MINI E will reportedly cost $850/month for one-year lease
Click for a high res gallery of the MINI E
For those of you hoping to snap up one first electrically powered MINIs, we have what may be bad news. The price of the MINI E keeps creeping upward. The other day, Automotive News reported that the battery-powered prototypes were going to cost over $500 for the lease. Today however, another site that we aren't familiar with, Luxvelocity, is reporting that it will priced at $850 per month for a one year lease. We've contacted BMW and MINI for a comment but have yet to hear anything back. It's unlikely that we will be hearing anything either since the car will debuting at the LA Auto Show in less than two weeks.
The Luxvelocity article does state that BMW will still be losing money on the cars at that price since they are hand-built prototypes. Given the value of these 500 cars, it should be no surprise that BMW would also require lessees to have a lockable garage to park the car in and install the wall charger. If you live in an apartment you're out of luck for now. We'll let you know if we hear anything new. Thanks to J for the tip!
Update: It's been confirmed by MINI USA spokesperson Nathalie Bauters that the price will in fact be $850/month.
Gallery: MINI E
[Source: Luxvelocity]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
kert 6:10PM (11/06/2008)
Mitsubishi, this is your slot to score with MiEV. Just sell them.
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champ 6:14PM (11/06/2008)
An $850 lease is instant death for this car.
1. Most "normal" people don't like to lease.
2. $850 per month is more than my mortgage. There's no way I'd pay that for a car. never.
I'd say they are shooting themselves int he foot, but this is worse, they are shooting themselves in the head.
Either sell a car outright, or don't sell it at all. The lease only crap is ... crap.
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jpm 7:23PM (11/06/2008)
What a load of crap. $850 a month? Gimme a god damn break. Is the battery pack $100,000 or something?
Regardless of the price, rich people, not the real EV enthusiast base, will be able to get a hold of these. I guess you would have no problem leasing out 500 of these mini's in CA given the amount of wealthy people. Lame. I guess I'll have to do my own conversion after all.
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Craig 7:29PM (11/06/2008)
These are prototype cars, that's why they want them back at the end of the year. They are essentially asking 500 MINI enthusiasts to drive a fleet of 500 engineering test vehicles for them. I don't think they will have trouble finding the mere 500 people they need.
This will also give the MINI/BMW engineers valuable real-world performance data. Real usable electric drivetrains are still in their infancy and this will greatly enhance their ability to design the upcoming electic Isetta.
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Brn 10:17AM (11/07/2008)
Let's call it what it is. Mini/BMW wants to field test a prototype vehicle. Rather than doing what others do (paying for the test themselves or finding funding to pay for the test), they're asking the consumer to pay for the test.
The amazing thing is that people will do it.
gorr 8:09PM (11/06/2008)
What they gonna do after one year with this sustainable solution?
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NMT 12:29AM (11/07/2008)
They'll probably end up crushing them like GM did to the EV1's. Hey, maybe then someone can make the sequel to "Who Killed the Electric Car" and blame BMW this time. It might make you enough money to purchase one of those MiEV's and a Tesla to boot!
stevejust 9:39PM (11/06/2008)
Holy crap. I might owe Witz an apology just because that's about $200 more per month than that car has any business being.
I thought Honda was leasing the FCX fuel cell Clarity for like $650 a month -- and surely each Clarity has got to be worth more than each Mini EV, right?
Sad thing is I'm still going to try to get one. But I won't be happy about paying that much for so little.
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NMT 12:27AM (11/07/2008)
Yeah, there are a LOT of people who read ABG that owe Witz an apology! I couldn't believe how disrespectful, arrogant and just plain wrong ABG posters have been to a guy that's simply telling the truth. It's not his fault that peoples fantasies about electric cars and batteries aren't coming true.
Chris M 9:17PM (11/07/2008)
The FCX Clarity is being heavily subsidized and leased for 3 years, the Mini E has much less (if any) subsidy and is for only one year. That explains the difference in monthly lease payments.
NMT 12:25AM (11/07/2008)
I love the idea of electric cars as much as the next guy but at some point the electric car advocates and apologists need to admit that with today's technology they simply aren't as affordable or efficient as ICE powered vehicles. The range is too short and the batteries are too expensive.
Kert, the MiEV suffers from the same problems and isn't a viable alternative. It has a range of about a hundred miles on a good day with no AC or other features used, it's tiny, and it costs $24,000!
Electric car advocates have scoffed at GM for "killing" the EV1 and some douche made that ridiculous documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car". The MiEV is proof that consumers killed the electric car, not GM.
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jake 8:08PM (11/07/2008)
How are EVs less "efficient" than ICE cars? I don't get why people use that phrase. The biggest selling point of EVs are that they are more efficient that ICE cars or we wouldn't even be discussing EVs here. The reason for the shorter range is because of the horrible energy density of batteries, not because of efficiency. In fact if it weren't for the efficiency of the EV drivetrain it wouldn't be possible to build a usable EV (range on the MINI E would be more like 45 miles rather than 150 if it's the same efficiency as an ICE).
How is the MIEV proof that consumers don't want EVs? At $24k it's surely a heck of a lot cheaper than this MINI E. If they can build it at that price, I imagine there would be a good amount of interested people. And it's not even available yet so we can't really say anything about consumer demand. The range may not be acceptable for you but it may be acceptable for plenty of people.
The lease price of the MINI E doesn't mean one can't be built for cheaper, just look at conversions and the miev. We'll see when the experimental period is over and they actually sell the cars in volume and at price.
NMT 1:58AM (11/08/2008)
You're delusional like most EV advocates. The MiEV costs approximately $24,000 and it has a range of at best 100 miles, is tiny, and has terrible performance.
For $24,000 you can get a much larger ICE powered car with much better range and much better acceleration.
So when you're talking efficiency, it really depends on how you're measuring and what you're measuring. When it comes to dollars per mile, ICE's win by a lot still.
Nick 12:38AM (11/07/2008)
$850 - what you pay on gas every month.
If you spent $300 a month, the MINI E costs you 'only' $550 more.
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NMT 1:16AM (11/07/2008)
300$ a month on gas in a comparably small car??? Come on, you'd have to commute pretty far every day to spend that much, and if you commute that far, then you're almost certainly commuting past the range of an electric car!
Andy 1:03AM (11/07/2008)
The lease cost should not be a suprise. When we first saw the Mini in "Revealed: Electric MINI E" I posted.
"Just guessing at some numbers.
COS $30,000
Profit Margin 30%
Financing cost 7%
Depreciation 5 years
The leases would be upward from $800 per month.
I'll be interested to see how they price it."
So I got it right or they took my idea :) Let's be realistic. This is a boutique car at boutique prices. It's too early to call the death knell on electric cars. The pricing structure will be very different for mass produced vehicles aimed at mass market segments.
Figure out a realistic total cost of ownership before condemning the MiEV. I'm not expecting gas prices to stay so low when the economy picks up.
For those who prefer to buy instead of lease, it's a personal choice. Most people take a loan anyway, which costs about the same as a lease. Except you are committed for the full cost of the loan.
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Paul 1:33AM (11/07/2008)
I know plenty of people that would, and do pay $850/mo. on a car payment. I pay nothing :) But the part about needing a house just for you car (aka garage) won't be good for electric car sales. If you live in the suburbs maybe you'll have one, but many city people do not have a garage. Then again, we city people don't really need to own a car. Just thoughts.
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Lad 1:40AM (11/07/2008)
It's going to be an interesting transition from ICEs to BEVs and judging from this kind of a start, it's going to be a long time frame if you don't have a rich man's budget.
I agree with "jpm," this makes conversions look more appealing than ever. All you battery makers out there...hurry up with the Li Ion batteries!
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david 9:19AM (11/07/2008)
The biggest bummer is you won't be able to get the $7500 tax credit because it is a lease. I'd pay $850 a month to lease one!!! To bad I don't have a garage.
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gorr 5:50PM (11/07/2008)
They are just crazy. Who will invest to buy and install an electric charger in the garage just for one year?? Who kill the electric customer? Bmw, Gm, Toyota, chevron, e.p.a, project never place. And remember that the price of electricity have been jack up by a big margin in the last years.
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