MINI E Test – a bit of a flop?

MINI has had a very muted response in its quest to find people to pay to test the MINI E Electric car. Just 515 applied.

Having reported earlier on Ford looking for testers for the Focus BEV, we thought it might be interesting to have a bit of a dig around and see what sort of success BMW is having with the MINI E testers, who are just starting to receive their cars.

I’m sure MINI expected the interest in taking on a MINI E as a tester to be pretty overwhelming. When they ran a similar exercise in the US they had 10,000 applications – at $850 a month – to take up the chance to test the MINI E. But in the UK they got an incredible – 515!

Now it may be fair to say that the fact the MINI E only comes in LHD might have something to do with it. But it’s hard to see that many being put off. Or maybe prospective testers looked in to the problems MINI had in the US, where there were issues with supplying recharging outlets. Many testers in the US also found the regenerative braking very intrusive and – with its limited range – many had concerns about doing anything more than driving round their local area – range anxiety.

But it must have been disappointing to see only a relative handful of applications in the UK. Still, BMW has nominated 40 testers to take on the MINI E – 20 private individuals and 20 businesses – but if they were hoping to get their hands on the MINI E at the end of the trial period they’re going to be disappointed. It seems that BMW has no intention of putting the MINI E in to production and are simply using the MINI as a test-bed for future technology.

The take up rate may well tell them that people – at least in the UK – can’t live with the restrictive motoring experience that comes with an electric car. Any they could judge that from the take-up rate without the test, so why bother with the test? But then I suppose its a freebie real-world feedback .

And its coming cheap when the testers are paying for the privilege.