UK e-car trials kick off with mass motor handover
Minis in Oxford, Mitsubishis in Brum
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Leccy Tech Forty leccy Minis were yesterday handed to their owners – well, lessees, to be exact – at the BMW Mini factory in Oxford.
It's all part of the Government's 12-month e-car field trial during which time BMW hopes to “evaluate the psychological, social and technical aspects of living with an electric car.”
Mini E recipients await their e-cars in Oxford...
In case you haven't been keeping up, each Mini E has an electric motor producing 152kW (204bhp) and 220Nm of torque delivered to the front wheels via a single-stage helical gearbox. That combination gets the Mini to 62mph in 8.5 seconds and on to an electronically-limited top speed of 95mph.
Power comes from a of 35kWh li-ion battery that occupies the space usually taken up by the rear seats. Its range is a theoretical 150 miles.
The weekend also saw 25 lucky people in the West Midlands take delivery of a Mitsubishi iMiEV – tested by Register Hardware here - as part of the same initiative.
...while in foggy Brum, iMiEVs await their drivers
But while the Mini drivers only get to keep their cars for six months before handing them over to a new bunch of test subjects, the iMiEV drivers get to hang on to the keys for a whole year.
One of the iMiEV 25, popular TV journalist Quentin Wilson, said: “The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is a forerunner of a transport revolution that eventually will change the world. At last, here's an electric car that doesn't look like a church pew, seats four, does 80 mph and costs less than a quid to charge."
We couldn't have said it better, Quentin. ®
COMMENTS
Towns, Towns, Towns
OK so the trials are in towns then, will they compare this to people who have stopped using cars and taken up the bus I wonder? But no doubt the "success" of this will be used to hike up car tax and petrol tax, fine if you happen to be abel to get the bus to work or use a leccy car.
But some of us live in a place called "the countryside" that big green muddy place with no shops, busses and rubbsih roads. Yes, the palce you want to tun into a park (due to farming being bad for the environment. cows fartig, tracotrs etc) so some of us need 4x4s
I suppose the up side, is now that 4x4 are the devils own transport, people are abandoning them so the depreciation means I can now afford a nice Disco 3V6HSE as my next car!
@ How far
It's down to what you need. If you need to drive more than 150 miles a day regularly, buy a petrol or a diesel car.
If you don't (and I expect most drivers don't), buy electric. A short range electric car would suit me fine. And I can always hire a petrol car if I need to drive any great distance.
Please follow this story up in 12 months time....
Nearly 10 years ago Peugeot ran hundreds of little electric 106s around France with a few in Coventry. I had the joy of driving one from time to time and my god it was shite! The thing is, the reality of driving these things is that at full pelt the batteries flatten in minutes, the electrics overheat in summer and don't work in winter. But at least the 106s could carry some goods - what use is a two-seater Mini? The real killer though is the replacement battery costs a few years down the road. After 4 years of use the 106 lead-acid batteries needed replacement at a cost of £thousands! How much for a boot-load of Li-ions I wonder?
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