Driving Sports

Holy Shagadelic, baby! The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, recently welcomed an all-electric, zero emissions MINI Cooper E to the Government car pool in Downing Street.  The MINI E will be available to her majesty's ministers wanting to try a fully-fledged electric car in an urban environment on their official business around London.

The MINI E was presented to the government car pool by BMW Group (UK) Ltd, following the handover of 40 identical cars to pioneering drivers who will run the cars as part of an important scientific field trial.  The cars will be tested for one year in total and will both help to shape the future of BMW Group electric vehicle development and to inform the wider world about the economic, behavioral and practical issues of living with an electric vehicle.

"I am confident that in future years we will see thousands more electric and other low carbon cars on Britain’s roads," Brown said.

One of the cabinet ministers, Lord Mandelson, said “The Government is keen to show that driving electric vehicles is fun. I want the UK to be a world leader in low carbon transport and cars like the UK-built MINI can help us achieve that aim.”

The Prime Minister and Lord Mandelson were also able to meet one of the first MINI E test drivers, Oxford resident David Beesley, who collected his car from the MINI plant at Oxford on Sunday.  “I have only had my MINI E for two days but it’s really fun to drive and it feels great to be reducing my carbon footprint,” he enthused. Really, that's what he said.

Like the MINI E research projects in North America and Germany, the UK trial is a collaborative effort between the partners in a BMW Group UK-led consortium.

Scottish and Southern Electric will be responsible for the electricity infrastructure in the research area and is committed to supplying ‘green energy’ from sustainably generated sources to all drivers of the MINI E through an offsetting scheme.

Oxford Brookes University’s Sustainable Vehicle Engineering Centre will manage the collation of qualitative and quantitative research throughout the UK project. This will include analysis of driver experiences with the MINI E, as well as reviewing the technical information provided by the data-logging units fitted to every MINI E.

So in case you haven't been paying attention, that's MINI joining Nissan's Leaf in grabbing the lead in Battery Electric Vehicle development, production, partnerships, and marketing.

So where's GM?