“Green” BMW Mini does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds
There has been an increasing buzz in the electric car industry in the last year (destruction of the EVs nonwithstanding), and it is great to see progress being made by private companies, start-ups even, in bringing commerically viable electrics and EV-hybrids to market.
You hopefully have heard of the Tesla electric sports car. It’s a $90k, 0-60 in 4 seconds sportscar built by a slicon valley start up. It’s powered by laptop batteries. (Bring a fire extinguisher with you if you take a test drive - ha!) check out some videos of it here. Pretty impressive!
Another interesting project is the conversion of a BMW Mini to electric (with a gas generator to charge the batteries) by a British company, PML Flightlink, that makes high-power electric motors. The specs are impressive and scary. A 160 hp electric motor at each wheel, with a 0-60 of 4.5 seconds. No mechanical brake (motors provide ABS-powered braking). Can run 900+ miles with the help of the motor, or 4 hours in an urban setting on the batteries. Some blog commenters are quite suspect about the whole thing, but if the company stands behind the numbers then I’ll play along for now.
This car will not go to production, but is a great example of forward thinking and technology convergence. It’s a proof-of-concept that helps demonstrate the viability of electric+ICE cars that are not sluggish and slow and that these systems can be adapted to existing vehicles. There are certainly some issues with this car (blog commenters are having a field day).
- the motors add unsprung weight to the vehicle - bad for driving and handling performance
- the ICE (internal combustion engine) that charges the whole thing doesn’t run on a non-carbon fuel like biodiesel
- it’s a prototype, which is great to help advance the industry but doesn’t get “green” vehicles into the hands of the consumer
- no mechanical brake! what happens when the driveline firmware hits a bug or the thing runs out of juice?
There are some fundamental economic and political issues still impacting the adoption of green and electric/hybrid vehicles it seems. Conflicting reports come out frequently on Ethanol as a alternative fuel, and what happens in 50 years when there are millions of leaking batteries all over the street?
It is great to see silicon valley get into the mix along with the more traditiona players. I’m hoping cars like the Tesla can be brought to market for the masses. If we can manage to charge our electric cars with wind or solar…we might be on to something.
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