Monday, October 17, 2011

BMW ActiveE: We drive Munich’s electric 1-Series Coupe

The new BMW ActiveE is an electric car based on the BMW 1-Series Coupe, and is BMW’s second electric vehicle key learning project after the MINI E which made its debut in 2009.

BMW has used data obtained from the MINI E’s lease to learn user behaviour, customer acceptance as well as requirements for an e-infrastructure. From MINI E usage patterns, vehicle usage for the electric MINI only differed marginally from that of comparable MINI Cooper and 116i users. Basically the conclusion was that an electric city car with a range of about 100 miles with an expanded interior space would meet virtually 100% of the mobility needs of urban drivers.

There are quite a few MINI E leasers who will be “upgrading” to the BMW ActiveE, and perhaps later to the new BMW i3. The ActiveE willl be offered with a 24 month/50,000km lease period, and will fill the gap until the launch of the BMW i3.

The main purpose of the ActiveE is to approve the new electric power train and battery. As opposed to the MINI E where BMW worked with a third party to supply the EV components, the BMW ActiveE’s electric power train is an in-house development, and will also be used in the upcoming BMW i3.

The ActiveE is produced together with other normal BMW cars in an in-line assembly process at their Leipzig plant. BMW has designed a 1,100 car production line for the ActiveE there. It is still a conversion vehicle like the MINI – this means BMW took a chassis designed to house the power and fuel components of a regular international combustion engine and converted it for electric use. As the chassis is not optimal for EV usage, the ActiveE ends up weighing a massive 1,815kg – compared to the purposes EV built BMW i3 Concept which weighs just 1,250kg.

Now for some tech specs – the BMW ActiveE has its electric motor integrated into the rear axle. Peak power is 125kW while maximum torque is rated at 250Nm from standstill. The electric motor has no transmission, so its 12,000rpm redline can take the car up to about 145km/h. The car hits 100km/h in 9 seconds, which isn’t particularly fast but brisk enough not to feel underpowered.

Power is provided by a 32kWh lithium ion battery with a total of 192 x 40 Ah cells supplied by SB LiMotive. It is liquid cooled and separated into three storage packs to help the car achieve a 50:50 axle weight ratio. Charging time is approximately 10 to 12 hours on a 230V/12A power supply, or as low as 4 to 5 hours on a 230V/32A power supply. The battery pack provides an New European Driving Cycle pattern range of 205km, or a customer driving average range of 160km.

We had a chance to try out the BMW ActiveE in Munich recently. It was a pretty rainy day and the route was designed to simulate a typical city commute of about 35km, so we didn’t exactly get any opportunities to test out the 50:50 weight distribution of the car, if you know what I mean. But we came away with findings on how the ActiveE tackled city car duties.

Firstly, this car is quiet. Really eeriely quiet. Ease onto the throttle and you get a diesel like surge in acceleration, except all you can hear is a soft whine from the electric motor, kinda like how one of those new direct drive motor washing machines sound like. Throttle response is very good, but it takes some getting used to because there’s some really strong engine braking upon releasing the throttle.

This is because ActiveE puts its motor into reverse to become a generator to recharge the batteries upon lift-off. If you leave the throttle closed, the car will eventually come to a stop pretty quick – you have to keep the pedal pressed to coast and the engine management will adjust the power needed to maintain your speed accordingly. The engine braking is so strong that you can probably control the car’s stop and go within the city using the accelerator pedal alone, and indeed I managed to do this for quite some time.

We managed to hit the top speed of about 145km/h while on a straight highway section – check out the video above to see that happen. There was no drama, but of course if you plan to drive this car at 145km/h often don’t expect much range out of the batteries.

The iDrive screen has lots of information on how much power you’re using and how much range you have left but it’s kinda hidden in the menus. But info on range and remaining battery charge can be had at a glance as BMW has appropriately reworked the instrumentation panel gauge to show battery charge instead of fuel tank level.

The car felt just like any other BMW – there was no odd feeling of any weight imbalance because the EV components were mounted strategically, as well as low in the chassis to help lower the center of gravity. Everything else also functioned like a regular internal combustion engine car, down to the air conditioning system which worked well. It was a cold rainy day of course, so I don’t think the air conditioning system needed to work much.

The ActiveE doesn’t ask much from the driver in terms of getting adjusted to the idea of driving an electric car instead of a car with a normal engine, other than the fact that you should remember to charge it.

Look after the jump for a photo gallery as well as 2 other videos.



DSC_0001 DSC_0005 DSC_0006 DSC_0009 DSC_0011 DSC_0012 DSC_0016 DSC_0017 DSC_0018 DSC_0019 DSC_0020 DSC_0021 DSC_0022 DSC_0025 DSC_0026 DSC_0027 DSC_0028 DSC_0080 DSC_0082 DSC_0086 DSC_0093 DSC_0095 DSC_0096 DSC_0098 ActiveE_0021 ActiveE_0043 ActiveE_0194 ActiveE_0287 ActiveE_0463 ActiveE_0557 ActiveE_0601 ActiveE_0815 ActiveE_1085 ActiveE_1185 ActiveE_1289 ActiveE_1591 ActiveE_1659 ActiveE_1938 ActiveE_2060 BMW_event_001 BMW_event_002 BMW_event_003 BMW_event_004 BMW_event_006 BMW_event_007 BMW_event_008 BMW_ID2_006 BMW_ID2_029 BMW_ID2_032 BMW_ID2_036 BMW_ID2_043 BMW_ID2_749 BMW_ID2_781 BMW_ID2_783 BMW_ID2_792 BMW_ID4_144 BMW_ID4_161 P90070894 P90070895 P90070896 P90070897 P90070898 P90070899 P90070900 P90070901 P90070902 P90070903 P90070904 P90070905 P90070906 P90070907 P90070908 P90070909 P90070910 P90070911 P90070912 P90070913 P90070914 P90070915 P90070916 P90070917 P90070918 P90070919 P90070920 P90070921 P90070922 P90070923 P90070924 P90070925 P90070926 P90070927 P90070928 P90070929 P90070930 P90070931 P90070932 P90070934 P90070935 P90070936 P90070937 P90070938 P90070939 P90070940 P90070941 P90070942 P90070943 P90070944 P90070945 P90070946 P90070947 P90070948 P90070949 P90070950 P90083136 P90083137 P90083138 P90083139 P90083140 P90083141 P90083142 P90083143

© 2011 Paul Tan's Automotive News. All Rights Reserved.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Mon, 17 Oct 11 20:16:50 +0000.

Related posts:

  1. BMW ActiveE concept on display in Malaysia this month
  2. Delta E-4 Coupé – fast, yet frugal two-door electric
  3. BMW Concept ActiveE – the Ultimate Driving EV?
  4. BMW 3 Series Coupe – BMW 335i


Link to full article