Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Apr 2004
- Posts
- 11,888
- Location
- UK
BMW made 500 electric mini's exclusively for California. I caught a glimpse whilst they were in their last stages of production and I never thought we would get a chance to see them as they were being shipped abroad to have some additional parts installed.
At work my manager sent me an email asking me to meet him outside his office today to test out a new toy. I was confused, so I met him there. He invited a few other colleagues and told us more about the market and a few other company specific issues.
Upon first sight, It's exactly the same as a Cooper S with a few subtle external mods like the number of the vehicle on the side, style of lights, badges etc
The sun just started to set so the lights were on, it had quite a presence over the 60-70 cars in the car park (variety of coopers, 1, 3, 5 series and a few X's).
My colleagues started off doing a lap each, what I can say? It was ridiculously quiet! The only thing you can hear from the outside is just the body rolling, it was like a floating car! One guy jumped in he started to give it some, seeing the car from a distance go from 5mph - 30mph without any noise was actually quite strange.
After waiting with anticipation, it was my turn! Wooo
I sat in one lap with my colleague, then he got out and I jumped into the drivers seat. The interior was like again a cooper S, the lights were a tad bit brighter imo, the dash was similar, however the main rev counter was replaced with a battery meter which had a trip computer on there and other bits of info. However, the difference was, there was no clutch as it's an automatic, and there was a strange knob which looked like a nuclear launch button near the gearbox, as it was dark I couldn't really see much else. There was the sound of a fan/compressor I was told, which sounds like heater on high which was the only noticable sound.
Having never drove an automatic or electric car before, I was a bit baffled so I had double checked everything to save any embarrasing moments as there was a 335i parked next to it. I procedeed to move the position of the transmition into D and I gave it some light throttle not knowing what to expect, the car didn't move
I then proceeded to give it a little more throttle and my surroundings started to move. It was weird, a slight whurring noise started whispering (those of you who own electric RC cars know of the sound), after a while I pressed the throttle some more, there was a steady but rapid response. I let go of the gas and I hit the brakes and it was extremely sharp, I was like "woah!", car almost halted! After another straight, I then realised the motor rapidly slows down like brakes. The handling was as expected, after taking a sharp 90 deg turn, it was extremely responsive. On the longest straight I put my foot to the floor for a few seconds and the power of delivery was just an experience! You could hear your surroundings woosh by, like it was a live orchestra!
It was a great, short experience. It felt so strange being in such a quiet car, not quite sure how to explain. It's like you're inside a electric go kart.
It can do approx 150 miles on a full charge which is powered by a 150kW motor, full recharge is approx 2 and a half hours. Full charge draws 28kw/h. Top speed is limited to 95mph and 0-62 is 8.5 secs.
I don't know as much as most of you motoring bods. I can however, try my best to answer any questions if you have any. As you guys can appreciate, there's only so much I'm allowed to talk about.
At work my manager sent me an email asking me to meet him outside his office today to test out a new toy. I was confused, so I met him there. He invited a few other colleagues and told us more about the market and a few other company specific issues.
Upon first sight, It's exactly the same as a Cooper S with a few subtle external mods like the number of the vehicle on the side, style of lights, badges etc
The sun just started to set so the lights were on, it had quite a presence over the 60-70 cars in the car park (variety of coopers, 1, 3, 5 series and a few X's).
My colleagues started off doing a lap each, what I can say? It was ridiculously quiet! The only thing you can hear from the outside is just the body rolling, it was like a floating car! One guy jumped in he started to give it some, seeing the car from a distance go from 5mph - 30mph without any noise was actually quite strange.
After waiting with anticipation, it was my turn! Wooo
I sat in one lap with my colleague, then he got out and I jumped into the drivers seat. The interior was like again a cooper S, the lights were a tad bit brighter imo, the dash was similar, however the main rev counter was replaced with a battery meter which had a trip computer on there and other bits of info. However, the difference was, there was no clutch as it's an automatic, and there was a strange knob which looked like a nuclear launch button near the gearbox, as it was dark I couldn't really see much else. There was the sound of a fan/compressor I was told, which sounds like heater on high which was the only noticable sound.
Having never drove an automatic or electric car before, I was a bit baffled so I had double checked everything to save any embarrasing moments as there was a 335i parked next to it. I procedeed to move the position of the transmition into D and I gave it some light throttle not knowing what to expect, the car didn't move
I then proceeded to give it a little more throttle and my surroundings started to move. It was weird, a slight whurring noise started whispering (those of you who own electric RC cars know of the sound), after a while I pressed the throttle some more, there was a steady but rapid response. I let go of the gas and I hit the brakes and it was extremely sharp, I was like "woah!", car almost halted! After another straight, I then realised the motor rapidly slows down like brakes. The handling was as expected, after taking a sharp 90 deg turn, it was extremely responsive. On the longest straight I put my foot to the floor for a few seconds and the power of delivery was just an experience! You could hear your surroundings woosh by, like it was a live orchestra!
It was a great, short experience. It felt so strange being in such a quiet car, not quite sure how to explain. It's like you're inside a electric go kart.
It can do approx 150 miles on a full charge which is powered by a 150kW motor, full recharge is approx 2 and a half hours. Full charge draws 28kw/h. Top speed is limited to 95mph and 0-62 is 8.5 secs.
I don't know as much as most of you motoring bods. I can however, try my best to answer any questions if you have any. As you guys can appreciate, there's only so much I'm allowed to talk about.
