BMW Says It Will Lease Up to 700 All-Electric 1-Series Cars to Selected Customers
By Scott Doggett March 4, 2010
BMW will lease up to 700 all-electric 1-Series coupes to selected customers in major global cities, the company's board member for sales and marketing Ian Robertson said on Tuesday.
The disclosure comes two weeks after the Munich automaker announced that its plant in Leipzig will be the production site for its entire range of plug-in electric cars.
The up to 700 1-Series zero-emissions EVs will be BMW's second test fleet of electric cars, one year after 450 Mini E cars were lent to selected BMW drivers in New York, New Jersey and California.
"The fleet will be between 600 to 700 units, about 200 units for the United States and about 300 to 400 in Europe in large metropolitan areas such as Berlin, Paris and London," Robertson said in an interview with Automotive News. He added that the test fleet would be rolled out over the next year.
This new concept, dubbed ActiveE, is a four-seated version of BMW's 1-Series coupe.
The ActiveE uses a new-generation lithium-ion battery and can go about 100 miles on a full charge of the 170-horsepower electric motor. It takes around three hours to charge and has an electronically-limited top speed of 90 miles per hour.
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