MINI E GETS GOVERNMENT GREEN LIGHT FOR UK TRIAL
BMW Group-led consortium is a winner in Technology Strategy Board £25m Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator competition.
The British government body that exists to promote business innovation in technology announced yesterday that a consortium led by BMW Group will be supported by a proportion of a £25m fund, enabling the MINI E to be introduced and tested on British roads by a mixture of private, corporate and public sector drivers before the end of 2009.
BMW Group’s successful application to the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board followed an invitation for proposals outlining innovative, industry-led collaborative research projects involving ultra-low carbon vehicles. The objective of the Technology Strategy Board is to encourage manufacturers to develop ultra-low carbon vehicles that customers want to buy and bring them to market as rapidly as possible.
MINI E models will be on UK roads for a twelve-month field trial that will evaluate the technical and social aspects of living with an all-electric vehicle in a real world environment. This year-long project will play an important part in informing future strategic and technological decisions.
At the end of the trial, a comprehensive report documenting the main findings of the MINI E research project will be published. This will help inform those bodies seeking to create the political, technical and commercial framework necessary to enable sustainable mobility in a low carbon future to become reality.
Electric mobility is just one of the low carbon technology options being investigated by BMW Group. The company aims to begin series production of all-electric vehicles before the middle of the next decade as part of the company’s Strategy Number ONE.
The passion to provide sustainable individual mobility for its customers is at the heart of BMW’s long-term strategy and has been for many years. Since 1995, the average CO2 emissions from its cars has reduced by 25 per cent through a variety of technological innovations, most recently encompassed by the Efficient Dynamics programme.
The company and its products have won many awards for this work, including World Green Car of the Year in 2008 for the BMW 118d. The development of all-electric vehicles is a vital element of the future plans for the company.
Andy Hearn, General Manager at MINI UK, said: “It makes perfect sense for us to undertake a research project in MINI’s home country and I’m delighted that the Technology Strategy Board will be supporting our investment and the collaborative activities of our consortium members.”
“The research results we obtain will help inform those bodies seeking to create the political, technical and commercial framework necessary to enable sustainable mobility in a low carbon future to become reality. They will also give our own engineers a clearer picture of customers’ requirements and aspirations as they develop an electric vehicle for series production.”
With 12-month research projects already underway in North America and Germany, BMW Group will be trialling the MINI E in its three largest markets by bringing the vehicle to the UK for similar test purposes.
Production of all cars for the UK trial is underway at the company’s Oxford and Munich sites. MINI’s Plant Oxford will be responsible for manufacturing the entire vehicle on the standard production line, with the exception of the drive components and the lithium-ion battery. The vehicles will then be transferred to a specially equipped manufacturing facility situated on BMW plant premises in Munich where the electric motor, battery units, performance electronics and transmission will be integrated.
A launch date and pricing details for UK customers interested in participating in the MINI E UK research project will be announced shortly at
www.mini.co.ukLabels: BMW, Low Carbon Vehicle, Mini E
