BMW ActiveE – the BMW 1-Series Electric – at Detroit

BMW has reveled the BMW Concept ActiveE at the Detroit Motor Show

BMW obviously think there’s room for more than just the MINI E to be punted round the roads by Joe Public to shake out all the wrinkles in their electric car gubbins as they’ve brought along the BMW ActiveE Concept to the Detroit Motor Show – basically an electric BMW 1 Series – which we first reported on back in December.

The ActiveE Concept gets a rear mounted electric motor that divvies up 170bhp. Unlike the MINI E BMW has managed to stick the batteries under the car instead of ripping out the back seats to store them. The batteries are daisy-chained together under the floor in a similar way to the Tesla. BMW are claiming 0-60mph in under 9 seconds which isn’t too terrible for the somewhat bloated 1 Series.

BMW say the range on the ActiveE is 100 miles, but that’s probably as good as it gets if you’re very light-footed. Still, it should be enough to shuffle people round London for the Olympics where BMW are bound to show-off the ActiveE having secured a deal to provide the official cars.

There are no clues what BMW are going to charge ‘customers’ to test the ActiveE. But that seems to be their intention. They’ve managed to find a massive amount to say about the car, so if you really want all the waffle have a look at the BMW ActiveE Concept Press Release from Detroit.

By Cars UK