BMW Mini to Sell Electric Cars in U.S. From Summer 2009
http://www.techespot.com/2009/06/bmw-mini-to-sell-electric-cars-in-us.html

jenneylist wrote:
Now for the Oops Factor:

Exclusive: Foulup may mean around-the-clock recharges for Mini E
electric car drivers
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/openroad/post/2009/06/67645775/1

Up to 300 customers for BMW's Mini E, the first of the new breed of
electric cars to hit the streets from a major automaker, may be in for a
maxi-sized disappointment, Open Road has learned.

The automaker has hit a glitch in distribution of high-voltage charging
cables. As a result, up to 300 of the 450 customers who have taken a
one-year lease on the Mini E may only be able recharge them with a
standard household 110-volt wall-socket cord. That means the cars will
be required to stay plugged in for 23 hours to get a full charge, says
Mini spokeswoman Nathalie Bauters. The high-voltage cables, which charge
the batteries fully in four hours, won't be available until some time in
July. "This will only be for a few weeks," she said.

Also on Open Road: New Chinese electric car coming to the USA, the Coda.
Click here.

The problem could be a setback not only for Mini, but also for the
overall movement to electrify cars since success could depend a lot on
word-of-mouth from early adopters. "The success of these early programs
is critical to the movement," says Chelsea Sexton, founder of the
Lightning Rod Foundation, an advocacy group for electric transportation.
By not having the proper cables, "they are guaranteeing virgin customers
a poor experience."

The customers, which Mini calls "field trial participants," won't have
to pay their $850-a-month lease fee until the high-speed cables are
installed at their homes, he added. So far, 23 of 450 Mini Es have been
delivered to California and New York-New Jersey, where the test is
taking place. The goal is to get all the cars delivered by the end of
this month even though the high-voltage cables may not be in use for all
by the end of July.

"People are keen to get their cars. We feel this is a satisfying
solution for them," Bauters said.

The problem isn't a shortage of high-voltage cables, but rather the
red-tape that goes with the program. The cables are certified as safe by
a European safety agency, but their certification by Underwriters
Laboratories for the U.S. is pending. Some of the city or county safety
inspectors who have to sign off on the charging unit installations in
customers' homes may insist on UL approval, Bauters says. The problem is
expected to be worse in the East Coast than in the West.

The first customer to get his car was Peter Trepp, a venture capital
executive in Los Angeles, above, who has a high-speed charging
installation in his garage and loves the car so far. In the picture,
he's holding up his high-voltage cable.

Without high-voltage cables, some customers who have longer commutes may
only be able to use their cars every other day because of the time they
will spending charging, says Ed Kjaer, electric transportation director
for Southern California Edison, a big utility that's trying to work
closely with automakers to promote smooth integration of electric cars.

But he underscored that Mini's program is a trial. "It's going to be
trial and error. That's to be expected," Kjaer said. He said these kinds
of problems can be avoided by studying how the automakers handled the
previous generation of electric cars in the 1990s -- BMW was not among
them in California -- and by working with utilities.

--
Civis Romanus Sum

Jim Higgins wrote:

How do they define "virgin"? And how do they collect such personal
information on their customers?

--
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

Jim Higgins wrote:

Hi voltage, as in higher than 240 volts?

If so, why are they sending the car more than 240 volts? There's no way
that customers have more than 240 volts entering their homes. If so,
then if they really need to boost that higher, why not put the step-up
stuff in the car? That way they wouldn't need a cable rated higher than
240 volts and they wouldn't have this problem.

And why would then need more than 240v to charge batteries anyways?

Because the whole project is off the wall...?...

DAS

To send an e-mail directly replace "spam" with "schmetterling"
---
"MoPar Man" <MoPar (AT) Man (DOT) com> wrote

[...]

In article <4A2C1488.9625ACF2 (AT) Man (DOT) com>, MoPar Man <MoPar (AT) Man (DOT) com>
wrote:

It's very simple to solve.
Simply pull your stoves 240V plug and plug in the Mini.
Eat cooked food or just salads and drive your electric Mini!