California to get electric powered Minis

[n2doc]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2008/07/we-sing-the-min.html

It looks as if California will be getting 500 electric-powered Minis. Reports say that 490 will be made available for leasing to selected customers and that the 10 others will be used as show cars.

Minis are made in Oxford, England. These examples will be partially assembled alongside the normal cars, minus the engine, gearbox and fuel tank. Then they'll go over to parent company BMW's facility in Munich, Germany, to be fitted with all the necessary electric drivetrain components and batteries before heading west.

Once here, they'll be easy to spot. Electric Minis will be painted silver with, um, yellow roofs. We hope that's the only shocker involved here.

New state regulations require automakers to offer zero-emissions vehicles, so this move is for expedience as much as anything else. But because the conventional Mini drives so well, this should be interesting.

However, the news is not yet completely official. A spokesman for the Mini brand (who only gets a name check because he has such a brilliant name) says he cannot confirm the story of the DC Minis. "BMW will announce whether it will build electric vehicles or not later this year." So sayeth Cypselus von Frankenberg. No, really.

— Colin Ryan

[pleah]

1. K&R I want one of these cars. So,

build them already!!!!!!

[flvegan]

2. Image an electric Z4. If possible, an electric M3.

THAT would be brilliant!

Good to hear about the Minis. If they mass-produced them, they'd sell every one they built.

[mrfrapp]

3. Leasing?

Why on Earth are they being leased? Why not they sell them? GM pulled that stunt with the EV1.

I'm detecting a pattern.