The MINI E: 572-pound lithium ion battery 150 miles range per 8-hour charge Consumption 4.4 miles/kWh 204-hp & 162 lb-ft of torque 0-60 bit over 8 seconds Top speed limited to 95mph A bit over 3,200 pounds Regenerative braking More details: Lithium pack maximum capacity 35kWh. Nominal 380 Volts to motor. Contains 5,088 cells grouped into 48 modules. Edit Charge port looks similar to but definitely is not the same as the Tesla's. Seems like it's using commodity cells, just like Tesla is. No details on pricing. Update: Between 500 and 1000 examples will be made and leased out to selected customer in New York, LA, New Jersey and possibly London, cities where the necessary recharging infrastructure is already in place. AutoblogGreen Forgot the link to the article: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/17/revealed-electric-mini-e/ More details in this article, and some speculation on Tesla being involved: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/18/la-preview-officially-official-the-mini-e-does-it-use-a-tesl/
That would be uber-cool if it comes to London. I think the plug might be a CEE form. The torque to bhp ratio seems a bit low compared with other vehicles we have seen, though. It's also pretty heavy, it'll be interesting to see how that affects the normally great Mini handling.
Hey Oslo also has the recharge infrastructure.... can I have one please? Seriously I really like this, and in my eyes this is the first real contender to what I've heard about the Model S yet. I like that they say they will have the models out before the end of 2008, I don't like that they had to ditch the two backseats for the battery. I greatly prefeer 4 seats to 2 seats. Cobos
Looking at some of the pictures show around the interweb, why does a single gear Mini need a clutch pedal and a very dominating shifter? Anyone know enough about transmissions to give a clue? Cobos
You talking about this picture? First of all, the car at this point is probably a conversion, so who knows what the final product will be like. But the "pedal" on the far left looks like a dead pedal and not a clutch. As for as the shifter, they still need a way of switching from drive to reverse, and I've seen plenty of automatics that try to have very sporty looking gear selectors. Edited to add: Here's the interior of a 2007 Mini with automatic transmission: http://blogs.motortrend.com/6231320/auto-review/2007-mini-cooper-s-stylish-annoying-but-great-to-drive/index.html Here's a closeup of the automatic shifter on a 2005 Mini:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/hevtest/071608evchargingreq.pdf Tesla connector looks quite different from that 'Mini' plug. Tesla:
Mini-E pack: 5,088 Li-Ion cells (53x96) @ 1.8Ah each? 53 cells in parallel for a 'unit'. (1.8x53=95Ah?) 96 module groups (48 modules x 2) in series for the pack. (~360V?) [ "nominal"=380V ] ~34kWh (95x360?) for the battery pack. Compare to Roadster: 6,831 Li-Ion cells. (69x99) @ 2.2Ah each. 69 cells in parallel for a 'brick' (69x2.2=151.8Ah) 99 bricks (9x11?) in series for a module. (~350V [~300V empty, 400V full] ) [ "nominal"=375V ] ~53kWh (151.8x350) for the battery pack.
oh! Do we know if they use the 18650 form factor cells as well? It certainly seems similar to a Tesla-like way of thinking. I wonder who manufactured the battery for them?
Revealed: new electric Mini *-*Green Motoring | MSN Cars This is interesting Total speculation, but an ESS would be that kind of shape and size.
Southern California only :frown: 1 year lease. Sounds like EV-1... You must return it after the trial period... What if the design turns out to be sound, and people really want to buy it after a year? Perhaps BMW will get to see how customers responded to GM when GM went to get their leased EVs back from the fanatical leaseholders. Some who had leased earlier EVs lucked out because they got to buy out their lease for some token amount after convincing the manufacturers not to crush them. Lets see if anyone tries to fight to keep their Mini-E after their lease is done. By the way, the Mini-E would more closely compare to the ACP e-Box than the Roadster. _Mini-E_ / _e-Box_ (both front wheel drive small "econoboxes") 3230lbs. / 3050lbs. (vehicle weight) ~150mi. / ~180mi. (range) 572lbs. / 580lbs. (Li-Ion pack weight) 35kWh / 39kWh (Li-Ion pack capacity) 150kW / 120kW (eMotor power) 5088 / 5300 (number of Li-Ion cells) 8.5 / 7.0 (0-60 time in seconds) 95 / 90 (top speed in MPH)
I still find it strange that a 25% increase in maximum engine power means a 20% increase in 0-60 time? Is it low torque from the Mini engine, or is the Mini a lot heaver, and if that is the case why? Cobos
Overall vehicle weight probably has something to do with it. Also, the front-wheel drive vehicles are rather traction limited. BMW may have been a bit more conservative with their traction control. Given the cars specs, I would think it capable of quicker 0-60 if they really wanted to tell the firmware to allow it.
BMW unwraps electric Mini | Register Hardware Given that the ICE has been replaced by a motor and the battery weighs 260kg, why the 330kg increase? It seems a lot. Electric MINI on charge at last - Autoexpress 2.5 hours is more like it. :smile:
It might be the 260kg number we are seeing is the actual Li-ion battery weight, NOT including any of the support structure. And if they are using a Tesla setup or a similar setup to Tesla the weight cost of the support structure is significant. How much us the engine in a Mini anyway in weight? Could it be a heavy PEM module they are using? Cobos
I keep wondering why the grid figure is less than capacity? Doesn't it take more power from the grid to "fill" a pack? Does this mean that they encourage customers to "fill" it to less than full capacity? It will be interesting to find out who's technology is in the mini-E. Did BMW "roll their own"? UQM? ACP? Tesla? hmm.