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UNDER THE RADAR, 700 BMW ELECTRONAUTS BETA TEST THE BMW ACTIVE-E

4K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  Edju 
#1 · (Edited)
Under the radar of politics, big oil, the swarms of antiEv Zombies that polute cyberspace, some 700 strong self proclaimed Electronauts have been quietly beta testing the BMW ActiveE at cities around the country.

This PEV is for real, and is coming to market soon.

These are their stories/ with video.

http://www.bmwblog.com/2012/06/29/b...nicling-the-lives-of-electric-vehicle-owners/


Best-

Thomas j. Thias

Sundance Chevrolet
 
#2 ·
Hi Thomas,

I remember when BMW was recruiting Electronauts. It will be interesting to see the Active E man up to the Leaf and the Model S.
It will also be interesting to see how BMW chooses to deal with the America's poison "politics, big oil, the swarms of antiEv Zombies"...
 
#3 ·
We actually spotted one of these last Sunday. Sunday is Malibu's Farmers Market day which they hold in the Civic Center parking lot which has three free EV parking spots. The BMW Active E was parked there when we arrived and we parked next to it. When we returned after shopping it was still there and a Tesla had parked in the third spot (but not plugged in). There was a full compliment of EV's on display!
 
#4 ·
I test drove an ActiveE and it is very nice. Acceleration is similar to the Volt. The regen is powerful, seems even stronger than the Volt in L. Of course the i3 that will result from the ActiveE program will be very different.
 
#5 ·
I sat in an ActiveE and have seen a couple on the road. A couple is not a lot given how many Leafs, Volts, and Model Ss that are around. I don't have an impression of how the car drives but the interior was very nice.

It will be interesting to see how much interest there is in the i3. It's an interesting car -- something of an EREV but the range extender is limited. I like the size, especially for urban driving. It should perform something like the Volt, which is a good thing. I'm just not sure about the price. If it's $10K more than the Volt when equipped with range extender I'm not sure how many of them BMW will be able to move.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I dropped out of the MINI E program in 2009 after 2+ months and 2,000 miles. MINI USA took a huge risk releasing the Clipper Creek EVSE without UL approval.

I was the 3rd EVSE install in Irvine to fail inspection, MINI USA was fully aware of the UL issue, but pushed ahead to get CARB ZEV credit which was given to MINI USA at 12x credit (i.e. 100 cars delivered, 1,200 credits awarded). How did I get all the info? Enid Joffe at Clean Fuel Connection Inc, company hired by MINI USA to manage the project forwarded me an email chain with all of the internal correspondence. Oops.

This program probably suffered more participants dropping out early than any other "lease for research" program, and MINI USA started giving the cars away at $10 per month to municipalities, law enforcements, utilities and random not-for-profit businesses. The regular participants were paying $850 per month.

FYI, MINI E was essentially a kit car, with almost all of the electric drive and battery system developed by AC Propulsion in San Dimas, CA.

Based on the problems BMW Active E have been having, it looks like all the "field trial research" effort MINI E was what many participants suspected - BMW/MINI's play to buy time with CARB and earn ZEV credits while they fiddled around with Active E.

And don't believe the 700 numbers. Many Active E are in fleet services and car sharing services, not to mention early cancellations due to dismal range.

FYI, Tom M who is synonymous with Active E is pretty much a paid BMW shill. MINI and BMW have been flying him around all over the world, received free EVSEs, numerous press junkets etc. Don't believe his hype of BMW if you watch his video.

One last note - there are Active E lurkers on this board who post crap on their facebook Active E page whenever they see anything negative posted about their little EV. I suspect there will be comments about my post very soon on that group.
 
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