nice car 94 mile range though?... how is anyone supposed to take this car joy riding? hehe roll out the EVs... let's get some market competition going so prices drop. (it's a tad expensive for 94 miles.. but if you can't afford a tesla and you don't want a leaf.. it's in the center of the two right now... which makes me wonder how it performs.)
The window sticker states 170hp, 184 ft-lbs torque. Btw, I just noticed that Hill apparently spotted one of these in the wild: http://priuschat.com/forums/ev-electric-vehicle-discussion/102968-in-wild-bmw.html .
I've known about ActiveE for awhile and on MNL, there've been some sightings. I didn't think they were actually for sale but rather for lease only, like the Mini E.
I was going to say that too. It looks like something out of Tron - and that's not a good thing! I see the dealers have gone all out to sell the car using the torn and crumpled sales leaftet in the window.
One of my good friends has one of these. Haven't yet had time to go for a test ride in it. They are still experimental and can only be leased. Potentially lessors have to go through some kind of a qualification process to be selected. He was selected because he already installed a fully solar powered house and his usage profile is just about perfect. He lives only about five miles from his office and mostly uses the car for in-town usage.
That's what I'd thought I'd heard too ... and the folks turninig in their mini coopers got 1st crack at the leases. 2 days ago, down in Laguna Beach, saw 2 of 'em in the wild.
That does seem steep. The base Model S, available in December, is 58k with a 160 mile range. I do have to say I love seeing more competition entering the market
Passed a BMW dealer today and walked in asking if they had an electric one. He said, apart from some government agencies that are leasing one, they are not available for the common market here in the Netherlands. And then I saw this thread... I feel left out... And the Tesla dealer is 100km away too (beware that 100km for us is a long drive (think e.g. 100% chance of traffic jams along the way), not to mention an expensive one, with fuel at over 9$ a gallon)
considering the mini cooper (no back seat - space needed for batteries) EV lease was about $800 / month ... well, if you could afford that, then moving up to the 100 series BMW would be a bargain, figured on a cost per seat. Here's what it'll cost you: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/21/2012-bmw-activee-first-drive-review/ And if I remember ... I think a123 is still making up the active e's system, rather than BMW making a true 'in & out the factory' type production. Ie; they're gliders that are subsequently retrofited with EV guts. They're a heavy car in that they weigh more than the standard 100 series. As for 'competiton' ? I duno ... they're not trying to build 'em in high numbers, and they're cost is richer then the average person's blood, IMO. .
You should actually read the links. BMW is slowly rolling out a total of 700 leases of Active Es. This is further along than the prius phv demo program was, and they are actually charging, but this is a marketing test for BMW to refine a full production BEV. None of the cars are for sale. Batteries are from SB LiMotive, a joint venture between bosch and samsung. Volt had 1600 sales for the first 2 months of the year. This is about at expectations given the redesign issue in January. The test comes in March and April sales with the roll out of HOV compatible volts in California. Sales are likely to remain low - less than 2500/month - but much higher than a test market vehicle.
