 7/9/2008 6:21:18 PM , Rating: 2
I recently read that the production cost per gallon was around ~50 cent. Do You have any CO2 taxes and the like on fuel in the US or does the rest go to the company?


RE: why limit it?
By Rugar on 7/9/2008 8:22:57 PM , Rating: 3
You would have to give your source for anyone to provide useful comments on it, but without having a chance to read it I think your source is full of crap.

Just off the top of my head:
1 barrel = 42 gallons of crude oil. Even accounting for the energetic density of oil over gasoline and improved techniques in cracking, the most optimistic estimates of gasoline production put it at 1:1 oil:gasoline. Assume (for convenience) that a barrel of oil is running $126, then 1 gallon of gasoline would cost $3 in oil cost alone. ($126 a barrel / 42 gallons of gasoline = $3/gallon)

Do companies which explore, drill, and produce their own oil pay less? Obviously, otherwise they wouldn't do it. But I still doubt that number is ~50 cents. That would suggest a cost for oil of $21/barrel along with free refining and transport. Seems pretty unlikely stated like that doesn't it?


RE: why limit it?
By Rugar on 7/9/2008 8:27:56 PM , Rating: 2
After posting, I realized that I didn't actually answer your question. Sorry about that. The federal government charges a tax of 18.4 cents/gallon. Each state also charges taxes. Here in Texas it is a flat 20 cents/gallon but other states use various combinations of flat rates and sales taxes. California for instance charges a flat 18 cents/gallon but then adds 6% state sales tax, 1.25% county tax, local sales taxes and 1.2 cents per gallon state UST fee.


RE: why limit it?
By Clauzii on 7/9/2008 9:03:35 PM , Rating: 2
Thanks for replying. I really just wanted to know, since DK have taxes like 4-500%! (CO2 tax, greenhouse emission tax etc. which got added some Years ago. I worked almost 4 years at a Texaco station in the '90s here in DK. The price to Texaco pr. LITER was (in todays $) ~40 cents, while the price at the pump was like $2.

This article talks about a 45 cents for the gas. I think it was last week I read that Saudi Arabians fill at production cost, also on MSNBC, but I can't find it right now..
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25589765/


RE: why limit it?
By Clauzii on 7/9/2008 9:06:20 PM , Rating: 2
Oh, and an explanation of why high taxes might be good to some point:

"Europe's High Gas Taxes

Europe is a relatively efficient energy user and will likely continue to be so in coming decades. The EIA expects European energy demand to rise only 0.5% a year, with oil consumption up only 0.1% annually. In per-capita terms, however, the trend is similar to that in the U.S.

High taxes have made Europe more energy-efficient and its economies less sensitive to oil price hikes. Not only is energy a smaller share of GDP than in the U.S., but because of the taxes, a change in the oil price has much less impact, in percentage terms, on gasoline prices and, consequently, on demand. Thanks to their North Sea reserves, Britain and the Netherlands meet most of their energy needs domestically, and France requires relatively few imports because of its large nuclear power industry. Other European cou