MINI USA announced Friday that it is loaning ten of its new MINI E electric vehicles to the City of New York for one year. The City will use these vehicles to monitor road conditions around the five boroughs. Based on the MINI Cooper, the limited edition MINI E is a lithium ion battery powered all-electric vehicle with a range of 150 miles per charge. The battery can be re-charged in 2 1/2 hours. MINI's parent company, BMW AG, created the MINI E as part of a project to research alternative energy of transportation solutions for urban areas.
Government and municipal fleets are logical early adopters of alternative fuel / energy vehicles. The NYC road group will put 100 miles per day on the cars - well within the MINI E's battery range. At the end of a day's operations, the cars will be returned to a municipal garage where they can conveniently be plugged-in and charged, eliminating the need for a well-developed charging infrastructure. A common home location for these vehicles also means that maintenance and repairs can be completed in a timely and efficient manner. Fleet managers can also collect data and report any performance issues to the manufacturer.
First-hand feedback is invaluable to the OEM's product development process. During my years as a vehicle development engineer for a major manufacturer, we would commission vehicles to be used as taxi cabs in Las Vegas. These cars would often accumulate over 100,000 miles (through the desert heat and dust) in less than one year. The learnings from how these vehicles performed under these adverse conditions were immense.
Wide consumer adoption of alternative fuel vehicles will require commercially viable solutions to the issues of vehicle price, alternative fuel availability, charging infrastructure and maintenance availability. These barriers are significantly lower for business and government fleet customers. Fleet sales of alternative energy vehicles can have an immediate impact on gasoline consumption, even as the alternative energy technology is under development.
Government and municipal fleets are logical early adopters of alternative fuel / energy vehicles. The NYC road group will put 100 miles per day on the cars - well within the MINI E's battery range. At the end of a day's operations, the cars will be returned to a municipal garage where they can conveniently be plugged-in and charged, eliminating the need for a well-developed charging infrastructure. A common home location for these vehicles also means that maintenance and repairs can be completed in a timely and efficient manner. Fleet managers can also collect data and report any performance issues to the manufacturer.
First-hand feedback is invaluable to the OEM's product development process. During my years as a vehicle development engineer for a major manufacturer, we would commission vehicles to be used as taxi cabs in Las Vegas. These cars would often accumulate over 100,000 miles (through the desert heat and dust) in less than one year. The learnings from how these vehicles performed under these adverse conditions were immense.
Wide consumer adoption of alternative fuel vehicles will require commercially viable solutions to the issues of vehicle price, alternative fuel availability, charging infrastructure and maintenance availability. These barriers are significantly lower for business and government fleet customers. Fleet sales of alternative energy vehicles can have an immediate impact on gasoline consumption, even as the alternative energy technology is under development.
1 comments:
This should have been a layup for Detroit. GM already has rear wheel drive hybrids in the form of SUVs. Could not these drive trains been adapted to large sedans? Wouldn't a large order of say 10,000 such vehicles, to be spread across hundreds of different municipal and taxi fleets have been a great supplement to the bailout.
Where's a car czar when we need one?
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