Picked up my ActiveE 1-Series today!

[MITE46]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Love it so far!

Any wheel and coil recommendations? Do they have PSS10's for E82? What's the wheel offsets?

Info/Review:

The range is about 100miles depending on a bunch of factors like speed, temperature, terrain, etc. If you like to drive aggressively...plan on 50 miles...In the MiniE, it is roughly the same, we have ran out of juice a couple of times which meant we were towed home. It's important to know where your level 2 240V chargers are if you plan to travel more than 80 miles on that day.

Some interesting stats ActiveE vs MiniE
HP: 168 vs 204
Weight: 4000lb vs 3300lb
Battery: 31kWh vs 35kWh (roughly leaving a 100w light bulb on for 300 hours. At 15 cents a kWh, it costs $4.65 for a full charge, which is roughly 5 cents a mile.)
Battery Cooling: Liquid vs. Air (Hard acceleration and constant regen braking will cause batteries to overheat pretty quickly...around 50 miles)

The MiniE was one of the fun-est cars I have ever driven. It's hard to see it go, so much torque off the line, FWD, and skinny tires...it was hard to hold the steering wheel straight. It's sad to see that car will never make it into production. It was lacking the basics, including bluetooth, NAV, and had an incorrect battery gauge...The regen braking was VERY aggressive...probably my favorite part of the car. You let up on the gas and the car would come to a stop in several hundred feet. You never need the brake unless you are about to rear end someone. It even needed a software update from keeping the car from going into neutral on the freeway.

The ActiveE is the refined MiniE, it's a tiny bit slower, but comes with all of the luxuries of BMW. Still no power seats, probably because it's already 4000 lbs. It's RWD and the power is a lot more smooth. It has the ugliest rims in the world...and the wheel gap is like a X5...we'll fix that soon. The regen braking is not as aggressive compared to the MINIE, but stronger than the Volt (L mode also).

These cars are so fast off of the line and especially overtaking between 40-60mph. Once you get up to 70mph, it's pretty boring...I really do believe EVs are the future, especially in performance driving. Let's just hope BMW comes up with more cars...quickly!

[BucksCty135i]

Congratulations, we are all looking forward to your VERY extensive review.

[Canyon Carver]

Originally Posted by BucksCty135i

Congratulations, we are all looking forward to your VERY extensive review.

+1

Indeed...and agreed...I'd love to hear all about this car. Very curious...

[Impervious]

Get JB4.... oh shit what is that thing?


I am jealous of your hood though.

[NYC6]

Originally Posted by BucksCty135i

Congratulations, we are all looking forward to your VERY extensive review.

[bayer]

Congrats! Very curious what you think of it! I've driven a Volt, but thats about it.

[ladius]

Wow!

[MrFlema]

Congrats man! Very nice!

[jayson]

Very cool! Congrats. Interior of that car looks like something out of the game 'portal'.

edit: may be a dumb question, but are you going to take all the decals off?

[the1andonly]

I have a 2012 128i and I really like the redesigned front bumper!

[bozola]

I didn't believe the first picture until the 3 or 4th.
Extensive review required and more pics.

[meg180]

congrats on the new ride!

[MITE46]

The range is about 100miles depending on a bunch of factors like speed, temperature, terrain, etc. If you like to drive aggressively...plan on 50 miles...In the MiniE, it is roughly the same, we have ran out of juice a couple of times which meant we were towed home. It's important to know where your level 2 240V chargers are if you plan to travel more than 80 miles on that day.

Some interesting stats ActiveE vs MiniE
HP: 168 vs 204
Weight: 4000lb vs 3300lb
Battery: 31kWh vs 35kWh (roughly leaving a 100w light bulb on for 300 hours. At 15 cents a kWh, it costs $4.65 for a full charge, which is roughly 5 cents a mile.)
Battery Cooling: Liquid vs. Air (Hard acceleration and constant regen braking will cause batteries to overheat pretty quickly...around 50 miles)

The MiniE was one of the fun-est cars I have ever driven. It's hard to see it go, so much torque off the line, FWD, and skinny tires...it was hard to hold the steering wheel straight. It's sad to see that car will never make it into production. It was lacking the basics, including bluetooth, NAV, and had an incorrect battery gauge...The regen braking was VERY aggressive...probably my favorite part of the car. You let up on the gas and the car would come to a stop in several hundred feet. You never need the brake unless you are about to rear end someone. It even needed a software update from keeping the car from going into neutral on the freeway.

The ActiveE is the refined MiniE, it's a tiny bit slower, but comes with all of the luxuries of BMW. Still no power seats, probably because it's already 4000 lbs. It's RWD and the power is a lot more smooth. It has the ugliest rims in the world...and the wheel gap is like a X5...we'll fix that soon. The regen braking is not as aggressive compared to the MINIE, but stronger than the Volt (L mode also).

These cars are so fast off of the line and especially overtaking between 40-60mph. Once you get up to 70mph, it's pretty boring...I really do believe EVs are the future, especially in performance driving. Let's just hope BMW comes up with more cars...quickly!

[bgwelistyl]

nice!

[Dackelone]

Thanks for posting these pics. Btw... the last two times I went to tour Liepzig, I would see more ActiveE's being built than 1M's. By 3:1 factor, I'd say.

[Sylon]

Congrats on the new car! Very interesting this thing. Does the thing make any real noise at all when accelerating? I'm not saying this to hate on it, but I don't think I could ever voluntarily own an EV. I would be giving up some of my favorite things about cars. I think EV's will be the future as well, not because everyone wants to, but because at some point we'll have to.

[audimotion]

Congrats,
Has there been any interior or trunck space loss due to battery pack?

[amancuso]

Sweet.. Now give us a longer driving range and more recharge stations!

[bgwelistyl]

I got to test drive the car a couple days ago (waiting for mine to come in)

It's practically dead quiet, even when you turn on the car. The only noise I heard was the electric motor whirring when accelerating at high speeds. Like a jet engine

In terms of trunk space, since the battery is in the back, there is a trunk, but space-wise, there practically is none. I'm thinking a set of golf clubs would barely fit in there (from what I can remember)

I read on the other forums that you can have the option of removing the decals (per dealer). But I agree MITE46, the wheels are ugly

[MITE46]

The electric motor noise sounds like a small turbo spooling...It was much louder on the Mini...I actually prefer it to a loud S54...

Trunk space is a set of golf clubs and maybe 3-4 grocery bags. It's in a L shaped configuration so it's not like you can put a large box back there. Funny thing is that under the hood, there's about 1 ft by 1ft by 3 ft of empty space. I'm not exactly sure why that's there.

[Pangloss]

Leaving it like that allowed for a lot of existing part compatibility, like body panels, etc.

The full redesign is the i3. Notice the much smaller hood. (Dorky-lookin' thing if you ask me, not nearly as sexy as the prototype.)

[ejm3]

I was at the dealership when they got their first one of these electric 1's.
It was obtained for a specific customer but all the sales guys were taking on test drives!