BMW’s Electric Mini Rollout Yields ‘Painful’ Lessons

[SAmadei]

When Bayerische Motoren Werke AG introduced the Mini Cooper E this year in California and the New York area, first-time users of the electric car deluged the company with complaints about its deficiencies. Customers groused about uninformed dealers, connection problems, cold weather affecting recharging and a range limited to 100 miles. The back seat was taken up by the battery and recharging could take almost a day.

“We are getting a lot of feedback,” Richard Steinberg, manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy for Munich- based BMW, said yesterday at the Bloomberg LP Cars & Fuels conference in Los Angeles. “We’ve had a fair share of lessons learned.”

California’s anti-pollution regulations are among the strictest in the U.S. Some car bloggers and reviewers criticize BMW for selling an inadequate Mini E to meet state rules requiring automakers to sell a quota of electric or other alternative-fuel vehicles.

“A not-entirely-civil war of words has erupted on blogs and Facebook between BMW and those who’d volunteered to pay $850 a month for the privilege of leasing a Mini E,” wrote Dan Neil, the Los Angeles Times’ automobile critic.

Whole article is here.

[Robert Hall]

Sounds like the Mini E is still very much a prototype..

[Z-06]

To give credit to Mini, Mini had always proclaimed that the E leases were for "hands-on" testing from customers, so these reactions from customers should not be served as complaints but rather feedback/observations/results of their testing.

While I am not saying Volt will be glitch-free, judging by the hours logged by the testing and development team, Volt will have a lot of data in its favor before the product is handed down to end users.

[A Horse With No Name]

Agree that the volt should work much better than the E-MINI.

...and what have I been saying all along about the morons at BMW dilluting and killing the MINI brand equity by spreading it out around too many cars?

~off topic but...

VW will be the main player in the premium compact segment...which is fine. Will open up the market for Buick when they bring out their premium compact.

Chris

[CSpec]

Recharging takes an entire day? Brilliant. Why are we voluntarily ruining our lives like this?

[pow]

Recharging takes an entire day? Brilliant. Why are we voluntarily ruining our lives like this?

With a 240V home charger, it takes three hours. People are participating in this experiment as an investment for the future of EVs.

[Drew Dowdell]

Recharging takes an entire day? Brilliant. Why are we voluntarily ruining our lives like this?

Experimentation is ruination? That's news to me.

[A Horse With No Name]

Ruining our future is no more cars. Newsflash-Peak oil is here, doesn't matter if you want to believe it or not.

Volt FTW!

Chris