BMW draws lessons from electric Mini trials

[Aurora]

The Independent - 18/03/11



BMW's Mini E UK field trials programme which began in December 2009, ends today. Two groups of forty drivers took part in the trials, which involved “real world” use of adapted battery-powered versions of the Mini.

The Mini E is a research vehicle, based on an existing car originally designed to take a combustion engine, rather than being designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle (EV), but BMW believes it has been able to gather useful information on the likely future use of battery-powered cars. A full assessment will be completed later on, but the company's analysis of early feedback shows that those who took part were fairly typical of drivers in general in terms of their daily mileage and other aspects of their car use.

Perhaps the most interesting findings concern the subject of range. So-called “range anxiety” is widely perceived to be one of the biggest obstacles to the widespread adoption of EVs; a recent survey of European consumers by the consulting firm Deloitte highlighted the limited distance EVs could cover between top-ups from the grid as an important issue, and participants in the trial also expected difficulties with range and the lack of recharging facilities away from their home base before they had experience of driving the Mini E. But once the test drivers had experience of the car in daily use, few of them actually had any problems in practice. Although they wanted more public charging points, most said they'd been able to cope even in the absence of a comprehensive recharging infrastructure.

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