BMW Group and Vattenfall Europe have begun a second phase of the Mini E test fleet in Berlin, with the transfer of 70 MINI E electric vehicles to private customers (30 units) and fleet users (40 units).
The aim of the project, funded by the German Federal Environment Ministry (BMU), is to optimize the charging strategy to the use of wind energy for the MINI E to achieve the best possible. 20 MINI E users will be able to use the prototype of a route planner for smartphones, which can display charging stations along a selected route.
Also, the final reports of the consortium partners of the firs MINI E Berlin project were presented to the Federal Environment Ministry official. This included two six-month successive phases of use (beginning in June 2009), and represented nearly 500,000 kilometers of driving. The MINI E were charged mainly at night, using certified green electricity from Vattenfall. Three out of four Berlin MINI E users advocated an exclusive use of renewable energy sources for electric vehicles in the future.
The MINI E Fleet trials began in 2009 in the USA (New York, Los Angeles and in the state of New Jersey), UK (Oxford / London) and Germany (Munich and Berlin). This fleet tests subsequently expanded into France (Paris), Japan (Tokyo) and China (Beijing and Shenzhen). In cooperation with the Federal Environment Ministry, BMW AG in China, together with the Society for International Cooperation (GIC) Ltd. and Chinese partners are examining ways to support the use of renewable energy sources for electric vehicles. A memorandum of understanding was signed recently in Berlin.