9,500 people sign up to lease MINI E, will cost over $500/month

Click for a high res gallery of the MINI E
Since MINI USA opened up the MINIspace.com site a couple of weeks ago to allow people to register their interest in leasing the new MINI E next year, over 9,500 people have signed up. Unfortunately most of them will not actually have the opportunity to get one. BMW is only building 500 of the little battery cars and they'll only be offered up in California, New York and New Jersey. For those lucky few that do get selected for the field test, the cars won't be inexpensive. BMW hasn't officially announced the price yet but Automotive News is reporting that the lease payment will be over $500 per month. We'll be getting our first up close look at the MINI E along with a technical briefing at the LA Auto Show in two weeks. Following the show, the official application process will start and the company expects to deliver the cars starting in January.
Gallery: MINI E
[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Noz 1:44PM (11/05/2008)
Boy people really do have disposable income don't they.
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stevejust 3:00AM (11/06/2008)
I'm not sure I understand your comment. A lease on a regular Mini Cooper goes for about $400 a month based on what I'm looking at on www.leasetrader.com, if you can believe that.
I work in Beverly Hills, so I might have a skewed perspective on things when most cars I see everywhere lease for more than $1,000 a month. Dunno.
Noz 2:14AM (11/07/2008)
Yeah well...people in BH are a bit fked in the head to pay that much for a car.
ricosuave 2:07PM (11/05/2008)
Lease only huh? Coming soon to a theater near you...
Who killed the Electric Mini? Rated PG
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stevejust 6:46PM (11/05/2008)
Damnit, Witz-less and his asinine defender never took me up on my wager, and here is the news already.
Lack of consumer interest killed the EV-1? LOL. While gas might be a dollar more per gallon 5 years later, I guarantee you I could've sold more EV-1s than Hummers if you gave me the same advertising budget for the EV-1 as what was spent selling Hummers.
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kate 2:48PM (11/25/2008)
Are you really going to (or have you already) signed up to lease a Mini E?