Leaping the Pond: 500 of these BMW Group MINI E pure-electric 2-seaters are on their way across the Atlantic from Europe to various individual and fleet owners in the United States for field trials during 2009. Are you getting behind the wheel of one?

Ear to Earth...
2009 Field Tests for 500 MINI E Pure-Electric 2-Seaters

For awhile BMW Group's Mini offered the possibility that you might be one of the test drivers selected to take part in their year-long field trial of the new MINI E. Now, however, the application period has closed and the cars are on their way.

Due to the size of today's batteries, the MINI E has been designed as a two-seater. Field testers will be driving around New York, New Jersey and Southern California with a battery stack in the back.

As the MINI E technology now stands, you can expect to go between 100 and 120 miles every time you charge up the vehicle's lithium-ion batteries. Think about how many miles you put on your vehicle each day. The average metro or suburban commuter drives about 60 miles.

When a MINI E is brought back to juice up the lithium ions in the batteries, it is plugged into a charging station that comes with the vehicle and also adapts to your home power supply. But wait until after dinner and your evening home entertainment is complete before beginning the three hour recharging process. Remember that electricity is cheapest during the times when the fewest people are using it.

Of course the three hour recharge time assumes that your home is equipped with 240 Volt, 48 Amp outlets, the type you may have for operating laundry washers and dryers if your home was built after 1990. If you only have 240 Volt, 32 Amp outlets the time it takes to recharge the batteries is four and a half hours. Hopefully you aren't stuck with measly 110 Volt, 12 Amp outlets, otherwise your charge time is just over a day long, and anyway isn't enough to keep the batteries perky, so an upgrade to your electrical circuitry would be required to charge the MINI E. The cost of an upgrade could exceed $1000. These tidbits are worth keeping in the back of your mind as we move into an era in which, hopefully, many of us will be plugging in our cars for a charge.